Hotel Murmuri

Hotel description

At one extreme Barcelona’s got bold avant-garde architecture and streaming Mediterranean sunshine. And at the other it’s got quiet, chic little hideaways like the Murmuri, a 53-room boutique hotel just off the Passeig de Gràcia, in Barcelona’s central Eixample district.

There’s a refreshing lack of grand-hotel pomp here; though it’s quite a bit bigger than a guest house, the Murmuri is more like a stylish pied à terre. Here in the center of town what you’re after is a refuge, a bit of calm, and the Murmuri certainly offers that.

The rooms are chic, more fashion-world than design-world — elegant rather than avant-garde. Earth tones predominate, and the comforts are legion: flat-screen televisions, iPod docks, double-glazed windows and well-equipped modern bathrooms with top-shelf toiletries.

There’s no shortage of excellent dining in Barcelona, but the Murmuri’s restaurant is worth a look for its mix of Thai influence and Catalonian tradition. And how does a hotel this small and intimate manage to offer a pool, a spa, and a fitness center? It doesn’t, technically — but Murmuri guests have access to the facilities at the Majestic, a more typical luxury hotel a short walk away. It’s an arrangement that, in this case, works better than you might expect.