Barcelona is a low city. The Eixample tops out around eight floors and holds that line for kilometers, which means a terrace twenty-three floors up isn’t just high – it has the sky more or less to itself.
That terrace is Nobu Rooftop, on top of the Nobu Hotel in Sants, a few steps from the station and an easy train in from the airport. There’s a pool, loungers, shaded cabanas and a bar running cocktails and small plates, with the city laid out flat below and the Sagrada Família breaking the skyline in the middle distance. It draws sun-seekers through the afternoon and a livelier crowd once the light drops – and you don’t need a room key, which is not something you can say about every hotel roof in this guide.
The rest of the building rewards the trip. The Nobu restaurant proper sits on the 23rd floor, serving the Japanese-Peruvian cooking that made Nobu Matsuhisa’s name; he built the group with film producer Meir Teper and Robert De Niro, and it now runs across five continents. Nobu Bar handles premium sake, cocktails and light bites in a smaller, darker room, while Kozara works the other direction entirely – Mediterranean bowls, salads and smoothies, with terrace seating of its own.
Come up an hour before sunset and let the rest of the evening arrange itself.