SLS Barcelona

The Hotel

SLS Barcelona opened on 16 October 2023 at Avinguda de la Marina 19-21, in the Sant Martí district between the Olympic Port and Forum Park, opposite the 1992 Frank Gehry-fish landmark and the Hotel Arts/Mapfre Tower. The development was the first SLS property to open in Europe — the brand had until then operated principally in the United States (Las Vegas, Miami, New York), Mexico (Cancún, Puerto Vallarta) and the Middle East — and was the largest single new luxury hotel opening in Spain in a decade. The building is a David Rockwell / Rockwell Group design: a 24-storey blue-glass tower with a sculpted "wave" façade that the architects describe as a Mediterranean homage.

The 471 rooms (including 86 suites) are arranged across the upper 21 floors of the tower. The starting Marina Room is 35 square metres — generous for the Barcelona contemporary five-star — with the standard category running to 200 rooms; junior suites add another 60. The signature category is the Sky Suite (140 square metres, four corner units per floor between floor 18 and 22) with floor-to-ceiling glazing facing the Mediterranean and a private terrace; the Penthouse Suite occupies the entire top floor with a private rooftop infinity pool — the largest suite inventory by surface in Barcelona. Bathrooms throughout use Spanish travertine and feature soaking tubs in suite categories. The hotel was conceived as a "destination resort within the city," with the public-floor programme treated as the defining commercial proposition.

Carna by Dario Cecchini — the ground-floor steakhouse — is the headline restaurant and the first restaurant outside Italy by the eighth-generation Tuscan butcher who runs Antica Macelleria Cecchini in Panzano in Chianti. The cooking is straight-line whole-animal Tuscan: bistecca alla fiorentina at counter weight, Cecchini's beef-tartare-with-burnt-toast preparation, the family's lardo cured to recipes from the original 1700s shop. Cecchini visits Barcelona for two weeks every quarter; the kitchen is run day-to-day by the chef Cecchini personally trained for the opening. The Trip — the basement discothèque — is named after the 1960s overland hippie route from Europe to Goa and runs Wednesday through Sunday with international DJ programming. Citizen Hayworth is the speakeasy bar above the Trip; Carmen the lobby restaurant for breakfast and lunch.

Ciel — the rooftop infinity pool and bar on floor 23 — is one of the largest hotel rooftops in Barcelona at 600 square metres, with a Mediterranean-facing infinity pool and full bar service to mid-evening. The pool deck is open to in-house guests and to day-pass customers booked through the hotel; sunset is reservation-required. The Spa & Wellness Centre on the lower ground level runs 1,600 square metres with two indoor pools, hammam, six treatment rooms, and a 24-hour fitness centre. Position is Olympic Port-adjacent rather than Old Town: a 12-minute taxi to Passeig de Gràcia, six minutes to Plaça de Catalunya, walking distance to Bogatell beach and the Frank Gehry "Peix" sculpture. The hotel's address is the new Diagonal Mar / 22@ business district, increasingly Barcelona's contemporary corporate position.

Best Occasion Fit

Practical Information

Also Great in Barcelona