We absolutely love Barcelona. We’ve been a couple times in the past 10 years, and honestly, we will never get sick of the city. The food is spectacular, Gaudí’s fabulous buildings are scattered across the city, and the ocean views are stunning. Barcelona is also a great jumping off point for Minorca and Majorca, but that’s a post for a later day.
If you’re new here or unfamiliar with my travel philosophy, you can check it out here. As a reminder, this is by no means an exhaustive list of things to do in Barcelona; rather, it’s a list of things we really enjoyed on our trips there.
1. La Sagrada Família
Ok, sure, I’m starting with something that’s super touristy. But trust me, it’s super cool and completely worth it. We bought the tickets that included the Sagrada Família and the towers, which is what I’d recommend.
Inside the main cathedral, the view is unreal. All the stained glass makes for a magical ambiance. As engineers, we really enjoyed walking through the museum – there was some fascinating information about how the many towers were designed using an upside-down weighted model. I enjoyed seeing the chaos caused by the wildly different styles of architecture and art throughout the Sagrada Família – yet somehow, all the chaos seems to fit together. It’s really a very unique place.
Note: if you’re not a fan of heights or tight spaces, you may want to skip the towers. The views of the city were fantastic, but there was quite a bit of climbing up tight, winding staircases…
2. The Food
Ok, maybe this is another obvious one – but the food in Barcelona is absolutely the best (in my opinion, it’s some of the best in Europe, and better than other parts of Spain). As someone who would be perfectly happy to eat nothing but snacks for the rest of my life, I’m well suited to tapas – and tapas are everywhere! Patatas bravas (fried potatoes with a special sauce) are my favorite. Meat and cheese plates are available just about anywhere, which means there’s lots of opportunities to try local meats (including jamón Ibérico!) and cheeses. Croquetas are another favorite of mine – imagine meat and cheese inside a potato dumpling and deep fried in a breading. Sound amazing? Trust me, they are.
3. La Boqueria (and maybe a cooking class?)
La Boqueria is a food market located off of La Rambla, one of the main walking streets in Barcelona. Yes, La Boqueria is a bit touristy, but it’s still really cool to see all of the different meats and cheeses on display. Plus, there’s an incredible fish market inside.
On one of our trips to Barcelona, Jerry and I did a cooking class that started with a tour of La Boqueria. Then we went to a commercial kitchen within walking distance and made paella! It was a ton of fun. We also learned the authentic way to make sangria…I always thought it was wine watered down with fruit, but it turns out in Spain they actually add more alcohol to it instead.
4. Barceloneta Beach
The beach is absolutely stunning in Barcelona. I highly recommend walking to the water and sticking your feet in (how often do we get to put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea?). You can walk out on the pier or sit on the rocks and watch the crowds enjoy the sand and water.
Note that there are a lot of restaurants right along the water. In our experience, the restaurants on the beach and within a block or two of the beach are overpriced and not very good. If you’re at the beach and ready for some food, all you have to do is walk 3-4 blocks inland, and you’ll find the food options to be far better.
5. “Drink” hot chocolate
Ok, drink isn’t quite the right word – the hot chocolate is more like a pudding than a drink. Order the churros and dip them in the hot chocolate. Trust me, you won’t regret it. The place we went (Granja Viader) is a historic location, founded in 1870 and still run by the same family.
This is also a bit of a touristy thing to do, but there were plenty of locals there too. At some points during the day, there was a line out the door at Granja Viader. We left and came back at a different time, and there was next to no line…and it was well worth the short wait!
6. The wine is cheaper than water
Anyone who has spent time in Europe knows that most places, you have to pay for water (bottled or tap, still or sparkling). Early in our first trip to Barcelona, I looked at the wine list, thinking maybe I’d get a glass of wine instead of the usual water (hey, we were on vacation). So I picked a red that looked tempting, and it cost €6. That was maybe a little more than I’d like to pay for a glass of wine, but once again, we were on vacation. I ordered the wine, and a few minutes later, the waiter appeared holding a bottle of wine and two glasses. Turns out, I was looking at prices by the bottle, and they were just so much lower than expected that I thought it was by the glass. It really was cheaper to drink wine than water at that particular restaurant, so Jerry and I spent some time drinking the wine, eating patatas bravas, and people watching.
This was one of our favorite things to do in Barcelona – snack, drink, and watch the city wander by. While most of the restaurants we ate at were quite good, we tended to prefer local (less touristy) restaurants that weren’t on the main streets. Once again, you only have to go a few steps off of the main streets or away from the tourist-heavy areas to find some excellent restaurants with low prices.
Leave a Reply