The best budget hotels in Barcelona, including shady gardens and rooftop pools

One area in which there have been enormous strides in recent years is hotels geared towards discerning travellers on a budget. Pared-down facilities no longer go hand-in-hand with lack of style or comfort, and Barcelona is full of hotels where, for €100 (£89) a night or less, you can lay your head on a decent pillow and wake up to a good breakfast. There has been a design revolution, too, at this price level, and common areas, particularly, can be a blaze of colour and light. Here's our pick of the best budget hotels in Barcelona.

A relaxed, hip place that endeavours to provide guests with the perfect stay at a more-than-reasonable price. This hotel goes for a space-age aesthetic, all white and silver with splashes of hot pink. At every level, staff are helpful and smiling, and the ethos of the hotel is to provide a range of services not usual at this price, such as beautifully old-fashioned, pastel-coloured bicycles for rent, and a mini-router with which guests can enjoy free Wi-Fi around the city. The breakfast is cheap but generous, with hot and cold choices.

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If you don't need a great deal of space, but you do need a touch of style in your surroundings, the Chic&Basic chain is just for you. All-white rooms are designed to be as open and airy as possible. The glass shower cubicles alongside the beds might not appeal to friends sharing, but the use of mirrors and semi-transparent twisted PVC curtains is both curious and clever. This is a basic hotel in terms of facilities, so contact with staff is fairly limited, but those on reception are friendly enough. No restaurant, but a simple buffet breakfast is available.

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A cheerfully efficient, no-nonsense hotel, which is mostly no-frills, but has fridges filled with complimentary mineral water on every floor, and, most importantly, a rooftop terrace with a Gaudiesque plunge pool worthy of a hotel twice the price. The rooms are very simple, decorated in pale blond wood, which gives the illusion of space, and one wall painted in panels of either red, green or blue, with few mod cons other than free Wi-Fi. Ask ahead if you want a room with a bathtub, and splash out on the suite for a separate sitting room with television. There is no restaurant but the rooftop bar offers a short list of tapas.

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The hotel has a young, hip feel, with a refreshingly dapper look for somewhere in this budget range. Surprising small touches include complimentary mineral water and apples at reception, and there is free Wi-Fi throughout. The aesthetic in the rooms mixes teak bed frames and oversized headboards with red lacquered cabinets and portraits of Chairman Mao. The ground-floor restaurant also combines a designer look with low prices; although the food can be hit and miss, it’s hard to go wrong with the simpler dishes –creative salads, pasta and grilled fish.

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This cosy, seven-room pensión is ideal for those seeking a low-key experience and is central but just far enough from the madding crowd to be peaceful at night. Breezily decorated in sunshiney colours, the sitting room that doubles as reception could not be more welcoming. Rooms are not grand, but are all en-suite, and have some attractive features, such as wrought-iron balconies and colourful hydraulic floor tiles; a different design in each room. A modest breakfast (coffee and a croissant, toast or fruit) is served on the patio (or in the rooms when the weather won’t allow it).

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This small and fairly low-budget hotel has a wonderful entrance and small lobby, filled with plants and lined with books. The first floor is where it all happens, with the shady little garden that gives the hotel its name, along with a sunny indoor garden room and a tastefully eclectic lounge where guests can help themselves to excellent coffee. Economy rooms are small and face an interior light well, but tall ceilings, whitewashed walls and original features keep them cheerful. The beds are comfortable and the bathrooms spotless.

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An unpretentious three-star hotel right in the thick of things, just saved from chain-hotel homogeneity by its monochrome jazz theme, and undeniably useful for travellers with a packed schedule, being close to various transport hubs. On the roof is a pool just about big enough to swim in, next to which sit serried rows of sunbeds with a superb view over the rooftops to Montjuïc. Rooms have surprisingly wide beds, and a cheap but adequate breakfast is served in a fairly spartan room on the first floor.

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The Catalonia chain has a collection of well-located hotels in central Barcelona, but what makes the Portal de l'Angel stand out is its garden area, with a pool – not that easy to find in the heart of the Barri Gòtic. Catalonia Portal de l'Angel is located in a handsome 19th-century town house with a fetching atrium. The staff cannot do enough to help with travellers’ needs and have plenty of information on the city. The bar and restaurant (little more than a corridor with chairs) serves wraps, pizza, burgers, steak and chips.

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A functional but good-value hotel, aimed at business visitors but with plenty to keep leisure travellers entertained. The garden-patio has a zen-like area curtained off for spa treatments, there is a rooftop pool and bar, and a fitness area that looks over the treetops of Montjuïc. An air of quiet efficiency pervades the hotel. The predominant colour scheme in the rooms is cream and chocolate, and a refurb has seen the addition of 1970s Habitat-style furniture. The ‘Mexiterranée’ restaurant, as the name suggests, mixes Mexican and Mediterranean, though not in the same dish.

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Named for the Turkish baths that used to sit in this spot, the hotel is simple but stylish, with small but comfortable rooms, the sort of staff who remember repeat visitors and a decent restaurant downstairs. Rooms are fairly small, though comfortable and not unreasonable for the price, with boxy teak four-posters, little balconies and a monochrome colour scheme. There is an affiliated restaurant, Senyor Parellada, downstairs, with a good list of Catalan dishes at very decent prices.

All prices cited are from booking.com, subject to change in high season and during popular holidays and events.