Crash Course Me on Spain/Barcelona
 

I'm heading to Barcelona for 10 days in September.

What should I do, see and eat?

I'll spend at least 2-3 days just walking around and taking pictures.

Same. Going in November.

In Barcelona, you definitely have to visit the Sagrada Familia - one of Antoni Gaudi's works.

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Also, a great day trip is hopping on a train early and heading to Figueres, a small town near the French-Spanish border known most prominently as the hometown of famous surrealist artist Salvadore Dali. Not surprisingly, Figueres is home to the largest Dali museum in the world – an absolutely fantastic view into the man’s insane mind. Even the building is an homage to the Dali style of bizarre meets extreme.

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Mark

Barcelona's great and all, but are you set on spending 10 days there? With that many days you can pop over to Madrid and/or Valencia. Spain's AVE high speed rail makes it easy to get to both cities within 2 hours.

Oh, and watch for pickpockets.

Beach out at the Barceloneta.

Take a walk through Montjuic and enjoy the views of the city from up top. Check out the Montjuic fountains that light up at night (check calendar).

As lowside said, La Sagrada Familia is a must see. If you want to see more of Gaudi's works, check out La Pedrera and/or Casa Batllo. I also checked out Parc Guell and Palau Guell as well.

Take a walk down La Rambla and go through the Bari Gotic (Gothic Quarter) while you're there and the Barcelona Cathedral, which is also in the same area. The Palau de la Musica Catalana is also in the neighbourhood. The architecture there is amazing.

Fan of Barcelona FC? Go to Camp Nou and take the stadium tour and Hall of Fame.

Bored? Go hunt down the cat statue in the Raval neighbourhood.

And yes, definitely watch for pickpockets!

Head to any of the convenient train stations:

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This is a short train ride out of town - about 30 minutes:

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Don't forget to eat paella on the beach!

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Mark

Hey thanks so much, guys. This already gives me a great point to start from. Keep it coming...I got lots of days to fill! Yes, I can take the train to surrounding cities but only day trips I think.

Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria

1. Don't eat at any restaurants with pictures on the menu, in the window, anywhere.

2. The most pleasant paella dinner I had was at La Gavina (http://www.lagavina.es/)

3. If you're walking Las Ramblas alone, beware of gangs of african chicks working in packs to pick pocket. I watched a poor guy get fleeced. Las Ramblas is hyper busy, more so than I remembered from previous visits.

4. If you haven't picked a hotel to stay, I would suggest finding a hotel near the beach: bounded by the W at one end and the Diagonal Mar mall at the other (Diagonal Mar, Avenida Diagonal 3). The Sheraton Four Points is in this general area

5. Do the hop on hop off bus tours. It's an easy way to see the city.

6. If you go to familia sagrada, book online and pay the extra for the elevator ride up the towers. When we were there 2 yrs back, the tower stairs were closed. Unless you paid for the elevator portion, you're hooped. When you book your ticket online, you pick an arrival time so you can bypass the line ups. WIth online tickets purchases, you enter from the "back side"

7. Cerveceria 100 Montaditos is a sandwich chain in Spain. Tasty and cheap. https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Cer...8c9b5e3aea8cfe

8. Back in '06, had many good meals at La Flauta - Calle D´aribau, 23

9. If you decide to bounce to Madrid, I found it cheaper to fly than train.

My tour guide and my air bnb host told me to be extra careful at El Corte Ingles department store. My air bnb was right across from it so I went there to do grocery shopping. Nothing happened to me but I did see some sketchy looking people snooping around.

Jamon! !! 5j stuff. Got some from boqueria and stuff was amazing. (Again), my guide told me not to cheap out and go for anything below 15 euros if I wanted some real stuff. Not sure how true it was but paid 18 euros ish at boqueria and shit was delish!

I went to La Fonda for paella. It was total tourist trap for me. My rice came uncooked :(

Toscas for tapas - they had pretty good food there

Transit runs 24 hours on saturdays but lot of stores are closed on Sundays, so work your schedule around that.

I think that's all I remember for now. Have fun in Barcelona :)

1) Valencia is the best place to go. ONLY 3 hr train + 1 hr early to the trains and 1 hr going to your hotel = you still have 1/2 a day.
You are assigned seats so make sure you go on the right cart. You can bring food onto the train.

1b) Valencia = where Paella came from so eat it there + their oranges are AMAZING.

2) BOOK the museum3 days before = no lines up and you won't have to wait 1.5 until entry time.

3) Camp Nou was great, my x did NOT know shit about soccer and she enjoyed the 100000 people. If I remembered, it's a dry place = no beer. (FYI, soccer game starts at 10 PM at night)

4) Jamon 5j is the best cut of ham, stick with 5J and you won't be disappointed.

5) i say do NOT do the hop and and hop off. There were times where there was 50 people wiating for hop on and hop off, we said fuck it and took the train.

6) do NOT take any 100 EURO bills, they will give you the wtf face, stick with 50 and 20s.

7) If you want to eat, do NOT eat on the main street (Robson etc), explore the side streets. Tapas are per dish, just go in and enjoy, SUPER economical.

a tip from a local airbnb host:

if you want good paella, do NOT go to restaurants that advertise 4-6 different kinds as most kitchens do not have the capacity to cook that many different kinds of paella's on the spot

aka they are probably pre made and reheated, aka tourist trap