Getting help from afar

Top: Private dining terrace in one apartment. Above: Spacious bedroom in the other.

It's sometimes a challenge to find the right combination of rooms, space, location and price when more than a couple is traveling. That's been the case as we plan the Barcelona leg of our fall trip. With two mature couples, we want comfortable beds and at least two bathrooms.

Easy, you say? Not really; it's quite common in Barcelona to find multi-bedroom apartments but only one with a double bed and the other(s) two singles or just one. I spotted what seemed to be a nice option in a beautiful building the Right Eixample. This place had three bedrooms and three baths - overkill perhaps but everything we needed, right? Wrong. It turns out there are two double beds, but they're in the same room! Not being the "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" types, that's not appealing. The other bedrooms are smallish with two singles each.

The owner came to the rescue, though, suggesting we take two apartments on the same floor. Each was inadequate for all of us because of single bathrooms, but each has at least one double bedroom. And one has its own private terrace with a table and chairs where we can sip a glass of cava or even enjoy a meal.

And here's the unexpected bonus - at about 250 euros the combined price of these apartments is exactly equal to the larger (and perhaps better for other travelers, such as a family with three or four kids) apartment, which does not have a terrace although all renters in the building have access to a rooftop terrace with broad views.

The building, on Carrer de Valencia