We stayed 2 weeks and loved the apartment and neighborhood. The quality of the furnishings, noise dampening insulated windows and shades, were all at or above expectations. The building was very nice and had easy access to the metro (2 blocks). We were immediately happy with the apartment's size and layout. It's on a main road, so you can hear a loud vehicle, but we weren't bothered by this. We visited in September, and despite warm days we were fine without air conditioning.

Travel/getting around suggestions/thoughts:
- The apartment is a little over 2 miles to the center of Barcelona, and there are nice neighborhoods to explore on the way, so we had a wonderful time walking (all downhill) to the downtown and getting to know the city, then taking the metro home (10 minute quick ride!).
- Sometimes we would stay out later than the metro (2am). A cab from Playa Catalunya to the apartment was 8.60 Euro (less than 4 metro tickets).
- Renting bikes would be great if you ride. We wished we had done this.

The neighborhood was very nice, with great restaurants and shops. Our favorites were:
- OUT (inspired desserts and good drinks, and very tasty menu)
- Boston Pizza (quick and easy, when you want to stay in, get delivery, and not cook. The owner is originally from Canada and very nice. The pizza is totally North American in style.)

Alex was exceptionally helpful and offered advise on pastry/cake shops for my wife's birthday. The pastry shop didn't disappoint and we had some of the most amazing cakes (flavor and designs), making for a wonderful party.

Movies and television in the apartment... It has Spanish cable, but the TV has an SD card slot (same kind of memory card as most cameras). This allowed us to copy some of our movies to our camera's memory card and watch them together on the TV... Worked great for our kids!

We would recommend this apartment, and we would love to stay here again.