The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Spain

The check-in desk is a former prime minister's office, complete with the small secret escape door he had built into the wall in case things went sideways. This boutique hotel in Ávila occupies the onetime home of Adolfo Suárez, Spain's first democratically elected PM after Franco, and it sits right up against the medieval city walls. Some rooms look directly onto those ancient stones, though a suite makes the view a certainty.

A former convent turned luxury hotel, this NH Collection property keeps the Gothic cloister largely intact in the common spaces while the rooms go full contemporary, with dark hardwood floors and stone-clad rain showers. It sits just across the river, but four minutes over an old footbridge puts you at the foot of Burgos Cathedral. The restaurant leans into upscale Castilian cooking; the lobby bar handles the lighter work.

A 15th-century Asturian palace converted into rural apartments, Solo Palacio runs as a non-profit whose proceeds go to local environmental projects, which may be the most elegant flex in the hospitality industry. The design follows wabi-sabi principles, so the restoration is deliberately unfinished, rough-edged, and handmade in ways that feel considered rather than cheap. An infinity pool overlooks forested valley, and the on-site bistro leans hard into Asturian mushrooms.

A stone-and-timber farmhouse on the quiet east side of Mallorca, as far from Palma as you can reasonably get, and adults-only, so the name does most of the work. This small rural hotel keeps the interiors warm and minimalist, with a spa running a heated pool, hammam, and sauna. The restaurant swings from unpretentious breakfasts to a vivid modern menu at dinner, paired with Mallorcan wines.

The fanciful spires and parapets of this late-19th-century Catalan palace look less like a hotel than a fever dream of a building, which is part of the point. Inside, the original ornate rooms have kept their opulence while a newer wing adds ten suites in clean, unadorned lines with local timber. A spa and hydrotherapy center rounds things out. The old carriage house holds a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a culinary school for guests reluctant to go home hungry.

A farmhouse hotel on a hill ringed by nature reserve on three sides, close enough to Ibiza town that the clubs are an option, far enough that they never feel mandatory. Rooms lean rustic-meets-global, with Balearic and Balinese touches sharing space unselfconsciously, and the larger apartments add kitchenettes for guests who didn't come to be managed. Three pools, a spa, bikes for the salt flats, and a football pitch round things out for a property with only 31 rooms.

Clouds painted above the beds and daisy motifs across the lobby set the tone at this five-star resort on quiet, low-key Formentera. The Sixties hippie inspiration lands closer to swinging London than Woodstock, all saturated pinks, gold upholstery, and space-age curves. Two pools, a spa, a rooftop cocktail bar with open sea views, and a fine-dining room named after Janis Joplin round out a place that takes its whimsy very seriously.

The stonework and structural bones of an old paper mill in the Matarraña hills are still very much in charge here, which is the point. Somnifabrik is a 14-room rural hotel where no two rooms are the same because the building refused to cooperate with uniformity. The surrounding area, with Valderrobres and Beceite nearby, offers medieval architecture and river gorges that most visitors to Spain have quietly missed. There's a spa and restaurant on site.

The Matarraña region gets compared to Tuscany often enough that you stop rolling your eyes and just accept it. Mas de la Costa is a luxury boutique hotel built from an old stone farmhouse, surrounded by olive and almond groves with the Els Ports de Beceite peaks beyond. Suites have fireplaces and timbered ceilings; bathrooms are tiled by hand in Granada. The honesty bar sits inside the wine cellar, which is either very trusting or very clever.

Luxury golf-resort villas on Gran Canaria, where the full-length windows frame fairways and countryside in every direction. Each villa comes with its own kitchen, living and dining room, terrace, and a private cook and waiter, which tips this firmly away from standard resort anonymity. The style runs clean-lined and modernist rather than the usual chintz-and-tartan golf-hotel aesthetic. Private pools are available on request, and the on-site golf academy means you can at least look purposeful.

An adults-only finca on a working estate with 7,000 grapevines, 800 olive trees, and chickens with a better commute than most city dwellers. The twelve rooms run to painted beams and creamy linens, and there's a separate four-bedroom farmhouse when you want the whole property to feel like yours. Dinner on the mulberry-shaded terrace leans into Menorcan produce, and Son Bou beach is close enough to justify a second dessert.

A medieval fortification turned Neoclassical villa turned rural boutique hotel, Alcaufar Vell has reinvented itself more times than most places earn the right to. Twenty-one rooms spread across the old house and its restored stables, and the same kitchen that handles breakfast sends out composed dinners in the garden under the stars. The beach at Cala Alcaufar is a short walk, and the estate suits anyone who arrives by bicycle and leaves reluctantly.

Hanging beds and pops of color set the tone at this trio of apartments on Playa Migjorn, where Formentera's barefoot-luxe ethos runs the show. The pool, a yoga mat, an in-house massage, and a boat rental cover most of what a person could need. Formentera held onto its slow, slightly sun-addled soul while Ibiza went the other direction, and Can Tres is a reliable argument for the quieter island.

Halfway between Seville and Cádiz, this boutique hacienda sits on a working olive farm, which does set a certain tone. Rooms open onto a central courtyard and run large, with king beds, private verandas, and marble baths dressed in an eclectic Andalucian-Indian-Zimbabwean mix. The pool suites are essentially private villas. Three pools nestle among citrus and olive groves, and the restaurant leans on market-fresh Andalusian cooking. Small-scale by design, and the better for it.

A former monastery near Salamanca where the wine cellar is so vast it couldn't hold everything, so they filled the old chapel with oak barrels right up to the altar. This wine hotel keeps forty rooms deliberately spare, stone walls thick as fortress walls, wooden beams, riverside quiet, and almost no distractions. The organic farm supplies the cheese and ham; the tasting room is where you put it all together, glass in hand, living considerably better than the monks ever did.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Gállego River and the peaks above it, which does a lot of the decorating for this stone-and-timber hotel in a medieval Pyrenean village. It's a year-round mountain retreat with a small spa, a garden pool, and a restaurant leaning into the region's larder. The slopes of Spain's largest ski resort are minutes away, though the place is set up equally well for people who just want to stare at a mountain.

Private balconies overlooking Cala Llonga Bay set the tone at this 400-plus-room resort perched above a quiet stretch of Ibizan coastline. The rooms lean into organic materials and warm neutrals, which feels right given the mountains-meet-sea backdrop. Three pools, a beach club, and occasional DJ sets handle the daytime hours, while guided hikes offer a way out for anyone who overdid the nightlife the evening before.

A terraced resort that sits over the bay at Cala Llonga in a shade of white that borders on aggressive. The Mondrian brand landing in Ibiza was either inevitable or a marketing team's fever dream, and the rooms lean into the island's rustic textures while keeping the overall mood firmly glamorous. Outdoor oceanfront pools sit between you and the beach, and the drinking and dining options run from a DJ-equipped beachside bar to a seafood-focused Mexican restaurant.

The name and concept lean Japanese, the aesthetic is all clean lines and Zen calm, but Oku Ibiza does not pretend to be a retreat from the island. This is a luxury hotel that books DJ sets without apology. Rooms range from suites with pool access to rooftop terraces, and the spa is properly lavish. The food runs from all-day Mediterranean to a Japanese-South American hybrid, which tells you everything about the clientele.

The pastel pool deck alone is doing a lot of heavy lifting at this adults-only art hotel, which commits fully to a mid-century Miami fantasy on a Spanish island. Suites come with Marshall speakers, Smeg fridges, and in-room art that leaves nothing ambiguous about the concept. A rotating collection runs through the common spaces, and Andy's, the indoor-outdoor restaurant, keeps things casually stylish when the cabanas fill up.

Formentera is the smallest and quietest of the Balearics, which is more or less the point of going. This boutique apartment and bungalow resort leans into that by arranging its 35 units loosely around a saltwater pool and communal terraces in a way that reads more like a village than a hotel. Bungalows get a private jacuzzi and a separate living room; every unit gets a kitchen. Families fill the place without it ever feeling like a kids' club.

Four-poster beds draped in dark wood sit behind balconies hemmed in by tropical greenery, and a short walk puts you on the dunes of Maspalomas. This is a slow-living coastal resort on Gran Canaria, the kind of place where the day's big decision is whether to take spa time before or after the pool bar tapas. The restaurant leans Mediterranean, with produce pulled from a nearby farm on the island. Five golf courses sit close by for anyone who needs a reason to leave.

The Maspalomas sand dunes sit just outside the door, which is either the reason you came or a very convenient excuse. From the outside, this 328-room resort looks like every other concrete horseshoe that survived the sixties, but a French architect's redesign swapped the shag carpets for bold color, glam accents, and actual art objects. Spacious balconies, a lagoon pool, an extensive wellness retreat, and a dinner buffet round things out.

Stone fireplaces and exposed beams set the tone at this ski-in/ski-out Alpine lodge sitting at one of Europe's highest elevations, perched on the Sierra Nevada slopes above Granada. The rooms frame serious mountain views, and the panoramic restaurant gives you somewhere to recover. When the snow loses its appeal, the Alhambra is about an hour's drive down the mountain, which is a genuinely useful backup plan to have.

The gin and tonic arrives in something closer to an aquarium than a glass, garnished with the kind of care usually reserved for fine dining. Bobby Gin is a cocktail bar in the Gràcia neighborhood that has made the G&T its entire personality, stocking a dizzying spread of gins and tonic waters and pairing them with obsessive precision. Sitting at the bar while the bartenders work through the combinations is basically a short course in why Barcelona lost its mind over this drink.

A boutique hotel built to look like a traditional farmhouse, set in an olive grove a few miles inland from the beach, Ca Na Xica is Ibiza for people who find the nightclub scene exhausting before they've even arrived. White arches reflect in a still pool, orange trees scent the air, and the twenty individually decorated suites open onto private terraces built for a long, slow breakfast. The loudest it gets here is sangria by the pool.

Wooden cubes cantilevered over a limestone bluff in rural Aragón, each with a glass wall and a private terrace staring into the middle of nowhere. Consolación is a boutique hotel built around the shell of an old hermitage, and the contrast between ancient stone and sleek modern fittings, sunken slate baths included, is very much the point. The restaurant runs an open kitchen you can wander past at odd hours. Getting here requires a car and a commitment.

Breakfast arrives at your suite in a basket each morning, which at this eight-room adults-only boutique hotel in a 17th-century Ciutadella palazzo is entirely on brand. Vibrant contemporary colors and furnishings play against white walls and old stone in a way that manages not to feel like a design manifesto. Kitchenettes and proper living rooms give it a residential ease, and the old town outside was practically built for a quiet, aimless afternoon walk.

No televisions is a design choice here, not an oversight. This resort on Formentera sits right at the dunes with rooms done in sand tones, raw wood, linen, and concrete, and an infinity pool that more or less disappears into the sea. Caliu, the open-air restaurant, grills over wood embers and fires Neapolitan pizzas. The hotel generates its own drinking water and runs chemical-free pools. Formentera is what people wish Ibiza were, and this place leans into that.

The Lusitano horses in the stables aren't decor; they're the whole ethos made physical. Finca La Donaira is a boutique eco-resort in the Andalusian hills, built around a working organic farm and nine rooms full of weathered stone, reclaimed wood, and antiques that look genuinely earned. Everything runs on a quietly serious environmental conscience, which makes the luxury feel less guilty and only slightly smug.

The original pastry-shop display case still stands at reception, candy jars and vintage bicycles included, because this boutique hotel in Ciutadella's old town spent four generations as a family confectionery before anyone thought to add beds. Rooms run from compact doubles to a suite with its own terrace. Breakfast leans on those family pastry recipes, which makes the whole arrangement feel less like a coincidence and more like a plan.

Formentera is the quieter sibling of Ibiza, which is either a selling point or a warning, depending on who you are. This seaside resort sits right on Cala Saona beach, with rooms done in a white-on-white palette and floor-to-ceiling windows that pull in the light. A lap pool, spa, tennis court, and restaurant with ocean views keep things comfortable. Top suites add outdoor jacuzzis angled toward the rocky silhouette of Es Vedrà.

Es Canar sits on Ibiza's quieter east coast, and this boutique hotel suits the pace, whitewashed walls and wicker pendants instead of anything you'd find on the party circuit. Rooms run in muted earth tones with garden or partial sea views, and the top suite opens onto a sea-facing terrace. The Es Canar hippie market sets up twice weekly directly outside, and Cala Nova beach is a fifteen-minute walk.

Horses still outnumber cars on the sandy streets of El Rocío, which tells you something about what kind of place this is. La Malvasía is a rustic-feeling hotel on the edge of Doñana National Park, with timber ceilings, tiled floors, and mornings that begin with migratory birds rather than an alarm. The marsh is right there, the beach is close, and the pace is the kind you have to actively resist.

A converted 19th-century finca on a UNESCO biosphere reserve, set among hiking trails and wild pebble beaches, is a fairly confident opening move for a hotel group that started life as a cocktail bar in Paris. Rooms by designer Dorothée Meilichzon sit under timber ceilings with a contemporary ease, and the nine freestanding villas have the kind of space that makes the Paris outpost feel like a memory. Open late March through late October.

Saltwater pools sit under palms, the breeze carries a faint hint of Gibraltar, and the whole resort is done in the kind of earthy, natural textures that make you feel like you've been offline for a week by afternoon. OKU Andalusia is a coastal resort near Algeciras where rooms look over gardens or the sea, suites add private pools, and the spa has an indoor pool for days when the sun is doing too much. Meals shift from farm-fresh breakfasts to Mediterranean tapas in courtyards and poolside terraces.

A 250-acre Minorcan estate where orange groves and fig trees slope down around an 18th-century farmhouse converted into a 21-room luxury boutique hotel. The 21 rooms spread across the barn and outbuildings, each with slightly different geometry from the conversion, all done in contemporary tones with rattan furniture. The spa occupies the old stone cistern, its lap pool sitting under a vaulted ceiling that makes the whole thing feel quietly theatrical.

A cortijo, the classic Andalusian farmhouse, is the architectural idea here, reimagined as a contemporary resort where even the entry-level rooms come with a king bed and a private terrace. SO/ Sotogrande sits on the Costa del Sol with 27 holes of golf, a serious spa, and a rotating pop-up restaurant that cycles through visiting chefs. The design lands somewhere between Moorish heritage and a very confident interior decorator with a generous budget.

Dark wood paneling sets the mood at this quietly serious cocktail bar on Aribau, where the Pernia family, long-running operators of the nearby Tandem bar, took over and kept the formula intact. Classic cocktails, made properly, served to people who know what they ordered and aren't in a hurry. The kind of room where the conversation stays low and nobody's performing for the door.

A fortified watchtower from another century anchors this farmhouse hotel on a Minorcan estate thick with olive groves and medicinal herbs. Rooms spread across the main house, a converted barn, and an old sheepfold, all done in minimalist style with rustic warmth, private terraces, and some with their own pools. It reads a little more bohemian than its sister property down the road, which suits the landscape just fine.

A converted manor estate set inland from Menorca's south coast, Vestige Son Vell is a small luxury hotel where the suites come with period stonework, private gardens, and soaking tubs deep enough to mean business. The grounds sprawl into serious gardens and a pair of pools, and a swimmable cove is a short walk through the island scrubland. The terrace bar mixes cocktails well, which helps when the view is already doing most of the work.

White stone archways frame uninterrupted Mediterranean views at this adults-welcome, families-tolerated resort on Menorca's south coast. The building is a thoughtful eco-renovation rather than a new build, and the near-carbon-neutral credentials don't come at the cost of comfort: sea-facing balconies, a sunlit spa, and two seafood restaurants where the waves do most of the decorating. The rooftop pool is adults-only, keeping the romance and the school holidays at a sensible distance.

A converted 18th-century ancestral house in the shadow of Tudela's Gothic cathedral, this boutique hotel threads contemporary comfort through old stone without making a fuss about it. The 41 rooms run to oranges and lemony creams rather than Madrid-style flash, and the all-glass sinks feel like a wink. A courtyard garden and a faint blue glow in the lobby give the sitting-room atmosphere a quiet urban edge.

A five-room boutique hotel in Teguise created by a costume designer and a hotel entrepreneur, which explains why it looks like a gallery someone forgot to remove the beds from. They restored a traditional Canarian house without sanding off the character, so stone floors and old archways sit alongside very white, very contemporary rooms hung with eclectic art. An honesty bar supplies the wine for the courtyard, and the Sunday market is a short walk away.

Designed to feel like a Moorish village, this luxury resort sprawls across a thousand-acre Andalusian estate near the Sierra de Loja, all whitewashed walls, arched walkways, and courtyard after courtyard. Suites run large, with terraces overlooking the hills or the inner gardens, and the bathrooms, some with views over the landscape, are the kind that make checkout feel cruel. Two restaurants, a spa, tennis, and horses round out the picture.

Perched on a clifftop forty minutes from the Ibiza Town chaos, this 75-room boutique hotel trades the island's relentless thump for sea views and quiet. The spa is the standout, its hot tubs spilling down a series of terraced pools cut into the hillside. Minimalist interiors are softened by an eclectic collection of art from indigenous cultures worldwide, which gives the whole place a slightly otherworldly calm that the dance-floor crowd would never suspect existed.

Sandstone and limewash farm buildings on a hilltop estate in northern Menorca, with original wooden beams intact and 800 hectares of orchards, farmland, and coastal trails rolling out beyond the pool. This is a quietly serious boutique hotel where rooms run to fireplaces and private terraces, produce from the estate's own groves feeds the seafood restaurant, and a shuttle runs to a sister property for plant-based dinners when you've had enough of the view.

Prefabricated pods hunkered against the relentless wind of the Bardenas desert, this hotel in Navarre makes no effort to be cozy or rustic, and is better for it. Rooms are spare, modern, and built around the windows, which come with their own mini-mattresses so you can spend serious time staring at wheat fields and wind-carved rock. A restaurant leans on local vegetables, and the Bardenas Reales National Park is on the doorstep.

Planted on a scenic cove in Puerto del Carmen before the resort town existed around it, this whitewashed hotel has been around forever and earned its spot. A recent renovation brought in a local designer who kept the airy white bones and added bold Spanish artwork throughout. Rooms have parquet floors, tiled balconies with sea views, and marble bathrooms with walk-in showers. Multiple pools, tennis courts, terrace cafés, and a pool bar round things out nicely.

An adults-only hotel on Lanzarote where the infinity pool lines up with the sea and nothing else competes for the view. Rooms lean into blues and greens and potted plants, and every one faces either mountain or ocean. The whole ethos is outdoors: al fresco dining, a BBQ area, hiking and riding nearby, and a spa for when the volcano walk catches up with you. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Eight distinct rooms in an old manor house in Haría, a quiet village in the north of Lanzarote. The décor mixes antiques with contemporary touches in a way that leans into the house's age rather than apologizing for it, and breakfast is a proper à la carte affair served overlooking the garden. No pool bar, no spa, no infinity anything; just a well-kept historic property on an island that happens to be closer to Morocco than to Madrid.

The building started as a 1980s apartment block designed by César Manrique, Lanzarote's celebrated architect, and has since become an adults-only boutique hotel where every suite has a private terrace and sea views. White interiors, walk-in rain showers, complimentary cava, and a pair of binoculars for dolphin spotting come standard. The candlelit bar and restaurant sits at the water's edge, which is either romantic or a lot of pressure, depending on your companion.

A 17th-century Mallorcan manor house in the Tramuntana foothills, Gran Hotel Son Net is a countryside retreat where four-poster beds and opulent fabrics share space with carved wooden ceilings and stone floors, because why choose between a palace and a farmhouse. Palm-dotted gardens and vineyard views complete the picture. The team behind Finca Cortesin runs it, and the pedigree shows. It holds a spot on The 50 Discovery list.

A converted flour mill in Castilla-La Mancha wheat country, El Molino de Alcuneza is a boutique hotel where the grain theme is taken seriously: the restaurant serves seven varieties of homemade bread, and breakfast brings spelt and rye pastries alongside local cheese and jam. Original rooms have exposed beams, rustic floors, and hand-painted tile baths; newer suites by the pool trade atmosphere for space. Everything looks out over wheat fields, which is either very on-brand or genuinely lovely, probably both.

Nine rooms arranged around two courtyards bring a Moroccan riad to the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The style leans into Moorish tilework and lanterns without going full theme park, and a hammam and rooftop terrace cover most of the amenities you'd actually want. It sits in the heart of old Tarifa, which handles the rest: good restaurants, shops, and the beach all within a short walk.

The Toro wine designation sits just upriver from Portugal's Douro Valley, and this sleek winery hotel makes the most of that geography. Thirty-five contemporary rooms, indoor and outdoor pools, and a hydrotherapy spa fill the modern structure, with the wine list doing at least as much heavy lifting as the spa menu. It's resort-level comfort in a part of Spain most visitors fly straight over on their way somewhere else.

A tiered Moorish fountain burbles at the center of the grounds, which sets the tone for this deluxe country estate an hour and a half from Madrid. Rooms range from billowy white canopy beds to bold-striped suites with private courtyard entrances. The kitchen leans modern, drawing on produce grown on-site, and staff will pack you a picnic if you'd rather roam the hundreds of hectares. A rowboat, a horse and cart, and a spa round out the options for doing absolutely nothing efficiently.

From a distance, the circular stone walls read more like a bullring than a hotel, and the mix-up is forgivable. The 18th-century textile factory outside Madrid is now a wellness-focused luxury hotel, its two concentric rings arranged around a courtyard, with high-ceilinged rooms showing original beams and a glass-domed restaurant lit by lanterns at night. The stone spa and thermal baths do most of the heavy lifting for guests who came specifically to do nothing.

A working farm in the Sierra de Gata mountains that also happens to be a boutique hotel, with 12 rooms whose clean contemporary interiors sit behind a classic stone farmhouse facade. Parquet floors and wicker furniture warm the look, some rooms have freestanding tubs beside the bed, and there's a hammam with thermal baths. Outside, the estate raises an unusual Retinta-Wagyu cattle cross, which ends up on the restaurant menu.

A 16th-century university converted into a hotel, with guest rooms occupying what were once classrooms, their original stone walls and timber beams still intact. The central courtyard, now capped in glass, shelters the bar and restaurant in warm, diffuse light. Below stairs, a thermal spa fed by a nearby spring sits under Romanesque frescoes in vaulted stone chambers, which is either very atmospheric or very haunted, depending on your mood.

Sleeping inside a clear bubble pod in a Soria forest is either your dream or your nightmare, and Noctis has built a whole hotel around that premise. The glamping resort offers treehouses, outdoor suites, and those pods alongside five rooms in a restored villa for guests who prefer a ceiling. Natural materials and neutral tones do the blending-in, while private pools, outdoor bathtubs, and terraces do the compensating. The on-site restaurant runs a farm-to-table menu that changes with the seasons.

A castle hotel that has been standing since the Moorish period, perched on a hill above the Júcar River, which loops around the town of Alarcón like a moat nature forgot to finish. The Parador is a state-run historic hotel, so the rooms sit inside thick medieval stone walls and the restaurant leans into old Castilian cooking, with traces of Moorish influence still in the recipes. Outdoor trails run just beyond the ramparts.

The white-coated staff here have been shaking their namesake martini since forever, in a room of dark wood, leather, and brass that makes you feel like you've stepped into a movie set someone forgot to strike. This is a classic cocktail bar, and the dry martini, mixed to a precise equal-parts ratio with French vermouth, orange bitters, and a green olive, arrives on a tray with some ceremony. There's also a hidden speakeasy below for food and cocktail pairings.

Especiarium is a cocktail bar in El Born that builds its drinks around spices, which explains the Cardamom, served in a bowl shaped like the pod itself. The currykiri arrives crowned with a giant fruit vapor bubble that's best popped with your nose, at some risk of sneezing. The staff are chatty and unhurried, and nobody minds if you just want a Negroni in the low-ceilinged room, which stays busy without getting packed.

Galileo is a cocktail bar on Carrer d'Aribau that has quietly started serving a full Italian dinner, which is how you end up ordering octopus over potato foam between negronis. The staff will steer your drink toward whatever you're eating, with a house rule of nothing too strong or too sweet. It works for a solo drink, a date, or a bachelorette weekend, and it appears in Difford's Guide and The Infatuation's Barcelona bar list.

The glass bar counter at this El Raval cocktail bar is etched with what looks like idle doodling until you notice it's the story of Paris and Helen of Troy playing out from one end to the other. The street outside has a rough-around-the-edges reputation, but inside things run elegant: polished decor, considered cocktails, and a crowd that dresses accordingly. Negronis are, unsurprisingly, the move.

A cocktail bar no wider than a one-car garage, with a varnished dark wooden counter that stretches so far back you half expect it to end in another city. Two bartenders hold down either end of the bar, which is how Tandem earns its name. The shelves run the full length and groan with whiskies, rums, and gins. Dark wood panels line the opposite wall, broken up by mirrors so you can watch yourself make excellent decisions.

The Alchemix is a cocktail bar in Barcelona that also runs a tasting menu, and the two sides of the operation take each other seriously. The drinks arrive in miniature and in costume, including a gin infusion poured from a teapot that looks borrowed from a cartoon. The food leans Southeast Asian and Mediterranean, a nod to the owner's years in Thailand, and it's been on The Infatuation's list of the best bars in Barcelona.

The queue snaking down Calle de Tudescos is how you find this cocktail bar, since there's no other obvious sign. The owner has gone on record saying you probably won't remember the drinks a year from now, which is either a refreshing admission or very good marketing, depending on your mood. What people do remember is the night itself. Check Instagram for the password before you go, or just join the line and hope for the best.

The wine bottles lining the walls aren't decoration so much as inventory, and on a busy night you'll be standing among them. This compact little wine bar sits across the square from Santa Maria del Mar, and the room is refreshingly scruffy for a place with a list this good, cavas and sherries alongside an eclectic international rotation. Grab a stool at the marble counter if one opens up; otherwise, glass in hand, you're on your feet.

The bar counter here was custom-built to one level so every bartender works the same station, which tells you something about how seriously Kevo Jacoby runs the room. This snug cocktail bar in the Salamanca neighborhood is built around classics, with signatures that riff and twist rather than reinvent. The owner is usually your bartender, which, after stints pouring drinks across several countries, makes him someone worth talking to.

Carved pharmacy panels salvaged from near the Alhambra line the back bar, giving this basement cocktail lounge a feel that's part Moroccan souk, part Andalusian apothecary. It sits beneath Ocaña on Plaça Reial, past the busier bar upstairs and down into a vaulted, double-height catacomb hung with Persian rugs. The kind of room that makes you order a second drink just to keep looking at it.

A cocktail bar on the 26th floor of the W Hotel, with the kind of panoramic sweep across Barcelona that makes you forgive the scene happening around you. Ricardo Bofill handled the interiors, and the crowd arriving after dark is exactly who you'd expect. Go early enough to catch the sunset before the DJs and the queue in the lobby below make the whole thing feel like a very stylish inconvenience.

Blue-tiled walls, marble tables, and a zinc bar that has been pouring house cava since before anyone can remember: El Xampanyet is an old-school tapas bar on one of the prettiest streets in the Born. Anchovies in vinegar and fat green olives are the moves here, paired with cold glasses of cava. The kind of place where tourists and regulars agree for once, which is its own small miracle.

Wood paneling, a mahogany counter, worn seats, and a cut-out of a bowler-hatted man peeping through blinds: GMT lands somewhere between a Fleet Street pub and a noir detective's waiting room. The cocktail bar took its name from a shortening of Gimlet, not the time zone, which tells you something about how seriously they take the bit. Soft jazz and low lighting keep the mood intact for anyone who shows up in a trench coat, ironically or otherwise.

The curved white marble bar, brass rail, and pressed linen make this basement cocktail bar feel like it's been here since the trams ran. Jazz drifts through a room that reads like the lower deck of a very elegant ship, and the bartenders match the setting, efficient and serious about their craft. The entrance, garish enough to give you pause near Plaça de Catalunya, is doing nobody any favors, but the room below it is the whole point.

The reception desk, the bar, and the restaurant share one open floor at Hotel Omm, so Moo Bar is less a room than a mood: metal-mesh curtains, rough stone walls, and low lighting that makes the whole lobby feel like an afterparty you stumbled into with a good sense of direction. The cocktail list keeps to the classics, made carefully and brought over by staff who seem to mean it. A quietly confident hotel bar.

Ordering a beer here would probably count as a minor offense. Old Fashioned is a compact cocktail bar tucked into Gràcia, where the gin and tonics flow freely and the house cocktails lean vintage without feeling costume-y. Swing, Charleston, and old-school jazz play low enough to still hear yourself talk. The room is small, the bar team is passionate, and showing up with a vague "something classic" request is genuinely all the invitation they need.

A cocktail bar in the La Torrassa neighborhood of L'Hospitalet, well past the tourist radius and closer to the airport than the Ramblas. The owner runs the local bartenders' guild, which explains both the quality of the drinks and the off-duty industry crowd that fills the wood-paneled rooms on a given night. Friendly locals make up the rest, and nobody seems to mind that you found the place.

Crystal globe lamps hang from a pegboard ceiling washed in lilac light, and the whole room reads like a design-school brief that actually worked. Valuart is a cocktail bar in the Eixample that leans into its own aesthetic without apology. After midnight, tables get pushed aside and a DJ takes over downstairs, so the line between cocktail bar and club is more of a suggestion than a boundary.

Pink marble pillars rise from black granite floors to a gold-leaf vaulted ceiling inside this cocktail bar at the Hotel Casa Fuster on Passeig de Gràcia. The effect is somewhere between a grand European café and a very well-appointed crypt, softened by wavy burgundy banquettes and chairs that look lifted from a Paul Smith window display. A good spot for a drink when you want the room to do most of the talking.

Pinball machines and dart boards share space with serious cocktail making in this converted Barcelonan townhouse a taxi ride from the centre. Torre Rosa is a cocktail bar that wears a social club costume convincingly, with bright, garnish-heavy menus that undersell what's actually coming out of the bar. The room is enormous and loud in the best neighbourhood-hangout way, which makes the craft feel like a happy accident rather than a performance.