The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 7Travel
(probably for the best), but
you can bob along while
contemplating another of
Gaudí’s masterworks, the Casa
Milà, aka La Pedrera. Its
fantastical chimneys can be
seen from the plunge pool
and sunloungers on the
seventh-floor terrace of the
elegant H10 Casa Mimosa,
which has a second pool in the
inner courtyard under its
namesake trees.B&B doubles in May from
£280 (h10hotels.com)HOTEL ARTS BARCELONA
Frank Gehry’s giant
latticework fish sculpture
provides an enigmatic
counterpoint to the Hotel Arts’
two sizeable outdoor pools, its
steel glinting in the
Mediterranean light. This is
Barcelona glammed up after
its 1990s boom, not
particularly near the central
sights but right on the
beach by Port Olimpic.
The pools (the
lounge/cocktail
bar one is for
over-18s only)
look to sea
horizons. For
something
properly
vertiginous, book in
at the 43rd-floor spa.
B&B doubles in May
from £350
(hotelartsbarcelona.com)HOTEL REC
The bold letters REC picked
out in tiles at the bottom of the
pool might remind a few of the
Spanish horror film series, butrest assured, the hotel’s name
comes from the street outside
on the corner of El Born,
tracing the route of a Roman
canal. With room for a dozen
deckchairs, the rooftop
terrace is an intimate space at
this adults-only hotel, which
has brought in contemporary
artists to design everything
from murals to typefaces.
B&B doubles in May
from £120
(hotelrecbarcelona.com)PISCINA MUNICIPAL
MONTJUIC
Doing laps above Barcelona’s
skyline isn’t the sole preserve
of fortunate hotel guests.
On the hill of Montjuic
the city has its very
own “rooftop”
pool, which
gained global
fame for the
dramatic
backdrops to
diving contests at
the 1992 Olympics.
The big pool here is
open from late June to early
September. Facilities can be
quite basic, but it’s often
cheaper and less crowded
than a day at the beach, and
the view is something else.
General entry £5.70
(guia.barcelona.cat)
Rory GouldingB&B doubles in May from
£225 (ohlabarcelona.com)ANDANTE HOTEL
An infinity pool on a three-star
hotel budget? Yes, and just a
short walk from hyper-central
Las Ramblas. The Andante
Hotel has 134 rooms — some
with their own sun terrace — in
a modern building towards the
harbour on the edge of El
Raval. The style isTOP
ROOFTOP POOLS IN BARCELONA
international airport hotel, but
if the photo prints of Barcelona
architecture don’t pinpoint
your location, try the
panorama across the historic
centre from the 11th-floor pool.
B&B doubles in May from
£150 (andantehotel.com)H10 CASA MIMOSA
There aren’t really any hotel
pools with great up-close views
of the Sagrada FamiliaHotel Ohla Barcelona and Grand Hotel Central, right, have pools with spectacular viewsGRAND HOTEL
CENTRAL
While the classical
columns at the
entrance and lobby
of this five-star
hotel call to mind a
1920s New York
bank, and the rooms
themselves are smartly
toned down in grey, cream
and dark wood, you’ll find the
holiday spirit eight floors up at
the Sky Bar, with its 10m
infinity pool looking out over
the rooftops of the boho El
Born district to the gothic
turrets of Santa Maria del
Mar. It’s heated and open even
in midwinter.
B&B doubles in May
from £290
(grandhotelcentral.com)HOTEL OHLA BARCELONA
Narrow but fairly long at 13m
for its city-centre location, the
eighth-floor water feature at
the Ohla is as much human
aquarium as swimming pool,
with glass walls for two of its
sides. Bring goggles to catch
underwater city views
between the cocktail drinkers
seated by the balustrade. Like
the giant white gurning masks
on the black walls of the lobby
lounge, it’s an eccentric touch
for this luxury spot on the
edge of the Barri Gotic.JOAN MONFORT