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The 9 BEST things to do (and eat) in Barcelona!

Here are 9 great things you must do in Barcelona!

Three days in Barcelona at the end of our 12-day cruise on the Vision of the Seas was just enough time to stay busy and see and do the city’s greatest highlights.

(An extra day and I might have also gone to the beach, which everyone raves about!) We also booked a day tour with Viator Tours which was a brilliant way to get to see so many things in a short time (read: skip the lines) – and learn a bit too!

Barcelona guide
Having a cheeky cocktail at the top of the Barcelona Arena

But after dillying and dallying over which part of the city to stay in, I finally chose an Air BnB apartment in Poble Sec.

It’s a quiet neighbourhood to the left of Las Ramblas and about a 15-minute walk away (well ours was at least). At first I was disappointed. Not in the apartment, it was great with very cute balconies over the street, but that maybe the location was a bit far. Then after wandering the noisy parts of town and returning to our quaint street and neighbourhood bars, I changed my mind.

Here’s the Air BnB we used in Barca >> (Warning though: the apartment is on the 5th floor and there is no lift!)

Ready to see the best of Barcelona? Let’s GO!

(Scroll to the end where I have added a bunch more photos too)

1.  Visit Sagrada Familia

The undisputed hero of Barcelona, make that Spain!

As part of our Viator Tours day out, we skipped the lines with our VIP passes (you can and SHOULD buy passes online if you don’t include it in a tour to avoid hours in queues) and spent some time gawping in awe at the exterior first.

Sagrada Familia
And wait, there’s fruit!

It’s as high as forever and I had to hold onto my husband’s arm to look all the way up. This astonishing cathedral was designed by Antoni Gaudi and construction began in 1882. It’s still going!

The plan is to have it finished by 2026 to commemorate 100 years since Gaudi’s death. But in 2010 they had only reached midway with some of the more challenging work to come.

Take some time to really look at the walls and (thanks to our guide pointing things out) notice the various sculpted Biblical stories and also you’ll see different design themes as other architects and sculptors have added their touches.

Guide to Barcelona
A panorama inside Sagrada Familia

But step inside and you’ll twirl in circles under the soaring towers. Take note of the stained glass designs on each side depicting Christ’s birth and his death.

Walk through and pop out the other side and have a look at the scale model and you’ll see just how much more there is to do – especially when it’s just funded by donations and tickets from tourists like you and me!

Bible sculpture Gaudi
The incredible detailed sculptures on the exterior of Sagrada Familia
Sagrada famiiia
Cubist sculpture on Sagrada Familia

2.  Stroll Las Ramblas

But only once. This famous tiled road dotted with street vendors and cafes and edged in permanent shops, bars, restaurants and hotels is heaving with tourists and if you eat here it’ll be more expensive than the cool neighbourhoods you could just cab (or walk) to.

But walk along Las Ramblas to find a place for a sangria and some tapas, take your selfie, gawp at the people then say adios.

La Rambla
Las Rambla after the rain

3.  Visit La Boqueria

The ONE reason to return to Las Ramblas is La Boqueria, a huge food market just off Las Ramblas and an amazing place to go for breakfast, pick up snacks, buy fruit, juices or even take home all the fresh ingredients you want to cook at yours.

We had been deboarded from our cruise ship by 8am so wandered up Las Ramblas dragging our wheelie bags and looking for somewhere to fill in a couple of hours. This was ideal.

Best things in Barcelona
Buy a leg of cured parma ham on the right!

The famous street was quiet as stall holders were just beginning to put out their wares for the day, but the market was buzzing.

Seating is limited so we found a cafe on the perimeter and had a croissant and a coffee, then grabbed a freshly squeezed juice after wandering through to take photos.

4.  Camp Nou Experience

Football is huge in Spain. I must admit I’m not a huge soccer fan (football!) but I do love a live match of anything with a screaming crowd of fans.

However FC Barcelona, whose home ground is Camp Nou, are so popular (they are the World Cup winners after all) that a visit to their stadium mid-week is also an experience.

Best of Barcelona
Inside the hallowed stadium

In fact it’s an organised tour. It’s full of fans from little kids in their favourite player’s shirt to their parents excited about the possibility of standing on the hallowed ground.

How cool this would be at Eden Park as an All Blacks Experience? They even sell little sods of grass in glass frames!

Camp Nou experience
One of the displays inside the Camp Nou Experience

5.  Roam the Gothic Quarter

Originally I thought I’d like to have stayed in this part of Barcelona, but after wandering through the labyrinth of narrow alleys opening onto little piazzas, I think it might be noisy, although lively (read that as you wish!).

Gothic Quarter
The bomb-shelled walls in a quiet piazza of the Gothic Quarter

We followed our Viator Tours guide and I can recommend doing it this way, before going off to explore on your own.

There are just too many things to miss like quiet town squares with fountains, the bomb shell scars in the walls of a church, the painting of 13 year old saint Eulalia, killed by the Romans in the 4th Century for her Christian beliefs, but who was replaced by another saint and now weeps over the alley, and hearing about the wars and walls of the city.

Not to mention our guide’s own tips for where to eat and drink when she’s done with you. Shopping is very good here if you like antiques, boutiques and artisans’ crafted goodies.

6.  Eat the Pinchos

One of the highlights in Barcelona for me was the delicious Spanish food. The Iberian hams hanging in stores and the pinchos!

How happy was I to find these tiny bite-sized morsels in tapas restaurants all around us? Very.

Eixample dining
Fancy pinchos at one of our neighbourhood bars in Eixample

For €1 each these bruschetta’s come loaded with all types of toppings from smoked salmon to chorizo with olives, cheeses, even a chicken drumstick all with a teeny flag on a toothpick. You help yourself like a sushi bar and at the end they tally up your sticks.

Plan to spend under €10 per person for dinner!

If you love traditional Spanish foods you’ll be very happy hunting down things like paella, tapas with a drink, gazpacho and more in Barcelona.

Eating in Barcelona
Dinner is served!

7.  Shop in the Arena

This former bull fighting arena still has the original circular facade but inside is a five-story shopping centre with a rooftop of restaurants and bars.

Bull fighting shopping arena Barcelona
Inside the former bull fighting arena – turned shopping centre
Barcelona shopping
Once they fought bulls here, now they fight over the latest sales
Barcelona arena
The view from the Arena rooftop – where the restaurants are

Our Air BnB flat was only about 2kms from here so we got off the Metro from Camp Nou to get our retail fix then had a cocktail in one of the bars on the circular rooftop promenade then promenaded around to take in the 360˚ views and walked home.

8.  Visit Parc Guell

Antoni Gaudi was the crazy architectural figure who ensured Barcelona is emblazoned on the mind and cameras of every visitor to the city once they return home.

Here at Parc Guell he got to roll out some of his incredible ideas for the very wealthy owner who was looking to create a new suburb above the city for his daughter who had breathing difficulties.

Sightseeing Barcelona
Looking down over the Gingerbread houses at Parc Guell

The park is free to enter and walk through, but if you want to sit on the mosaic tiled seat that winds like a ribbon around the edge of a huge flat ground, you’ll need to pay. Just a couple of € though.

But what really fascinated me (again, thanks to our Viator Tours guide) was the underneath.

I had visited this park before many years ago and no one told me what was underneath!

Gaudi park
You can see the top of the park and the water columns in this pic

It’s a clever water storage system where rainwater that seeps through the earth above (where everyone takes their photos) is funneled into what looks like pillars holding the whole shebang up (and they are) but also double as 1200 sqm water storage for the houses (that were never built) and lavish gardens planted here.

Gaudi Parc Guell
The clay walls at Parc Guell
Gaudi's archecture
And THIS is Gaudi’s amazing architecture underneath!

9.  Tour through La Pedrera

One of Gaudi’s most famous private works was Casa Mila, nicknamed La Pedrera meaning the stone quarry.

It’s now a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage site and an over-the-top building he designed for Pere Milà and his wife, the wealthy Roser Segimon, built between 1906 and 1912.

Gaudi architecture
The wacky rooftop of La Pedrera

Word has it that she was a tough customer to please and after Gaudi had also designed and built all the very cool fixtures and furniture too (after she commissioned it) right down to the ergonomic brass door knobs, she would decide she didn’t like it and a lot was scrapped.

She stayed living here after her husband died and the property was converted into apartments. She eventually passed away in 1964.

Over the following years many of Gaudi’s quirky elements were destroyed or removed and it even housed a Bingo hall.

Casa Mila
Looking out the window through the Gaudi-inspired wrought iron railings at La Pedrera

In the 1990s, painted dreary brown and run down, a restoration project began and today, it’s absolutely worth wandering through and reading all about it, seeing its amazing design and swinging by the gift shop on the way out where I bought a Gaudi-inspired silver ring!

Best of Barcelona
A typical Barcelona building with its great facade

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Kathryn

Monday 10th of June 2019

Thanks for your Barcelona post Headed here on our World Cruise !! Have booked Cathedral.. wished we had more time !!!

Megan

Monday 10th of June 2019

Oh brilliant, you won't be sorry with the cathedral tour! Have fun on your cruise. Is this the one to Komodo Island too?

Robert

Friday 8th of March 2019

My wife and I are taking a Royal Caribbean Cruise out of Barcelona on June 2 and we will be spending 2 days in Barcelona. We would like to take a bullet train to Madrid. Do you have any recommendations? Thank you.

Megan

Friday 8th of March 2019

Hi Robert, I've never done this, but maybe another reader has and can offer a tip? Otherwise just jump onto Google and find other blogs for more advice. Sounds fun!

nicki arthur

Monday 21st of May 2018

Hey there, We are going to book a Viator whilst in Barcelona. What was the exact name of the tour you recommended as Viator has many on offer? Thanks for your help Nicki

Megan

Monday 21st of May 2018

Hi Nicki, I am having a look on Viator to see which one it was but I don't think it's there any more. What's important is to get skip the line access inside Sagrada Familia and also to Park Guell, then we added a walk through the Gothic neighbourhood and had lunch with our group and ended at La Pedrerer - which is well worth doing too. Here are two that come close and you could add your own Gothic walking tour if you wanted to. https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Skip-the-Line-Park-Guell-and-Sagrada-Familia-Tours-with-Transfer-in-Barcelona/d562-2140SAGRADAGUELL https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Barcelona-Super-Saver-Skip-the-Line-La-Sagrada-Familia-Tour-plus-Artistic-Barcelona-Tour/d562-2140GAUDISF

Alexander

Friday 29th of September 2017

Really good tips of things to do in this wonderful city. I can definitly recommend taking a free walking tour, it was a great way to learn the city in just a few hours. Check it out on https://free-barcelona-tours.com/

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Hi, I'm Megan Singleton and I'm the word slinger of this travel blog as well as on radio in NZ every Sunday. Former Travel Editor at Yahoo NZ and current freelance writer for a few newspapers and mags from time to time, I set off on this travel writing journey 20 years ago and I've pretty much always got a suitcase half packed (or half un-packed!) I'd love you to join me on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for my newsletters if you want loads of travel tips, advice and deals!