Barcelona

General information about Barcelona

There are frequent buses from the Airport to Plaza Catalunya, and also a train line which runs every half hour to Sants station and Passeig de Gracia. For El Born and Barceloneta alight at Passeig de Gracia and stay on the same platform for regular trains to Estacion de Franca. Be aware that if you are using T1 then you have to catch a shuttle bus to or from T2 which is where the station is.

Barcelona Card bought at the information kiosk at the airport acts as a bus and metro ticket with unlimited travel in the city and free entrance or discounts for many of the museums and discounts on some restaurants and shops. A TCasual ticket bought at any metro station and gives you ten journeys on the bus or metro, you can change routes within an hour on the same journey, the ticket gives you a discounted price, one required per person unlike the old T10 which it replaced.

Do be careful with handbags and valuables, crime usually non-violent, like bag snatching or picking pockets is sadly very common so never carry more than you need.

Hotels in Barcelona

As usual check the web sites www.booking.com and www.hotels.com there are hundreds of hotels in Barcelona, but it is also a very popular city so choosing to stay in the best location for you is very important. There are now many apartment sites which give you the chance to stay in areas like El Born, some are listed below

The company Inside Barcelona www.inside-bcn.com has some lovely refurbished apartments in the heart of the Born area, the ones called Espateria are next to their office and come in a variety of sizes and have a roof terrace. The staff are all very helpful and knowledgeable.  For great apartments in great locations and fabulous service you cannot go wrong.

Habitat Apartments www.habitatapartments.com have short lets in many cities and they have a wide range of apartments in the city in a variety of locations. They have an efficient booking service and deal promptly with any issues. Also check out Friendly Rentals www.friendlyrentals.com another multi city, reliable rental company.

Restaurants & Tapas Bars

El Born – La Ribera

Cal Pep, Placa de Les Olles, is a well known restaurant and tapas bar where you eat seated at the bar, be prepared to be there when it opens at 8pm in order to get a seat or you will have to queue. It specialises in seafood and there is no menu in the bar, so be prepared to ask for specific dishes or take the suggested selection. Recent reports indicate being rushed and service not as good as previously and it is expensive.

La Paradeta, C/Commercial 7, is just behind the Born market, you choose your fresh seafood and fish, tell them how you want it cooked, for example steamed or grilled and with what sauce. Then order your drink, pay, get sent to a table and wait till they call your number. Not relaxing but good fun and good quality at very reasonable prices. Get there before they open the doors at 8pm to avoid the queue.

Restaurant Agullers. C/Agullers 10, is an excellent local restaurant with handwritten daily menu, it is only open at lunch time and booking is advised. The food is freshly prepared, top quality and amazing value. The staff are great, the fish particularly outstanding (not on a Monday), just ask for the red or white wine, everyone drinks the house wine. Still as good as ever, good food, lovely staff and great value.

La Catalana Restaurant, Placa de les Olles 5, we found on our most recent visit, it does a three course set lunch for €10 and always features a traditional Catalan dish, Excellent quality, lovely service and incredible value, it is only open for lunch.

Cuines Santa Caterina, at Santa Caterina Market off Via Laetana excellent buzzy place to eat, they don’t take bookings so be prepared to queue or go early, a variety of different types of cooking.

Mosquito, C/Carders 46, has now become a regular to visit, they take a limited number of bookings but if you are not able to book and it is full they put your name on the blackboard and the wait is usually short. Excellent variety of Asian tapas, the prices are incredibly reasonable and the quality is very good. We returned again on our most recent visit, food still great and incredible value, the service level can vary.

Eldiset, C/Antic de Sant Joan 3, is a top notch place serving wines, food, and other drinks. This was the find of a past trip and we returned this time to try the food which was excellent. It is a lovely bar, great friendly and knowledgeable staff and very popular. They specialise in wines from Catalunya and have some great choices.

La Vinya del Senor, Placa Santa Maria, near the church of the same name is a lovely wine bar with a fantastic  selection, it also has a number wines by the glass which change fortnightly. Very good cheese plates and oysters and other food. The staff are very helpful and even if it looks busy, go in get a glass of wine and wait for a seat to come free, or find a corner to lean. These days some of the wines by the glass are quite expensive so consider a bottle from the excellent list at prices to suit all pockets.

Bodega Del Born, C/Mirallers 15 is a small friendly old school bar which has recently been taken over by new owners who both have long experience of hospitality in this area. There is a simple range of drinks and food in a small bar but you are guaranteed a warm welcome and very reasonable prices. On our most recent visit it was great to sample the food, traditional bread, cheese & meats and all excellent and also sample the wines and vermuts and also to again enjoy the great hospitality and atmosphere.

L’Altra Bodega, C/Mirallers 14, is a new addition to this street and is run by Montse and Xavi who have Bodega del Born. Excellent choice of drinks and food and friendly service, highly recommended.

Rubi, C/Banys Vells, is one of the many bars in various narrow streets but worth checking out. It is a long narrow bar and very friendly staff with good value cocktails especially their Mojitos and an excellent Gin selection. It is now run by the same owners as Bodega del Born and L’Altra Bodega which should ensure a warm welcome.

El Chigre 1769, C/Sombrerers 7, is fairly new and features food from the region of Asturias and Vermut, it has been very well designed and the staff were very friendly. Although we did not eat there the care in the cooking and delivery of the dishes was impressive, this is one for a future visit.

Pax 49, C/Rec 49, specialises in cocktails but also serves wine, beers and of course an extensive gin selection. The bar has changed owners and name recently, so we visited to check it out and were impressed with the friendly service from the bar staff.

Diec18, C/Rec 18, is a recent opening specialising in natural wines and beers and also offering food. We were impressed by the friendly service making it one for future visits.

Bormuth, C/Rec 31 is a fairly recent addition and very welcome, a good selection of different style tapas dishes, good wines but also a great range of vermut and craft beers. Still good and very popular which means you may have to wait for a table but definitely worth it.

Santa Agustina, Placa Sant Agusti vell 9, is another new addition in a small corner of the Born that is on the up. Smart modern design and a good selection of dishes with lovely outdoor seating it is very handy if waiting for a table at Mosquito. Prices slightly on the high side.

Mudanzas C/Vidreria is a local bar and café which opens late, it is a very relaxed place and less trendy than a lot in the area. It has recently changed hands and there have been small changes such as an improved wine choice, still a favourite haunt.

Pisamorena, C/Del Consolat de Mar 37, returned to this bar on our most recent visit, first for breakfast then for drinks on a couple of occasions and very impressed with the friendly service and quality of food and drinks.

Vidrios y Cristales, Passeig d’Isabel II, 6, is part of the group that own Sagardi and many other bars and restaurants but we were impressed with how this place looked and was run. It looks like an old school vermut bar and specialises in small dishes to be eaten along with your vermut.

Casa Lolea, C/de Sant Pere Més Alt, 49, this is an area, just north of the Born, that has changed so much since our early visits and is now full of trendy shops and places to eat and drink. Casa Lolea, owned by the wine company of the same name, is smart and rather trendy, worth a visit, we only stopped for a glass of wine.

Bodega Maestrazgo, C/de Sant Pere Més Baix, 90, is an old school wine shop in the same area as Casa Lolea but is not a newcomer, it has been there for many years. A huge wine selection and they also offer tastings.

Barri Gothic

Les Quinze Nits, Placa Real, has a good value set lunch, there are no bookings so be prepared to queue for both lunch and dinner. This is the original of a now large group, with low prices, attractive settings but variable service and food. A lot depends on your choice of dishes. One of their early openings was La Fonda at C/Escudeliers which is possibly better except for the setting, again no booking and queues. There are many other ones around the city and some now take bookings at night. Google under any of them and have look at the other ones.

Restaurant Culleretes, C/Quitana 5, off C/Ferran is supposed to be one of the oldest restaurants in the city, a warren of rooms with old fashioned Catalan cooking, very popular on a Sunday with locals.

El Portalon, C/Banys Nous 20, this has been here for many years but first time we have eaten there and we had an excellent set lunch menu.

Zim which is an excellent small wine bar owned by Francesc who is married to Katherine who owned the cheese shop next door, he is a lovely guy. It has a small but excellent selection of wines and also serves plates of cheese and cold meats. It is open 6pm to 11pm every day and is a real gem.

La Vinateria de Call, Carrer Sant Domenec del Call, can be difficult to find but is a lovely wine bar with excellent food, super platters of cheese and meat, booking is recommended, the staff are very helpful.

La Plata, C/Merce 28 is a gem from our first ever visit to the city, a tiny corner bar and is full of locals. It does very cheap wine, red, white or rose, and freshly fried whitebait & tomato salad. What more would you want anyway, open lunch time and early evening.

Bodega La Palma, C/Palma de Sant Just 7, another lovely old fashioned place which does tapas that are different from the normal, they only serve food if you have a table, worth finding.

Cala del Vermut, C/Magdalenes 12, Bodega del Vermut, C/Magdalenes 6, and Celler del Vermut C/Copons 2, are owned by the same family who are from the coastal part of Catalonia. As you may guess from the name they specialise in vermut, all three are worth a visit, all different with friendly service and local tapas dishes.

El Raval

Centric, C/Ramelleres 27, close to Plaza Cataluyna have passed this bar many times but popped in for the first time recently. Friendly staff, excellent tortilla, always a good test, and reports of other excellent dishes and really good G&T’s.

Elisabets, Carrer Elisabets 2-4, has a great value Menu del Dia, but be prepared to queue for a table, it is worth the wait for old fashioned cooking which is excellent value. It is also open at night and is just as busy.

O’Toxo 3 Hermanos, C/Carmen 59 is another great value for money Menu del Dia place in the Raval, specialising in home style Galician dishes.

Casa Amirall, C/de Joaquin Costa 33 is supposed to be Barcelona’s oldest bar and is a beautiful Modernista place, the bar being from Barcelona’s 1888 world fair.

Eixample

Osmosis, C/Aribau 100, is high on the lists of best places to eat and the set lunch tasting menu at 35 Euros a head was top notch. The quality, service and the whole experience was excellent. They also have a more expensive evening tasting menu – booking for both is essential.

Tapas 24, C/Diputacio 269, this is the fairly recent very much talked about tapas bar from Carles Abellan of Commerc 24 (see above) it is great, but go early ahead of the queues and sit at the bar where you can order your tapas and watch them being cooked, a great lively place with top quality food.

Velodromo, C/Muntaner 213 is a joint venture between Carlos Abellan and Moritz the local brewery, they have re-opened a well known cafe, left the original style and turned it into a stylish place at any time.

La Bodegueta, Rambla Catalunya 100, great old fashioned bar, not the friendliest staff but the croquettes will bring me back.

C. Galobart, C/Mallorca 373, if after a visit to the Sagrada Famila you are peckish but cannot face the tourist traps nearby, five minutes away is a grocers with dishes of all sorts of prepared meals and a couple of tables. The roast chicken and potatoes at under 4 Euros was great, add in a large glass of decent white wine at less than 2 Euros and you have a bargain.

Poble Sec

We have been visiting this area for many years and as well as our old favourites have seen more and more places open up and what was a very local area now attracts visitors. It has now been highlighted as the up and coming area in the Sunday Times travel section.

La Bodegueta, Carrer de Blal 47, Poble Sec is an old fashioned local restaurant which specialises in grilled meats and vegetables, reasonably priced, the wine is incredibly cheap and friendly service.

Quimet y Quimet, C/Poeta Cabanyes 25, we first found this years ago, now it is in every guide book and gets a mix of locals and visitors. It was a wine shop and grocers and gradually became a bodega run by husband, wife and daughter. If you only go to one bar make sure it is Quimet y Quimet they do small selections of vegetables, cheese, meat, prawns, wonderful bread with various toppings, such as salmon, cream cheese and honey is just amazing, It is a wonderful bar, tiny, normally packed and standing only but squeeze up to the bar and choose from the menu and they always find you somewhere to stand with your food and drink. On our last visit there was queue outside before it opened at 7pm but it is still a must to visit, if it is too busy pop up to C/Blai and come back.

Carrer Blai nearby has a variety of little bars and restaurants and is pedestrianised so great to sit out, it has a very local feel and recently many new bars have opened specialising in Pinxtos, Basque tapas on cocktail sticks. If you continue along and you come to Carrer Blesa.

Bodega Salto, C/Blesa 36, recommended by a local friend, this is a lively old fashioned bar with live music and a real mix of customers, open at night only.

Fabrica Moritz, Bar, Shop and Restaurant, Ronda Sant Antoni 41, the local beer Moritz has really had a revival recently and this is shown at it’s best in the bar, wine bar, restaurant and shop. Very smart didn’t have a chance to try it but obviously very popular.

Lolita, C/Tamarit 2-4, between Poble Sec and the Eixample was formerly known as Inopia but one of the original partners Joan Martinez has re-opened it and the tapas are top-notch with new takes on traditional tapas. Highly recommended.

Xixbar, C/Rocafort 19 is opposite Lolita and specialises in Gin, with their own different flavours such as a Xmas, Ginger and many others, as well as 180 normal brand names, they have a great shop next door.

The legendary Ferran Adria has opened several places in the area, one a cocktail bar called Tickets, another 41 Degrees for tapas at 164 Avinguda del Paralel. Booking for these is almost impossible and the web site is not user friendly nor are the staff. However he recently opened Bodega 1900. C/Tamarit 91, based on an old style vermouth bars, hopefully easier to book.

Barceloneta

This is an area full of places some basic, some upmarket and a real mix which is like the area itself, on the way there try the first two below.

Can Paixano, Carrer Reina Christina, is a great very busy bar where there is only one drink available cava. Try the rose cava with a bacon roll in the morning the best breakfast in Barcelona. There is a wide selection of hot and cold rolls and other tapas are also available.

El Vaso de Oro, C/Balboa 6, first on the left as you go along the main street into Barceloneta it is like the inside of a very narrow ocean liner with fabulous tapas and their own beer. It so good that we go back again and again and find the service as smart as ever and the food excellent. It is not cheap but the quality makes it worth a visit

Can Ros, Carrer Almirall Aixeda 7, Barceloneta, one of many places in Barceloneta but highly rated for it’s Paella’s and it’s mainly fish and seafood menu with very good service and reasonably priced.

La Cova Fumada C/Baluard 56, has no name outside, it is opposite the market, does excellent cheap food, always very busy but brave it, the chickpeas with morcilla are just the best. Since this is now in every guide book there are queues outside, be warned, and waits of one and a half hours for a table.

Cal Chusco, C/Almirall Aixada 5 is another real local bar but it stands out as one of the few in the city where you get a free and generous tapas when you buy a drink. Welcoming staff and incredibly cheap prices.

Jai-Ca, C/Ginebra 9-13 has been on the list to try for some time and we made it this time. It is a large local bar doing a wide variety of tapas dishes, many offered as a half portion so a chance to try a selection of dishes. Friendly staff and very reasonably priced. They now have three places in the same street and still popular.

Marisma, Placa del Mar, outside the market in Barceloneta we stopped initially for a drink but were impressed with the set lunch menu and stayed to try it out. We were very impressed with quality of the dishes and the value for money.

Lokilla Bar, C/de San Elm & C/del Mar was recommended by a local chum and has entrances on both streets. Very much a locals bar but with an interesting range of drinks and food, one for a return visit.

La Mar Salada, Passeig de Joan de Borbó, 58-59, was recommended by a local friend in the food & wine business therefore one to try on a future visit.

Surf House, C/de l’Almirall Aixada, 22, is on the edge of the beach and a new find for us, we only stopped for a drink but were impressed with the food dishes being produced for surrounding tables.

Absenta Bar, Carrer Sant Carles 36, a real find among the many basic bars of Barceloneta, it is a lovely bar open daily with good music and a mixed clientele.

There are now a couple of permanent bar restaurants on the beach at Barceloneta, one owned by Carles Abellan, great to be able sit on the beach in the sun at any time of the year.

Gracia

Cafe Salambo, C/Torrijos 51, Gracia is a modern bar and restaurant in the heart of Gracia which does a great menu del dia, it turned out to be an excellent choice and with very nice service.

Gracia has some lovely squares with bars and cafes so a wander around is a pleasure try Bodega Manolo C/Torrent de las Flors 101 a wonderful old fashioned bar.

Drink

Look out for wines from nearby regions including Priorat, amazing powerful reds mainly from granache and carignan grapes, Costers del Segre, Emporda and Penedes famous for Cava.

On our most recent visit we noticed a real focus in many bars and restaurants on local wines such as the ones listed above and also from the DO of Monsant which produces some really excellent wines, the reds in particular are worth trying. For some really good examples try Eldiset in the Born area which is recommended above.

Barcelona as you would imagine has a varied bar culture so any type of drink you are looking for is probably available. Do try some of the more traditional bars and also try vermut (vermouth) which seems to be having something of a revival.

Recent visits have showed how big vermut was becoming with many bars and restaurants offering a choice of vermuts, red and white and from many different regions, our most recent visit turned up even more choice is offering even more choices . The Born, El Raval and Gracia areas of the city have a number of specialist bars and current info can be found on line.

 

 

 

Culture

All the Gaudi buildings, La Sagrada Famila, Casa Mila, Palau Guell and Parc Guell

The fabulous food markets, La Boqueria on the Ramblas and Santa Catalina in the Born for a new design and eating.

Museo Picasso C/Montacado, is the most visited attraction in the city, try and avoid the queues by booking on line.

Martime and Naval Museum at the foot of the Ramblas, just by Drassanes Metro is a fascinating museum housed in the old naval dockyard buildings.

Outside the City

Girona

Girona is a lovely, historic city which definitely warrants a day visit, the new high speed link means journey time can be as little as 38 minutes, the cathedral and the historic fortifications are worth a visit and most photographs of the city feature the coloured houses overlooking the River Onyar. There are many good places to eat around the city so avoid some of the ones trying to attract the day visitors. There is now a separate page on Girona with recommendations on where to eat and drink.

Tarragona

Tarragona is perfect for a day out, it can be reached from Estacio Franca, Passeig de Gracia, or Sants. Climb up from the station to the old part and explore the walls, and the Cathedral. There are loads of places to eat in the old part you can pick up a map and restaurant guide from the tourist office. The old fishing port south of the station is also full of good places to eat.

Cadaques

Reached by bus from Figueres, where the Dali Museum is an absolute must. This is where Dali had his house. It is a lovely small town round a lovely bay with a number of pebbly beaches.

Seven day forecast for Barcelona

Barcelona
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2.32 m/s 53 %
sky is clear
17.8°C
1.99 m/s 54 %
broken clouds
17.3°C
2.22 m/s 53 %
broken clouds
16.5°C
2.04 m/s 79 %
overcast clouds
14.3°C
3 m/s 82 %
overcast clouds
13.3°C

Last Visited 2023 & Last Updated 2023