Barcelona Urbany: New Eco-Friendly Hostel

urbany Everyone’s trying to “go green” these days, and that includes travelers. And green travel isn’t just restricted to buying carbon offsets or staying in expensive “green” resorts - even budget travelers can be more eco-friendly these days. One easy way to do that is to stay in green hostels, which are becoming more common. A new eco-friendly hostel that’s opening up in Barcelona is a perfect example.

Barcelona Urbany is currently under construction in one of Spain’s most popular backpacking cities, and is being billed as the “first eco-friendly hostel.” While there are certainly other hostels around the world that have some environmentally progressive policies, this will be the first in Barcelona and probably the first purpose-built eco-hostel.

The brand new Barcelona Urbany Hostel has been built with a special focus on environmentally friendly design and technology deployment.

The builders focused on things like reducing water usage through recycling and reuse as well as collecting rain water, and reducing energy usage through more efficient lighting. But in spending all this time (and money) on making Barcelona Urbany eco-friendly, have they sacrified the comfort of the guests? Well, it’s still being finished, but it sounds like it’ll be just as comfortable - if not more so - than any other hostel already out there.

The hostel is slated to have 400 hostel beds over 13 floors, a swimming pool and en suite bathrooms inside every single bedroom. Plus, the hostel will enjoy a central location in the city, making it ideally situated for visitors. So, the bottom line here is that eco-travelers can stay at the Barcelona Urbany hostel guilt-free, knowing that they’re not leaving such a huge footprint on the planet. And everyone else can enjoy a brand-new hostel where being kind to the planet is a happy bonus.

Barcelona Urbany is slated to open in July 2008. For more information, stay tuned on the hostel’s official website.