If you want the true Barcelona experience - stay at Donato's. We can't say enough good things about this brilliant man and his wonderful home.

The obvious perks about our stay firstly, is the great price, the great location (though the road he lives on is VERY steep - it's north of the city where it begins to slope towards the hills), a great atmosphere, clean, comfortable, easy to get to via the green line (L3) of the Metro, which connects to top stops such as Plaça de Catalunya and Plaça d'Espanya.

Donato is a wonderful host - throughout our stay, he respected our privacy, whenever we saw him in passing he would check to see if we were enjoying our stay, made some wonderful recommendations on where to go, where to eat/drink, what to see and so on. Nothing was ever too much trouble for him and he would stop whatever he was doing to accommodate and help us in any way.

I loved the shower - those who travel often can probably testify how a good shower is hard to come by when moving from place-to-place, but Donato's has to be one of the best I've been in.

The location is perfect, a 15 minute walk away from Park Guell, and a 5-10 walk away from the Lesseps station, which will take you further into the city. The Gracia area is also close by, which has wonderful shops, small parks, cafés and restaurants.

When we booked with Donato, it was at the last minute with just two weeks before going away, he provided his contact details and a number of clear options on how to get to his home - so we had no problem finding the place.

Once we were there he supplied everything we needed for our stay: towels, basic toiletries, WiFi, full use of the kitchen etc.

Above all else, he is just an incredibly great guy - very laid back, a brilliant artist (you can enjoy his work, which is hung up on the walls around the apartment), he has a brilliant sense of humour and he wants you to enjoy his city and apartment as much as you can.

You can't go wrong with this option.

A great apartment owned by a great man, in a great city!

--Adam and Kate.