Barcelona Urbany: The First Eco-Friendly Hostel in Spain
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain 
on 02.26.08
Staying in hostels can sometimes be a grim experience, and a non eco-friendly one too. However, high quality and eco backpacking will soon be possible when Barcelona Urbany Hostel opens its doors in the Catalan capital in June this year. It promises beautiful design mixed with environmentally friendly technologies to lessen the backpacker’s impact when travelling the world. A noise absorbing façade, a rain water harvesting system and a recycling water system that is meant to reuse 50% of the water used are what make this hostel greener than others. Energy efficient light bulbs and ‘more environmentally friendly and less aggressive materials’ also form part of the plan.
We are curious to see what ‘less aggressive materials’ stand for exactly and whether it will have solar panels; after all there are more sunny days than rainy ones in Barcelona. The 13-storey building with a total number of 400 beds is currently being built. It is located about 4 metro stops from the centre of Barcelona and a nice 20 minute bike ride form the beach. A good initiative to make this next Urbany eco-friendly; after all their first one in Seville isn’t.
Check out the first eco-hostels in the UK and the One World Backpackers in Perth (WA) for some seriously green hostels ::Barcelona Urbany Hostel
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They could use about three of these in Calgary Alberta. Travelers could use them in the summer and homeless in the winter.
This is good news, it seems this is the year eco-friendly accommodation is finally arriving in cities.
I would argue though that a stay in any hostel is a greener alternative to a hotel though. Shared rooms means less resources are used, self catering kitchens means backpackers often head to the local markets, and hostels are always a great place for arranging book and equipment swaps and car shares.
As for grim hostels - their are definately plenty of those, but in my experience the eco-friendly hostels are always better quality than those that are just in it for the profits.