Mrs. P and I are heading to Barcelona soon. From what I’ve read on various travel sites, we should pretty much expect to be pick-pocketed about seven or eight times per day while staying there. The main piece of advice – “try not to look like a tourist” – will be impossible, since we’ll both be wearing gigantic frame backpacks as we walk about, not to mention that my wife is fair-skinned and six feet tall.
(Added detail for any advice-givers: we’re actually leaving the city the same day we arrive, as we head out on trains for France and a walk along the coast. We really have no choice but to carry our packs on the streets. And we’ll be back many days later to actually be tourists around the city. But then, the advice we’ve received is contradictory: “Don’t leave your valuables in your hotel!” and “Don’t carry anything valuable when you walk around the city!”)
We have money belts we can wear inside our pants, so there’s that. And maybe I’m being overly paranoid here. But gah – the horror stories are so numerous and… horrible!
My brother and I stayed in Barcelona for four days. We did not get pick-pocketed. Not once. We were approached by quite a few beggars. But no pick-pocketers (sp?).
I assume you’ll be arriving by plane, so you’ll need your passport handy: carry any other ID in a location where it can’t be reached by nimble fingers.
How are you getting from the airport to BCN? Since you need to go to Sants, I assume train, but I always prefer to ask. The train ticket machines take CCs, but may not like yours. See advice below on distributing money.
There are restaurants (a McD, a local chain specializing in transportation hubs and a bar/cafeteria/restaurant) in three of the station’s corners. The McD has pick-your-menu machines as well as Real Human Beings; the Ars is “self-service” (you take a tray, some things you grab yourself but others are served), if you go there I suggest that one of you pick a table and stay there with the packs while the other one goes to get food, then switch. A few things:
there is a very common kind of thief we call descuideros, from descuido, “carelessness”. Their prime target is people who sit down (in a bar’s terrace, a waiting area, or just an outdoors bench) and who leave their bags hanging from the back of the seat. Don’t! When putting your bags and jackets down, think of whether they’ll be easy to grab and run. If you can get a corner table, bags and jackets go on the corner, people take the other seats in whichever configuration will make the objects harder to reach from a standing position.
when you’re visiting the town, do leave your passport in the hotel (preferably in the safe - if there isn’t one in the room, deposit things with the front desk); carry your driver’s license. It’s valid ID (it’s valid to vote with, it’s fucking valid to pay with a CC).
distribute small amounts of money among your front pockets. Anything in another location should be in one that’s damn hard to reach (not the packs’ side pockets) and should be amounts you don’t expect to need while it’s there. You shouldn’t need to open the packs and start throwing things around in order to buy a T-shirt. I’ve seen people doing that in the street stalls in front of Sagrada Familia or in Portal de l’Angel! The money in your pockets should be wadded up loosely enough that you can fish out exactly as many bills as you want, rather than take out the wad.
I’m seeing more and more people (I’m one) who carry their cards, bills and coins in separate containers. I use a metal cigarrette case for cards, a pouch for coins and the bills go wadded. That way I can fish up the proper container or bill without revealing the location of the rest.
when you come visit, check out both the hop-on hop-off tourist buses and the T-10. The T-10 is the 10-trip bus+subway card; you need to slide it into the machine every time, but if you’re taking a local train (within specific lines), bus or subway within a short time of leaving the previous one it won’t consume another trip. In subways/trains do check the arrows in the turnstiles before inserting the ticket: each machine has arrows indicating on which side do you have to pass, as well as whether the machine is on or off.
Welcome and I hope you get better service than we did at the place where I ate with Eva Luna and Tom Scud… :smack self: (Taller de Tapas, on Rambla Catalunya - the food was good but the service was unbelievably bad).
I was nearly robbed a few times in Madrid, but had no problems in Barcelona. Once on the public transportation in Madrid some guy grabbed the camera off the girl’s neck I was with. I grabbed it back and that was it. Made for an awkward ride after that.
I spent three days in Barcelona once. Spent the whole time walking around gawking like a tourist. No problems with pickpockets or any other low-lifes. Unless you count street performers.
Re: blending in. Just remember to call it BarTHelona.
My wallet was stolen in the Madrid airport, but no problem in Barcelona, even though I look like a tourist. Wear an around-the-neck wallet; get the type with the un-cuttable strap.
The trick is to not have anything you can’t afford to lose where it can be lifted or just grabbed. Also, look around – the purse snatching I saw when I was there would have easily been foiled if the victim’s husband had simply happened to look backwards when they were on the escalator. (Also, if you’ve got the mass advantage, just walk through someone trying to snatch something from you.
I’ve told this story here before. I was there with a bunch of friends and, knowing the drill, we left everything secured in the hotel when we went to the beach. The whole train ride down there, my one friend would not shut up about how it wouldn’t matter if she got robbed because there was nothing of value in her pack. While we were swimming she did, in fact, get robbed. And then the whole train ride back, she wouldn’t shut up about all the great stuff that had been in her pack. We don’t really hang out much anymore.
I had no issues in Barcelona either. the La Rambla get’s pretty packed at nights but still I had no problems over a week of staying there. In fact, I’d consider Barcelona one of my five favorite spots in Europe; right up there with London and Paris.
We were there a couple months ago and were paranoid about pickpockets too and almost had a problem once that we know about. We got the Barcelona pass and were zooming around on the trains which was unbelievably handy to do. At one point we were in between stops and a couple women suddenly decided to move from one end of the car to grab on to the pole we were using. A woman a sitting down and watching this unfold “ojo” and pointed to her eye. We watched as they tried to “bump” into us as we kept one hand firmly in our front pockets which had our wallets.
Paranoia is a bit exhausting, but better safe than sorry. Also, avoid Carrer Robador (IIRC). My BF and I were looking for a restaurant for lunch and wandered into the neighborhood and saw a woman who had so much make up on that she looked like a juggalo. It was hilarious and bad and we wanted a picture of her. Two blocks of trying to subtly catch up to her and we ended up on Carrer Robador. A woman walked up to me and offered me a blowjob. I just assumed I misheard and said no thanks. Then another one did it. We began to walk down this street that was populated with a lot of prostitutes. While interesting, it quickly felt unsafe. But it always makes for a good story.
Damn, maybe we just looked too broke to be worth it?
Me and three other college girls spent three days in Barcelona, wandering around like lost idiots the whole time, and never had a lick of trouble, other than having a bit of trouble ditching a helpful grandmotherly type who obviously felt we needed to be chaperoned away from the neighborhood we were wandering in. 45 minutes later, she was still herding us somewhere, chattering happily all the way (none of us speak any Spanish, and if she spoke English, she wasn’t letting on) and we finally managed to convince her that we were staying at a hotel we passed, and hid in the lobby until she left.
Now I feel like we failed some sort of audition process…
There are pickpockets all over Europe, concentrated in the large and/or heavily-touristed cities. I found Italy especially bad. Florence is hilarious with it.
As to carrying the large packs for the day it’s unavoidable, just keep an eye on each other. Rather than walking exactly parallel to each other, walk staggered and switch often so one of you can see the other’s pack in their peripheral vision as much as possible. Keep valuables out of accessible pack pockets. Likely, as long as the money belts will fit your passports, wearing them under your clothes is all you need to do.
The only other suggestion I have about those packs is if you’re using public transportation and/or in crowded places where there may be a lot of people standing close together, please take them off. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people get knocked into and knocked over by a doofus carrying a large backpack just turning in place because they forget they have something that’s the depth of a whole other person behind them! Really not cool on the train when sitting people get hit in the head with them.
For days when you can leave your packs at a hotel, Travelon makes great day-travel bags that are sleek, have lots of pockets, and many anti-theft features. If they’re worn as cross-body bags, it’s nearly impossible to get the bag picked or cut - you would have to surrender it or the contents, and that would prevent all but the boldest of thieves from robbing you.
Went to Barcelona last year. No got pickpocketed. IMHO, travel people always say that to make you paranoid-if you were careless and got robbed, your vacation would be ruined and that would certainly make you less inclined to travel more in the future. Stuff everything in your front pockets (cargo shorts are your friend, fuck everyone who says they’ll peg you as a tourist) and you’ll be fine.
More important: never order stuff in restaurants without asking about the price. If they don’t bring you a menu with written prices, or if they’re vague about prices, or worse yet, tell you they’ll bring you an assortment of dishes (they’ll bring you enough for an army, and you’ll have to pay for it all), don’t be afraid to walk out. And never trust them when they say a dish is small, so you’ll want to get something else with it. Again, they want you to order more. We got soaked like that on the Rampla.
If you have backpacks, I’m gonna say that most pickpockets figure that although you’re a tourist, you’re probably not a rich one. You aren’t worth the trouble. And Barcelona is a relatively high-dollar tourist resort, so I don’t think violent crime is really much of a problem.
Technically, you’re supposed to have your passport on you at all times…technically. I risked the horror and shame of arrest by locking it in my room safe. Sue me.
Having said all this, I must say we did enjoy Barbelona a great deal. And the seafood…sigh…
I’ve posted this before, but the wife attended a conference in Barcelona about 10 years ago. She did not get robbed, but some attendees did including one who had his backpack stolen by a well-dressed man who grabbed it on the mass transport and jumped through the doors at the last moment before they closed.
And when she was waiting in line at the airport to return home, a man came passing in front of her through the lines, and when the man in line in front of her got to the counter to check in, he discovered that the other man had picked his pocket of wallet and passport. She said the airport police said it happened all the time.
In such places, I like to carry a wallet, a fake wallet that’s empty except for a note that says “FUCK YOU!!!” No one’s picked that yet, and many shady-looking people have probably been left wondering why I seem to keep poking my ass at them. The wife is horrified that a pickpocket might come running back to beat me up.
I never really worried about being pickpocketed in Barcelona. I think it might depend on what time of year you’re there - high season is probably when it’s most rampant.
There are locker facilities around the city where you could store your luggage for the day, if you wanted to do so.
You just have to use common sense. Don’t use bags that can be easily snatched off your shoulder. Don’t put your bag down where it could be snatched up. If you put it on the ground, secure the strap around your leg or a chair leg. Just always be aware of your bag. I had a friend who was pickpocketed in Paris - she was at a vending machine, and she had one of those bags that you sling across your body, so it hung kind of low, and while she was getting a drink from the machine someone stole her passport from her bag. (Although that was stupid of her to have her passport in her bag - we always lock ours up in a safe wherever we’re staying.)
Thanks, everyone, for the advice. We’re leaving tomorrow, and will be as on-our-guards as is possible!
The only problem now is that for our five day walk along the coast between France and Spain, it’s supposed to be wet, windy and chilly every day! Meanwhile, here in New England, the weather will be positively Mediterranean! :smack:
I’ll let you know how many times we were pick-pocketed when we return.
