If you are a digital nomad coming to live in Barcelona for a few weeks or months, a coliving space can be a great way to make friends and be part of a community instead of renting an apartment alone. I was researching Barcelona coliving spaces for a month-long stay in Barcelona and came across Palma Coliving in Barcelona, a gorgeous villa close to Park Guell. Read on for my full Palma Coliving review.
I had 1 week free at Palma Coliving Barcelona in exchange for my review, paying the rest of the month myself.
What is a Co-Living?
Co-living used to be common for for students and young professionals who needed to save money on rent so shared a flat or a house together. These days, colivings for digital nomads are becoming popular too as nomads look for more sociable options than living alone.
There are huge benefits for digital nomads who share a living space, and colivings in Barcelona usually offer private bedrooms in a shared house or apartment, with other living spaces like the lounge, kitchen and co-working areas shared among all the residents.
My Experience at Palma Coliving in Barcelona
I really wanted to write a glowing review of Palma Coliving as I was so excited to stay here, but I had some issues with the booking process that impacted my stay, along with a couple of other problems. However, I had a meeting with my contact at Palma and talked through everything with her and was assured that they are taking steps to improve.
Palma Coliving in Barcelona had only been open for about 6 months, and during my stay it was the first time the house had been full, so that may explain some of the issues I had. It’s important for my integrity that I’m being honest about my experience, and with the feedback I gave Palma, I hope that they can improve as well.
That said, overall I enjoyed my time at Palma Co-Living and I would still recommend Palma Coliving to digital nomads in Barcelona.
What I loved the most about my coliving experience was having other like-minded people in the house and feeling like I was part of a community. It almost felt like a grown-up version of my student days, sharing a house with friends – although we did work a lot more!
The combination of working and relaxing together, sharing a meal at home or going for a night out, doing yoga or watching a movie together, was a really nice change from spending every night (and day!) on my own with my laptop.
There was always something going on in the house and everyone there was awesome – I’m not sure if we were just lucky but certainly having a group of professionals living together is much better than sharing with students or random people I have nothing in common with!
For me, the community is the most important part of a coliving space (as well as the beautiful house and location) so that’s what really made the difference here in Palma Coliving. If you are interested in staying here then you can get €100 off your first stay using the code “CLAIREbyPalma” when you fill in your application form.
In this Palma Coliving review, I’ll talk first about what I loved about this coliving house and community for digital nomads in Barcelona, and then some things that I think could be improved.
What I Loved about Palma Coliving Barcelona
The Coliving House
There is no doubt, the Palma Coliving house is gorgeous. It is a Catalan villa with 8 rooms in the house, plus another at the bottom of the garden called Casita (the little house). All the rooms are nicely decorated, simple but bright, and with comfy beds.
There is a desk in each of the rooms, some have private ensuite bathrooms and some share bathrooms, which are kept clean and tidy.
There are two adjoining kitchen areas with plenty of storage and fridge space, as well as two washing machines and a dishwasher which we filled up quickly! Next to the kitchen is a dining room which just about has enough space for a full house, then across the hallway is the coworking and lounge area.
Outside there is a terrace with a seating area and a patio with another table and a large garden with a swimming pool. Sadly it was a little too cold for me to take advantage of the pool, but my favourite thing about the garden was the view of Tibidabo Mountain.
The garden is so big there is also a separate barbecue area and other sections of gardens up towards the Casita, which is separate from the main house.
The Location
I loved the location too. It was just outside of the city centre in the Vallcarca neighbourhood, close to Park Guell (check it on Google maps here).
It is up a steep hill so you will get some exercise just coming and going, but Vallcarca metro station is less than 10 minutes walk away, and you can be in Placa de Catalunya in 20 minutes total, so it really isn’t far from the city although it felt like a different world.
Every other place I’ve stayed in Barcelona has been in the centre, apartment blocks or hotel rooms with noisy neighbours and the sound of cars and motorbikes whizzing by. But this felt like it was in the countryside, with the huge garden and no traffic, just the sound of birds singing in the trees.
Sitting in the garden and watching the birds, or watching the neighbour cats watching the birds was a lovely break from the city and I felt calm and relaxed. The neighbourhood is definitely a local area, with few tourists so it was nice to feel like part of the local community.
Every morning I’d try to walk further up the hill to my favourite viewpoint in the city, a place I’d been many times before and always a pleasure to see. It was good to get some exercise and look out over Barcelona below, spotting streets and landmarks I recognised after my years living here.
I’d say hello to people walking their dogs and breathe in the fresh air away from the traffic and craziness of the city.
Although it felt like we were far away from everything in the peace and quiet, it was an easy walk to the metro station and to Gracia, one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Barcelona. Here there are lots of bars and restaurants to enjoy, as well as bakeries and supermarkets. We could also order food to the house of course, which was great if we couldn’t be bothered to go anywhere!
Gracia is a cool neighbourhood to explore, where you can find hidden gems like Gaudi’s Casa Vicens or try out some local food in traditional bodegas as I did on my Gracia food tour with Devour. If you visit Barcelona in August then the Festes de Gracia is one of the biggest and best festivals in Barcelona where the streets are decorated and there is live music and other events like a Correfoc fire run!
We were also very close to Park Guell, one of Antoni Gaudí’s most famous creations, which was fab to have basically on the doorstep!
The Community
This is what really set Palma Coliving apart from other places I’ve stayed in Barcelona. I don’t know if we were just really lucky with our group or if the process is kind of self-selecting, but we had an amazing bunch of people in the house for the month I was there.
I’ve shared apartments before which hasn’t always been successful, and the last coliving in Barcelona I tried I had a horrible housemate who ruined the experience. But here was different. Sure, we weren’t always best friends with everyone, but the house and grounds are big enough that you can have your own space and still socialize when you want.
There were business owners, freelancers, architects, interior designers, people who were working all day and others who would do a few hours here and there. We chatted in the kitchen over coffee, cooked together and had dinner, or went out to see the city.
With 10 others in the house, I was concerned it would be too much, but it was just the right amount so that there was often someone else who wanted to do the same thing as you, but no pressure and no feeling left out. It was fabulous.
I don’t usually like to publish photos of other people here to respect their privacy, but we had a fab group and a lot of fun!
One of the ways that Palma Coliving help find great people to live in the house is the application process as they only accept digital nomads and each applicant has an interview before being accepted. I think that’s really important as having someone staying there with a full time job in the city would have a totally different vibe than the other nomads.
They also have a minimum stay of 30 nights, so this is definitely not for tourists!
SAVE €100 ON YOUR FIRST STAY WITH THE CODE “CLAIREbyPalma” WHEN YOU FILL IN YOUR APPLICATION FORM.
CHECK PRICES AND AVAILABILITY
Our Happiness Officer
Despite the cheesy job title, our Happiness Officer Deborah was fabulous. She was our first point of contact for things in the house, and came for a few hours every day during the week, sorting out any issues, planning events and giving complimentary yoga classes.
It was great to have someone there a lot of the time, and she was super friendly and did her best to solve any problems we had – which wasn’t always easy – but she always did it with good grace and enthusiasm!
The Bedrooms & Facilities
The bedrooms were beautifully and simply decorated, with lots of light and very comfy beds. The views from Palma and Dorada looking out over the swimming pool and Tibidabo were the best, although I also enjoyed being in the Casita and watching the birds in the garden from the windows.
I loved that there was a huge garden and a swimming pool although I am a bit gutted I wasn’t brave enough to take a dip in the pool as it was still too chilly! There is also a sauna which I didn’t use as I’m not a big fan of saunas, but a few people did use it.
Everywhere was kept clean and tidy – partly thanks to the residents and partly thanks to Deborah and the cleaner who came once a week to clean all the shared spaces and then again to clean all of the bedrooms.
While I would have liked every room to have an ergonomic chair, every room except Casita had a desk to work from if you have calls or want some more privacy, and I suggested to Palma that they should put a desk in Casita too.
With nice weather, there was also space to work outside on the terrace which had a sun shade, or on a little table outside Casita, but unfortunately, while I was in Casita the weather wasn’t good enough for that.
The main thing was that the WiFi was fast, and good enough to support all of us while we were working, doing video calls with clients or streaming, so that was huge.
What Could Be Improved
The Booking Process & Room Selection
You can now request to book a room online which wasn’t the case when I first applied, but the descriptions of the rooms and what is included still aren’t clear, with a list of amenities that is confusing and inaccurate.
My first room was Dorada, on the first floor with views over the garden. It is a beautiful room but I had been told it had a bathroom which was the first major problem I had as it didn’t have a private bathroom, so that was a shock. It may be planned to add an ensuite bathroom in the future, but it certainly didn’t have one when I stayed.
While it turned out to be better than I expected sharing a bathroom with two other people, I still much prefer to have an en-suite, so it needs to be crystal clear what room you are booking and exactly what amenities it has – especially when it comes to an ensuite bathroom or not, so make sure you double check the room and bathroom situation at the time of booking.
The person who was arranging the bookings and invoicing was usually slow to respond, I’m not sure if she was working full-time or if she was part-time but it seemed like she didn’t have enough time to manage the workload properly.
As the first point of contact in the sales process, she should really wow people and have them excited about coming but this really wasn’t the case for me as I was still waiting for the correct pricing information and invoice when I had already moved in.
Moving Rooms
Partly because of Dorada not having a bathroom, and partly because I had a week complimentary in the Palma Suite, I ended up splitting my month-long stay into three different rooms – which wasn’t ideal but I did get to try out the best rooms in the house, so great for you and this review!
However, after chatting with other guests in the house it seemed like a lot of people were moving rooms and weren’t always made aware of this during the booking process. The whole point in staying somewhere for a long period is to feel like home, and having to pack up and move rooms didn’t feel very homely.
I understand that sometimes a room might not be available for the duration of a stay, or if someone extends or changes dates perhaps their original room wouldn’t be available, but again that needs to be made clear at the time of booking. If the person agrees to move then that’s fine, but setting the right expectations is crucial.
Also when I was moving rooms it was hard to plan the day as it wasn’t clear when the cleaner would be coming so I wasn’t sure when to move my stuff from room to room.
Maintenance Issues
Most issues were dealt with quickly by Deborah, but there were some minor things like lightbulbs not working that still didn’t get fixed.
While I was staying there was also work going on to add an ensuite bathroom to one of the bedrooms upstairs, which was quite disruptive, especially for the person staying in that bedroom! Luckily there was another room available that she could move into so she didn’t have to have builders coming in and out all the time, but that work should not have been done while there was a guest staying in the room.
Work Spaces
As I mentioned above, while the bedrooms are all nicely decorated and all have a desk, not all have an ergonomic chair. Casita, the room at the bottom of the garden didn’t have a desk so I couldn’t work from there at all. For a coliving house for nomads, I think every room should be a comfortable work area as we spend most of our days working.
There is the coworking area which is great, but with only 8 spaces on busy days or days when people have calls then they should also be able to work from their rooms.
A soundproof booth would be useful for private calls as well, as having calls in the main area was distracting for others – it really depends on the kind of work that people do, but some privacy in a comfortable area is important for nomads of most professions.
Would I Recommend Palma Coliving?
Yes I would. Despite the issues I had personally, I still loved being in the house with everyone, and for digital nomads it is a great way to get to know people and experience the city while still feeling like you’re in the countryside.
There are definitely improvements to be made, which I hope will happen so if you have stayed with Palma Coliving please do let me know your thoughts too!
The best advice I have if you would like to book here is to make sure you are 100% clear on which bedroom you will be staying in throughout your stay and double-check the bathroom situation. Then enjoy!
SAVE €100 ON YOUR FIRST STAY WITH THE CODE “CLAIREbyPalma” WHEN YOU FILL IN YOUR APPLICATION FORM.