Claris Hotel

Flatscreen LCD TVs, check, mini-bar, check, marble-trimmed baths, check, gym and sauna, check, rooftop swimming pool, check, Egyptian museum with millenia old artefacts… you can check that too! There can’t be many hotels around the world that can boast their own collection of art from the days of Cleopatra, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the renowned Claris Hotel in Barcelona. The Claris is owned by Jordi Clos, a trained archaeologist and Egyptologist who has chosen to display 400 works from his collection around the hotel’s luxury suites and first floor gallery.

Along with more priceless decor in the form of Turkish kilims and Indian sculptures, mixed together with the modern, this former palace turned 5-star hotel certainly makes for one of the most charismatic stays in the city. Are there any cons? Well you have to pay a pharaoh whack for your WiFi access and sun loungers at the aforementioned pool are hard to come by. (But at least there’s no crocodiles).