When is a hostel not a hostel? When it’s a Generator. In 2018, after years serving young travellers looking for a cheap bunk and a good time, the brand formerly known as Generator Hostels trimmed off the second half of its name. At its Barcelona hostel-hotel, you can still get a bed in a shared dorm for prices as low as €20 a night, if that’s what you want. Or you can get a private hotel room with a king-size bed, en-suite bathroom, private terrace and view of the Sagrada Família, at a cost (starting from €86) significantly below what you’d pay elsewhere in the same neighbourhood.
There were many good things about my stay at Generator, but I do have to start with a small warning: you don’t have to be very old to feel really old here. The hotel bit of Generator Barcelona shares a lobby and reception with the hostel bit, and the communal spaces fill up most evenings with 18-to-24-year-olds gearing up for a night on the tiles, while Daft Punk bangers leak out from the bar at the back. It’s undeniably A Vibe – but if you’re thirty-plus and in any way bothered by the unfiltered presence of the thirty-minus at play, you might want to pick somewhere else to spend the weekend.
That said, once the express lift has whisked you to the uppermost floors, all is quiet. As well as being almost aggressively clean, my deluxe king room kept out any noise whatsoever from fellow guests or passing traffic. A small desk, a large bed, a compact bathroom and a few clothes hangers – as a solo traveller, I couldn’t really ask for much more. It’s definitely comfort enough for a city with so many reasons to leave your room. And if you do need somewhere to spend an hour catching your breath, the rooms’ southeast-facing terraces are a spectacular USP. As well as Gaudí’s gargantuan cathedral, from up here you can spot the pickle-like Torre Glòries and even, way off behind the rooftops, the sea.
Breakfast is served in a lounge downstairs, and it’s pretty calm while the party kids are still sleeping off the night before; the quality of the all-you-can-eat buffet is so-so, but it’s probably worth the €11 supplement if you’re just looking to tuck it away before a hardcore day of sightseeing. Generator also runs a cheap-and-cheerful tacos-and-tequila bar, Pikio Taco, just over the road. I was a fan of the DIY check-in and check-out, which made it super-easy to come and go no matter the time of day. There are bikes to rent, and the staff can arrange anything from tours of Park Güell to queue-jumping nightclub access.
The location is great too, straddling the border of Gràcia and the Eixample, with Diagonal and Verdaguer metro stations nearby to whizz you down to La Rambla (and the city’s best restaurants under one roof at Time Out Market Barcelona), or over to Sants station for trains across Spain and beyond.
Hostel? Hotel? Who cares? Generator is a solid no-frills stay for anyone who’s not completely allergic to partying.
Neighbourhood
Carrer de Còrsega marks the boundary between the broad, grid-patterned avenues of the Eixample and the older, narrower streets of Gràcia, once an independent town and still proud of its distinctive, bohemian attitude. The posh shops of the Passeig de Gràcia are just to the south, and the ancient streets and squares of the Ciutat Vella (Old City) are about a half-hour’s walk away.
Nearby
1. La Paradeta – for self-service seafood, paid by weight and cooked to order, at the Gràcia branch of a long-established Barcelona mini-chain.
2. La Pepita – for vermouth, G&Ts and top-tier bar snacks at a long marble counter.
3. Casa Amàlia– for some of the best Catalan rice dishes in the city, and plenty more gourmet delights with ingredients from the neighbouring Mercado de la Concepción. We love this place so much that we invited the team to open a second restaurant at Time Out Market Barcelona.
Time Out tip
The rooms here don’t have safes, but you can rent a locker downstairs for your valuables. A small one costs €6 per day, and you can also book a bigger one for a few hours if you just need to stash your bags on departure day.