Barcelona is a big, beautiful city offering marvelous historical sites, excellent shopping destinations and some of the best dining options in Europe. However just like any other big and beautiful city, Barcelona can be quite stressful. The air quality permeating the city appears to be exasperated by the fact that it seems like everyone around you is chain-smoking cigarettes and of course just like any other major city it’s non-stop hustle and continuous bustle. A great place to seek refuge is the spa at the Mandarin Oriental located on the chic Passeig de Gràcia and designed with tradition and modernity in mind –much like the city of Barcelona itself.

Make sure to arrive early and investigate the many amenities and you will find that this spa has all the luxuries a stress-ball could hope for! You will find top of the line products, a peaceful waiting room to relax in before your treatment, river-bed water fountains running throughout the ground of the spa,  spacious changing rooms with showers, soft plush robes, aromatherapy steam room, swimming pool, exercise room and a very soothing décor that offers modern aesthetic with a traditional Chinese twist. Interestingly enough, the four elements of air, water, fire and earth are represented in the décor in subtle ways all around the spa. There are several great treatment options to choose from, but one of their best is the signature spa therapy.

Right on time- my therapist picked me up and escorted me into to the treatment room. She was very sweet and professional and explained the details of the service to me. It sounded so wonderful I hoped it would translate exactly the same in action (and it did). She started the treatment by asking me to smell 4 mini essential oil bottles and choose the one I liked best. I chose the lavender and so she explained to me that the rest of my treatment would be represented in smell by lavender. She then gave me a mini nutritional lesson and informed me about an amazing detox to try at home.
The Pineapple Detox Recipe:
-1 Pineapple
-5 cups of distilled water
Slice a pineapple into 4 sections. Eat a few pieces of pineapple and then take the rough skin of the pineapple and boil it in the 5 cups of distilled water. Do this twice a day and drink the water when it cools down to lukewarm. For one day this should be the only water you drink and do not eat and solid foods. On day two incorporate fruits into your diet but only drink the boiled pineapple water and eat the fruits. On the third day eat very light. She swears by this detox and promises you will see healthy skin, nails, shed a few pounds and feel incredible. It’s a great little detox to do before a big event that you want to look good for.

Back to the signature treatment, she used the essential oil that I chose and proceeded to give me a foot massage. I felt like I was drifting off but felt so relaxed and before I knew it, it was time for the “main course”. I jumped up on the massage table and laid myself face down. The therapist rubbed my body from neck to toe in the most wonderful smelling potion of detoxifying mineral rich oils. She paid particular attention to areas like my kidneys and digestive system. Then she wrapped me up in a warm cocoon of blankets and set me off to float in this amazing bed. She proceeded to perform a Reflexology foot and scalp treatment. Voila! By the time the treatment ended I was complete mush. It surpassed all my hopes and expectations ten fold and walking out of the spa I felt like I was walking on clouds. The spa at Mandarin Oriental is a must try one-hour-and-fifty minutes of heaven. I wouldn’t change one thing about my experience at this spa.

The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental
Passeig de Gracia, 38-40
08007 Barcelona
http://www.mandarinoriental.com/barcelona/spa/

The Barcelona City bike tour runs through city and beach spanning approximately seven miles over a four hour period. If Google maps married Lonely Planet, this tour would be their free free spirited love child. Hosted by highly knowledgeable tour guides who let you in on the secrets you need to know about the city so that you can know where to go even after the tour ends.  From the choicest places to have a few sangrias to the neighborhoods best worth getting lost in to historical information about specific structures: the result is a bike tour of fascinating trivia and some downright impressive happenings. From Barri Gotic (the Gothic quarter) all the way to Barceloneta beach (the Mediterranean Sea) and various Gaudi structures are just a few of the sites covered.

One of the sightings that stuck out in my mind was the wholly preserved medieval courtyard of the Plaza del Rei (Royal Palace) where Ferdinand and Isabella are supposed to have received Columbus on his return from the New World.  I could just imagine Columbus bowing and walking up to tell everyone all about his trip. Other cool points of interest include Arc del Triomf (Barcelona’s version of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe), The Gherkin (Barcelona’s version of London’s gherkin), Palau de la Mùsica Catalana where everyone from Bob Marley, The Beatles and David Bowie have all played at one time and of course the La Sagrada Familia which was conceptualized, designed and worked on by ubiquitous Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi until his death in 1926.  Interesting to note that the devoutly religious Gaudi estimated the completion of the La Sagrada Familia would take at least 200 years and the structure is still being worked on to this day with no date of completion offered anywhere in the near future.

One of the things I was most impressed by was our host’s speedy recall of an encyclopedic Spanish historical culture memory. Any time we drove by a major landmark he would be ready to dish some trivia related to the place. I was tempted to just throw the most random of trivia out there to see if we could tie them into actual sightings.

If you have even mild to major appreciation for trivia and the occasional macabre and want to cover a lot of tourist ground in a short period of time give Fat Tire Bike Tours a call. With locations in not only Barcelona but also Paris, London and Berlin, If you’re not completely amused send me the bill and I’ll send you a map and a compass. Fair enough?

http://fattirebiketours.com/

Photos by Rachel Sloat:

By Jennifer O’Neill

Barcelona’s Hotel 1898 is an exclusive 4 star hotel that has all the makings and amenities of a 5 star hotel, and in my opinion should thusly be classified as such. Personal bias aside, this historical hotel in the heart of the bustling Las Ramblas district of the city is a quiet oasis and escape from the frenetic touristy pace of the city itself. Although there is a preconceived notion that the Spanish take life at a slower pace, the nonstop influx of tourists looking to invade upon all corners of the city, at all hours, certainly didn’t get that memo.

Which brings me to the unbeatable calm of Hotel 1898. Having moved from an adequate, but rather business-oriented hotel, on the earlier leg of my stay in Barcelona, I felt as though I had entered a hotel paradise. Classy, clean, cool and collected would all be great adjectives to describe my first impressions… and that was just the lobby.

The hotel is midsized with a total of 169 rooms, divided into five types, ranging from Classic rooms to Penthouse suites. I stayed in a Superior type room, which definitely exceeded my basic hotel needs. The room was decorated in a contemporary style of tasteful bold stripes against a neutral palette. The bed (which is really the most important part of the room in my humble opinion) was decadently swathed in high thread count Egyptian sheets. There was a pillow menu, which allowed you to customize your personal pillow choice, however I was quite content with the standard pillow, which was already provided. Shortly upon my arrival, I was greeted with a huge fruit basket, undoubtedly assembled using fresh produce form Barcelona’s famous outdoor market, La Boqueria, located just steps away from Hotel 1898. I won’t dwell upon every detail of the room but suffice to say, all of the markings of a high-end hotel were present: flat screen plasma TV, luxury toiletries, wi-fi, ipod docking station etc.

The true gems of Hotel 1898 were the wrap-around terraced rooftop pool, along with the indoor solarium and spa. Had I stayed at Hotel 1898 for my entire time in Barcelona, I probably wouldn’t have ventured outside of its door, solely based upon these facilities. The rooftop pools’ lounge area would given any celebrity intensive L.A “see and be seen” pool hangout a run for it’s money. I entered full relaxation mode while sipping on copious amounts of some of the best pina coladas I’ve ever tasted. The underground solarium spa was a surreal experience and a polar opposite to the outdoor swimming facilities. The solarium gives the impression of being enveloped in a cocoon-like cave, resplendent in calming amber lighting and Zen music. I alternated between the sauna, stream room, hot tubs and heated pool. In a bustling and busy city like Barcelona, Hotel 1898 will provide the much needed “relaxation” element of your holiday.

Hotel 1898
La Rambla, 109, 08002, Barcelona
Tel- +34 93 552 95 52
http://nnhotels.com