Barcelona, Spain

When: June 2018
Duration: 4 night/3.5 days
Weather: Rain, overcast, some sun. Mild to warm temperatures (20-25C).
Currency: Euro (€)
Price Range: $$$$ (see breakdown below)

Overview

I’ve been wanting to go to Barcelona for quite some time and when we finally decided to book it, the Catalan referendum happened and with all the riots, we were hesitant to go. We started planning something else, Portugal, but people we know encouraged us to still to go Barcelona. Even though I had a full trip to Portugal already planned, I decided to cut out a portion of Portugal and replace it with Barcelona.

The city is full of wonderful and unique architecture. Las Ramblas is a lovely street with lots of shops and restaurants and it’s just nice to walk up and down. It is touristy though. The entire city is touristy to be honest, but we don’t care, we are tourists. The itinerary I planned got totally thrown out the window when half the things we wanted to do were sold out. Barcelona is so touristy, that you will have to buy your ticket in advance; otherwise, you risk it being sold out. We ended up wasting more time by not buying advance tickets because we went to almost everything twice.

I loved the city of Barcelona, just walking through the streets was so much fun, but honestly the “top tourist attractions” were really disappointing to me and very pricey.

Itinerary

Sagrada Familia

This is Barcelona’s main attraction, or at least it’s in the top two (the other one being Park Guëll). When we came out of the metro stop and saw it, we were both in awe; it is truly impressive. There will be huge crowds around the church, taking pictures and/or waiting for their entry time. This is one of the attractions you should buy tickets for in advance. We showed up at 1pm and tickets for the entire day were already sold out; luckily there were still tons of tickets left for the next day, but we still had to come back and it’s not very walkable from where we were staying so that meant another 2-way metro stamp on our pass.

The interior was under construction when we went in, so you could hear hammering and other construction noise. There was also a huge area in the middle that was boarded up. The church is absolutely massive inside. The stained glass all around was very pretty but did not photograph well.

We only paid the €15 to get inside, or you can pay €29 to go to the top. I would have loved to take a ride up, but an extra €14 for each of us after you convert to Canadian, is about $43, and we didn’t think it would be worth it. We spent an hour here. One of the things I found to be most impressive was the back door. I don’t know, something about it, I just really liked it.

Recommend: Yes

Nearest Metro Stop: Sagrada Familia – Line 2 (Purple) and Line 5 (Blue)

Park Guëll

Like Sagrada Familia, this is a top tourist attraction in Barcelona and you should buy your tickets in advance. This is a little further north than anything else, so taking the metro is probably a good choice, but getting off at the closest metro stop will still require you to walk almost 1km and uphill (they have escalators in some spots). The first day we went, it was sunny and hot, so the climb was pretty grueling and even worse when we realized tickets were sold out. We walked around the “free area” which is really just a park without any Gaudi designs.

We returned on our last day and took the stairs all over again, this time in the pouring rain and we had our ponchos on. The paid part of the park is actually quite small and not a ton to do. We were not very impressed, to be honest. This is always recommended when people ask for tips in Barcelona, but we thought it was over-rated. We spent an hour here, mostly because I wanted to get some Wolfie pictures so we had to scope out the perfect spot.

Recommend: Honestly, no, but it’s considered a “must-see”, so you’ll probably do it anyway.

Nearest Metro Stop: Vallcarca – Line 3 (Green) – there is still quite a hike from here, including lots of stairs.

Barcelona Cathedral

Officially, The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. This is a gothic style cathedral built between 1200s and 1400s. When we arrived here, the lineup to get in was insane. It was also raining and we did not care to stand in the rain, so we did not see the interior. I wasn’t heartbroken as I’ve seen so many churches, I didn’t really care anymore. However, the exterior was very beautiful.

Nearest Metro Stop: Jaume 1 – Line 9 (Yellow)

Bishop's Bridge

The most photographed bridge in Barcelona. This is in the gothic quarter, just around the corner from the Barcelona Cathedral. It’s very beautiful. There is a legend that if you spot the skull and dagger, then you will have bad luck. The only way to cure it is by touching the magic turtle mailbox (behind the Cathedral)

Recommend: Yes

Magic Turtle and Mailbox

Las Ramblas

You can’t really take a trip to Barcelona and not walk down Las Ramblas, it’s the main street in the heart city where lots of the tourist attractions are. There are restaurants and shops all the way from the Columbus Monument to Plaça de Catalunya. Mind you, this is tourist town, so the restaurants are probably overpriced and not that great. We ate at one of them on the strip one night and we thought the food was good.

Walking down Las Ramblas during the day is a bit different than walking down the street after dark. During the day, there are lots of street vendors selling their paintings and crappy fans and toys. At night, there are lots of people (mostly men) that ask you “coffee shop?” which is slang for drugs apparently. They were everywhere and while I didn’t get approached very often, they seemed to really target Ivan.

Nearest Metro Stop: Drassanes, Liceu – Line 3 (Green), or Catalunya – Line 3 (Green) and Line 1 (Red)

Montjuic Castle

A castle at the top of the large hill. This was a nice place and I really liked it, but it was not what I was expecting, which led to a bit of disappointment. First, there is no “inside” to the castle, you can only walk around outside. This is fine if you know that in advance. Second, you have to pay to take the cable cars up and then you pay again once you are up there to get into the “castle”. The cable cars were pleasant if you can get one to yourself; we went early enough that the lineup wasn’t too long to go up, so we had a car to ourselves (although I did have to tell off a lady who tried to get into our gondola). Third, you can take a funicular from the metro to the cable car, but the funicular is basically public transit and there is zero view. And finally, we planned to go to the Montjuic cemetery, but it was much further than we expected, and it didn’t make sense to do since we bought a round trip on the cable car to take us back to the city.

Despite all these “issues”, it was still a nice tourist attraction. The view of the city from up top is fabulous and you can see Sagrada Familia way in the distance. The view of the ocean is OK, but there is a shipping yard too, so it’s not really the nicest thing to look at. The weather was hot on the day we went and there is little shade at the top. There are trails you can walk and we did a bit, but the heat got to us, so we abandoned.

Recommend: Yes

Nearest Metro Stop: Para-lel – Line 3 (Green)

Labyrinth Park of Horta

This is a park with a hedge maze, it’s near the university and quite a bit north from all the other tourist stuff. You’ll have to take a taxi or metro. Of course, metro is much cheaper. This is nothing special, but we had a great time in this park. The cost to get in was minimal, I think between €2-€3. We did the hedge maze in probably 15-20 minutes and we played The Lost Woods music from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It made the hedge maze 100x more fun. After the maze, we just wondering around and it was very relaxing, and very few people here was a huge bonus.

Recommend: Yes

Nearest Metro Stop: Mundet – Line 3 (Green)

Columbus Monument

Just a monument, nothing too special, but it’s at the south end of Las Ramblas, so why not?

Nearest Metro Stop: Drassanes – Line 3 (Green)

Casa Vicens

This is the first house designed by Antoni Gaudi; it’s also the cheapest of the Gaudi buildings, which is why we chose this one. The architecture was unique, as expected with Gaudi’s work. I personally loved the ceilings in every room. However, the cost of €16 was a bit much for what you get (especially if you have to convert euros to Canadian dollars). I heard that the other buildings, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo are better, but they are also way more expensive. So after this one, we decided to save our money on the next two. This place took us 45 minutes to go through.

Recommend: Not recommended unless you don’t care about the price.

Nearest Metro Stop: Fontana – Line 3 (Green)

Palau Guell

This is yet another Antoni Gaudi building. It’s kind of hidden away and not that easy to spot from the street. This has free entrance on the first Sunday of the month. You cannot buy tickets in advance on those days, but you should go earlier in the day to avoid disappointment (we went at 5-6pm and all the tickets were gone).

We went back on another day and paid full price. The audio guide is included with your ticket. Although the audio guide can provide valuable information, I found that this one just dragged out. We could have seen the entire place in 20-30 minutes, but instead we got annoyed with the guide and wasted over an hour here. My recommendation is to get the audio guide, but only listen to it if you are interested in knowing more about a particular room (if you’re like me, then you might only listen to 2-3 rooms, rather than 20+). One interesting fact that I did learn from the audio was how Antoni Gaudi died. Gaudi is one of the biggest names for Barcelona, so I was surprised that no other Gaudi attraction mentioned the unusual way he died.

Recommend: Not really. It’s OK, but there are better things than this.

Nearest Metro Stop: Drassanes or Liceu – Line 3 (Green)

Arc de Triomf

This is an archway, similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but on a smaller scale. It was nice, but don’t go out of your way to see this. The only reason this was first on our list is because we walked all the way to the Picasso museum and it was sold out, so we just walked to the Arc and saw it.

Recommend: If you are already nearby, but don’t go out of your way for it

Nearest Metro Stop: Arc de Triomf – Line 1 (Red)

Plaça de Catalunya

This is a square at the top end Las Ramblas, supposedly the heart of the city. The square has nothing to do and there are a million pigeons everywhere. I was super disappointed with this place as I expected to see either vendors or street performers or maybe just a place that people liked to hang out, but it was just pigeons and a few tourists.

Recommend: NO!!!!

Nearest Metro Stop: Catalunya – Line 3 (Green) and Line 1 (Red)

Tips

• Buy tickets for the top attractions in advance. If you already do this, then great, but if you’re like me and hate to be confined to a specific time, it’s such a pain, but it’s the only way to see the top attractions unless you go as soon as they open and even then, I doubt it’s guaranteed. • Some attractions have free entrance on the first Sunday of the month, but you have to get there early in the day. We tried both Palau Guell and Picasso Museum, but both were “sold out”.

Accommodations

Chic&Basic Ramblas

We found this place on Expedia but chose to book it through their own website because we recently had a bad experience with Expedia. Booking on their site includes a two-hour bike ride and early check-in, although we didn’t use either, so not sure if it’s true or not. We did get a discount for booking on their website because we were staying 4 nights and we paid extra to get a terrace balcony room. In total, we paid €534.24 for 4 nights.

The hotel is very close to Las Ramblas, about 3-5 minute walk, and it was minutes away from 3 Metro stops. The only downside is that it is on a slightly sketchy back street. It only seemed sketchy on our first day and then we were used to it and didn’t think anything of it anymore. They had a fixed fee breakfast buffet, which I did not care for, but Ivan liked.

The hotel key is an actual key with a giant magnet “bowling pin” attached (it’s not really a bowling pin, but it was kinda shaped like one). It’s ridiculous to carry around, so you just give it to the front desk when you are heading out and when you come back you just tell them your room number and they give it to you. It took an extra 30 seconds, so no big deal and the positive is you can’t lose it that way.

Recommend: Yes

Cost Breakdown

Flights have been shown separately because this is the largest variable For two people and 4 days, we spent almost $1,550 CAD; however, this was part of a multi-city trip and includes the cost of the overseas flights and only Barcelona expenses. It is broken down as follows:

• Accommodations – 58% ($895 – avg $224/night)
• Food – 23% ($360)
• Tourism/SightseeingEntertainment – 16% ($244)
• Souvenirs – 0
• Metro – 3% ($35)

Other expenses to consider (not included in the above costs):

• Flights (ours were $1,407 for two people flying from Toronto and home from Lisbon and $230 for two people between Barcelona and Lisbon – we paid for seat selection and 2 checked bags)
• Parking at your local airport
• Pet expense (kennel fees)