El Palace Barcelona

Originally opened as the Ritz Barcelona in 1919, and for decades the city's single most opulent address, the hotel has since been renamed and thoroughly renovated but has never quite shaken the grand proportions and Belle Époque character that the original Ritz name implied. Nor has it tried to. The Garden restaurant's glass ceiling floods the dining room with natural light in a way few Barcelona interiors manage, and the cocktail bar channels a 1920s atmosphere that feels lived-in rather than manufactured for the purpose. 120 rooms on the Gran Via, in a city not short of grand hotels but rarely one with this particular pedigree.