Christmas visit to explore Barcelona, Montserrat and Blanes. The pleasant hotel had a sauna and steam room which we wanted if the weather was bad but we were blessed with a week of winter sunshine. We stayed in Barcelona for 4 days 3 nights which wasn’t enough time to see all the sights along with visiting numerous flea markets. Plenty of varied eateries nearby however we spent quite a bit of time at the friendly in-house restaurant. First photo selection of Barcelona, second Montserrat and finally Lloret de Mar (near Blanes)

Room was slightly on the small size for 3 adults but pleasant. My son had issues with the shower temperature fluctuating. It was nice to have the spa facilities but unisex changing and a little concerned no panic button as it was in a tucked away location.

When we arrived, we received a voucher for welcome drinks from reception, which was a nice surprise :) The lobby is nice a spacious with a restaurant and bar in the back, and an outside seating area. The swimming pool is a nice size, but not warm, so if you come between October - March, it will most likely be too chilly to swim in. Towels are available at the pool and inside the gym as well. The hotel room was spacious enough for 3 people (triple room) and very clean. It came with a safe, mini fridge (with 2x bottles of complimentary water) and coffee/tea making facilities. The bathroom was also very clean and comes with a toilet, bidet, bath and shower. Towels are changed when asked, so if you don’t need them changed, put a do not disturb sign outside your door. The restaurant in the hotel does some very good food and there is a large choice of drinks, including cocktails. It was about a 5 minute walk to the beach from the hotel, and there are some nice restaurants there. There are several buses that stop right outside the hotel, going towards the city centre (which takes about 20 minutes), and the closest metro (Bogatell) is about a 10 minute walk away.

Unfortunately, the hot tub next to the pool didn’t work and the door to the gym and sauna/steam rooms took forever to try and open. I suggest a new lock or battery in it, because people had to leave a towel at the bottom to keep the door propped open.

Breakfast buffet price was in line with wide range of choices. Not overpriced than many places. Room and hotel was clean and nice. Even hotel is on quiet neighborhood not on city center there are really good connections by bus and metro. Direct bus route takes to Barceloneta beach or couple stops to metro station. Also nearest beach is only 5 minutes walk away. Staff on reception was helpful when needed some services.

Hotel would need some maintenance. Card locks should be replaces as they seem end of life. Some of those are not working like reliable in elevator and gym access. It seems that room air con was switched off on whole hotel. It wasn't really hot on October, but still room air is getting bad at night without air con.

Great location close to beach in quiet residential area well placed for access to city and local bars and restaraunts. Rooms cleaned daily immaculate on return from sight seeing .Good breakfast ..wide selection and pleasant courteous staff. My room was on 4th floor and the two lifts were very fast and never overcrowded....always available hardly ever had to wait.

My flight arrived early morning so room wasnt ready at 10.00am for an early check in despite a previous request on booking...but staff were very helpful and allowed access to change and freshen up and secured my bad in their luggage room so still had the benefit of the day .Room was ready on my return at 3.00pm.

Beautiful hotel and location with lovely rooms and extras

They were unable to cook food for my baby (boiled potato with veg) we have asked and explained exactly how we needed it (literally just boiled) without any seasoning. When I collected the food on first day it was destroyed in salt. So much so it was too much salt for an adult. When we complained we were told they can't boil potato separately to the pot they use for every day cooking and salt was already in the water. Seems ridiculous, we stayed 4 days so my baby didn't have dinner during that time.

The hotel itself was nice. Convenient location and hotel restaurant 24/7. Staff was friendly.

Our room could have been cleaner, but our biggest issue was bed bugs!! We have stayed in so many hotels, air bnb’s, etc. over our years of traveling and some have been better than others. We can overlook some of the uncleanliness. However, even in the worst lodgings, we have never had bed bug bites! Our first night we thought it was just mosquitos. The second night we discussed possible bed bugs, but continued to assume this nice hotel would not have bed bugs. After the third night there was no doubt it was bed bugs by the amount, patterns, and locations of the bites.

Breakfast was very good, location is excellent - 5 minutes to the beach, 10 minutes to metro (bus stop in 100meters from the hotel but we never used it), taxis always nearby. Rooms are diligently cleaned. Restaurant in the hotel is good too, complements to the chefs for dorada and "fish and chips".

Ventilation in the room - if you take your own towels to the beach they never dry (same goes for swimwear unless you hang it out of your window). Ventilation is actually the mean issue, everything else is good. Wifi was fine but sometimes needed continuous restarts to connect. One of the devices in the gym was not working (on the only day I decided to visit it).

The cleaning lady came daily to clean and replace towels( if the towels needed to be replaced), etc. A big plus for the hotel. Everything was clean and in working condition. There was a small vertical line on the Tv, but it was tolerable for the amount of time we used the tv.

Because of Barcelona water issue( which is not hotel’s fault) the water pressure was low thus when showering the water temperature oscilate a bit between hot and cold. The access cards are really really sensitive. We had to re-write them 3 times during the stay. The staff is really nice and helpful. The rewriting process takes just a few seconds, but is a bit frustrating to go up 6 floors just to use the elevator back to re-write the cards.

SB Icaria provide couple of Water Bottles on the day of Check-In but they are not extending it for rest of days of stay. This is little wierd. For someone stays for 4 or 5 nights they could extend offering of water bottles every day. Staff were little rude when inquired about water served over breakfast is differnt from tap water which is clorinated; they responded as "you are asking water for Free" ( That was a rude response). I hope 4 Start rated hotel to have RO system in place and serve guests with drinking water which is a bare minimum expectation.

It is a great hotel, we would be glad to come back anytime. Overall we were very satisfied! Great location, great swimming pool, and amazing staff!

What I would improve: - vegan options to be added at breakfast and to the lunch/dinner menu. For breakfast I brought my vegan cheese which I literally bought in the supermarket next to the hotel. So this could easily be arranged. Also £400 we spent on restaurants during those few days, we could have spent in the hotel restaurant if they offered a vegan menu, so it would be mutually beneficial for the hotel. - the water pressure was low on the 6th floor and the water was boiling temperature with no cold water coming out of the tap, so showers felt like an episode from Benny Hill. Still, overall, a great hotel and great staff!