I confess. I haven’t been to Europe in approximately 20 years. I say approximately because I’m in midlife and last I was in Paris, I was mortified to be referred to madame instead of mademoiselle, when I was previously there. Since then, I’ve long been comfortable in my madame shoes and am grateful to be in a culture of respectful attitudes towards seniority in age.
This was my first time in Barcelona, a place I have longed to visit and associated with Gaudi and his masterpieces, Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila (La Pedrera), and Parc Guell (pronounced “way,” after its patron). These sites figured front and center in my travel plans as well as tapas involving seafood paella and cultural dance of any sort. Picasso had his early works in this city but we had seen a Picasso exhibit at Hakone Open-Air Museum last summer. I wanted instead to pay a visit to the Dali Theatre Museum in Figuero instead, an hour train ride away.
We, my 13 year old and I, stayed at Mihlton B&B in L’Eixample, around the corner from an upscale shopping streets, Rambla de Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia. We took an 8:30am flight with Air Canada from SFO with a 3.5 hour layover in Montreal, landing us in Barcelona around 9:40am. Anticipating jet lag, I scheduled just one tour that day, at 5pm in Sagrada Familia. Little did I know that this tour would be the highlight of the entire trip this summer from Barcelona to Rome to Florence to Paris to London.
Skip directly to 3-day itinerary complete with Google Map pins
Getting around
From the airport: We used the Cabify app to get to and from BCN Airport to Mihlton
Around town: We ended up using the 3-Day Hola Barcelona Pass. Even if we may not have broken even with the number of rides per day, it was much more convenient to pass through turnstiles rather than figure out our points A to B on the ticket machine each time. Also Google Maps was really great throughout Europe in directing us through the metro lines.
Mihlton B&B in L’Eixample Review
Best Aspect: Location to Gaudi sites, upscale to more affordable shopping and restaurants, and public transportation. Lovely hosts and 24-7 access to coffee, tea, wine, and water.
Least Attractive: Thin walls. Though signs everywhere asked folks to be quiet, you could hear those less conscientious have a go at it.
The best part of this traditional bed and breakfast was its location! For a Gaudi lover, this was truly a dream come true! La Pedrera, or Casa Mila, was just a couple of blocks away, Casa Battlo, five blocks. You could even walk to Sagrada Familia is 25 minutes. It felt safe and doable even at night, as it didn’t get dark until 9:30pm. I also went for a bed and breakfast to stay at a more traditional building similar to the apartment buildings residents live in. I wasn’t disappointed in this. We got to try the old style elevators, that were like little cages, where one had to manually close the door for the elevator to go up. It reminded me of the apartment my family had stayed in Paris when I was about my daughter’s age.
Responsive Service
The receptionist was very welcoming and responsive and really what made Mihlton a great place to stay. She was very responsive and warm and even offered her own personal cell phone when I needed to cancel a reservation but only had a data eSim on my cell phone. In a way, her customer service and hospitality brought the value of the bed & breakfast up to well above average. This and the communal amenities of the dining area was top notch. I enjoyed the full access we had to a coffee/cappuccino maker, tea, wine, water and ice. Breakfast if paid for was a lovely spread of meats, cheeses, fruit, and pastries.
When we crashed in bed there initially due to jet lag, we turned the air conditioning on. But soon after, water began to drip from the unit onto the floor creating a dripping sound that made it hard to sleep. I gathered some towels to absorb some of it since I was so tired to address the problem immediately. Fortunately the host was still available until 4pm, and I awoke in time to let her know about the issue. She was very apologetic and immediately came to our room to have a look. She sent someone to have a look while we were out later that day. Since they didn’t have someone available until the next day, she gave us some extra towels and said the repairman would come first thing the next day. She also offered the breakfast for free the next day to make up for this. The air conditioner was fixed as soon as possible.
Adequate Rooms
In contrast, the amenities in the room itself and walls were just adequate. The room itself was comfortable enough with a queen-sized bed and bedside tables with outlets that allowed us to charge our smart phones and watches on either side. We also had a nice view of the terrace with its colorful array of seating from the dining area. However, there was a sense that the furnishings were just enough to meet expectations. Though there was the table in the room with a seat, it couldn’t support writing or eating off of it. We got shampoo and body soap. But when there’s no hair conditioner, it makes me think of the YMCA, which is affordable but is just adequate.
For Adults Only
The one thing that I must mention was when I had initially booked I did not read the fine print that said “for adults only.” We came to understand first hand why this bed and breakfast was labeled as such. Mihlton was okay with having my 13 year old stay there. Would my 13 year old be okay staying there? Though there were signs clearly everywhere to please be quiet and that it was a quiet zone, not everyone read the signs. Or if they did, they clearly ignored them. Right next to us around 1am, I heard an American male voice yelling angrily at a child? a lover? I wanted to knock on their door and ask for them to keep it down, but as a woman, I felt threatened. And that’s where the B&B is not like a hotel. There isn’t security around 24/7 to kick out people who go AWOL at 1 or 3 am in the morning. Around 5 am my daughter heard the sex that transpired. She thinks it was a prostitute since the guy was shouting about paying her a certain amount of money.
Yes, she had sex education and knows about the birds and bees but really? Blame the walls? Blame the participants? Ask them to keep it down through the walls? Let the people know before they come not to argue too loudly or have rowdy sex, that the rooms were in a quiet zone? Just have quiet, muffled sex? Not to party? Just have a silent disco?
A bed and breakfasts aren’t all that bad. There’s just a lot of chance involved. I’ve read plenty of rosy reviews on Mihlton with quiet guests AND had read the one complaining about thin walls but booked anyway. I had originally signed up for a hostel but a fellow Gen X mom warned me against it for the rowdy student like environment and told me to stay at a penzione, which I realized is more in the Old Town area of Barcelona.
Some of the charms of staying in a bed and breakfast did parallel my memories of staying at a youth hostel. One does a taste of how folks in Barcelona live. Take the circular stairs going up or the traditional caged elevator where one manually opens to door to get in?
You also get to meet people in this more intimate setting. I did meet a family from Istanbul on their last day in Barcelona in the breakfasting area of Milhton. The couple looked a bit older than my husband and I, perhaps older Gen X-ers with a son that looked to be about in his twenties. Father and son were there earlier and I had smiled and stayed silent, but once a fellow mom entered into the picture, I asked where they were from. Istanbul. We commiserated around needing to book times in advance to visit anywhere. I told her about shopping how I didn’t feel like I was a candidate for apparel shopping at my age. But she looked at me and said, no, you are! You look great! And I told her my age and she was only a couple of years older. The dad also chimed in about buyer’s remorse and returning items just purchased on a whim, and the son smiled at the shared sentiments of our age group. I was grateful to meet them and I heartily wished them a safe trip as they wished us the best of luck in our travels.
I felt at that moment a sense of expansion and that finding kinships across lands was possible. Ahhh, the joys of travel…
Three-Day Itinerary
Day One Itinerary: L’Eixample
- Acclimate to time zone difference
- Explore L’Eixample: Eating and shopping
- Tour: Sagrada Familia and Passion Tower (choose one of the two towers).
More details on how this played out for us .
Day Two Itinerary: Dali + Magic Nights
- Complementary Breakfast
- Barcelona Sants to Figuero: Dali Theatre Museum
- Micu Maku ($Tapas + Paella*)
- Magic Nights: Casa Battlo
- (*Our full-sized paella = leftovers at 10pm = no need for breakfast next morning)
More details on how this played out for us.
Day Three Itinerary: Parc Guell + Old Town + Flamenco
- Parc Guell 9:30am
- Old Town: Barri Gothic walk + vintage shopping + Palau de la Musica interior peek
- Pre-dinner tapas + 5:40pm Flamenco show with front row seats (or up-the-nose seats, as my daughter put it)
- 4am waking for 7:15am flight to Rome!