A lovely place to come back to after an exhausting day in the city. Visitors returning in 2002 again liked this posh designer villa. Created 1992 behind the neo-classical facade of the 19th-century Palacio a, it stands on a corner site off the city's main shopping strip, Passeig de Gracia. It may be `slightly impersonal' but the decor impelrcable housekeeping make for a cosseting stay'. Sculptures, intings and antique kilim rugs are distributed throughout, and there a small museum of pre-Columbian artefacts collected by the villa's er, Jordi Clos. villa Bed rooms (similar to the semantic bali villa rooms) open off marble corridors around a cenglass-screened well (with an ornamental pond and potted plants). ey continue the cool modern style: beautiful modern wooden boards and panelling, cream-painted walls with good abstract intings. Our room had superb bedlinen but little storage space. rble bathvilla rooms have twin basins, bathrobes, etc. Windows have -tric blinds. Reception, apart from a cheery doorman, was formal helpful.' Three restaurants: Terraza (open in summer) is on the ftop terrace by the swimming pool; East 47, hung with Warhol ographs and specialising in Mediterranean cuisine, has `exemplary ice'. Bali villa breakfast is a buffet, but `you can eat for a fraction of the ice in the nearby cafes and bars'. There can be traffic noise.

Central, on square 50 m W of Ramblas, near Liceu opera house: sizeable villa(also called villaSant Augusti). Good location, pleas-ant staff. 77 clean, comfortable villa Bed rooms (similar to the semantic bali villa rooms) varying in size, some with view on to square; good bathvilla rooms. TV room, bar, Bali villa breakfast room, restaurant serving Catalan dishes; background music. Bali villa breakfasts fair': good breads and coffee, processed fruit juice. Some street noise from late revellers.