My husband is going to a conference, and I plan to join him. But I have hard commitments Tuesday evenings, so I will be flying out on Wednesday, arriving Thursday, and I need to get home by the following Tuesday.
So I’ll have a jetlagged Thursday afternoon and evening, all day Fri-Sun, and be there most of Monday, to catch a flight early Monday evening. Friday, my husband will still be at his conference, so I’ll be on my own. The rest of the time we will be together. Neither of us has ever been to Spain before. Neither of us speaks Spanish, either.
Tour the city and surrounding areas and talk to as many locals as possible in order to decide whether the name of the city is pronounced *Barth-e-lon-a" or “Bars-cel-on-a”.
Find an outdoor table on the Rambas after 9 pm, order a pitcher of Sangria and some small plates of ham or octopus or sardines, and just watch the people walking by.
A Gaudi tour (Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, Park Guell) is a must. You can do it all by yourself or hire a guide, which IMO is worth it. They will give context and history to what you see, as well as help avoid the lines.
A tapas tour is well worth a few bucks, you learn how to order tapas like a pro, see some restaurants you’d never find on your own, and have a yummy experience.
The Magic Fountain is great fun, but right now it appears to be shut off due to drought protocols.
A beach excursion to Barceloneta or any of the other beaches is fun.
As fun as the people watching is on Las Rambas, you can get much better and less expensive food even just a block off to either side.
The Boqueria Market off Las Rambas is a lot of fun. Get there early and take in the sights, sounds, and smells.
Do an open top bus tour (sorry, probably an obvious one). It is a good way to get round the city whilst seeing things (obviously) and you can ‘hop on, hop off’. The underground rail network probably more practical but obviously without the views. The bus tour we went on included a stop at the Olympic stadium, and the diving pool etc. It was possible to just wander into the stadium then but no idea if you can these days.
Gaudi’s Park Güell (nice to walk round and good views)
Catch the funicular railway up to the amusement park at Tibidabo (also good views)
I went to Barcelona about 15 years ago for a week and couldn’t see what the fuss was around Las Ramblas. Lots of people walking about and not much to see or do other than sit and have an artist do a caricature of you. That’s about it; there’s probably more but nothing memorable enough for me to recall now.
The marina and seafront are nice for a walk and there is the Columbus Monument which you can go up in a lift.
Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, does a stadium tour. I enjoyed that but I am a football fan so if you’re not into it it might not be as exciting.
Las Ramblas used to be a cool place, but that was long ago.
It’s now become a tourist trap. Last time I was there I made the mistake of ordering dinner at an outdoor restaurant there, and it was terrible.
Take a walk along it if you feel you must, but I wouldn’t eat there.
I would go to las Ramblas during the day when its more safe, it gets very crowded with drunks and shady characters after dark. The street performers are cool and you will better enjoy them during the day.
I went to the beach with the knowledge that nude swimming was allowed. Much to my shock and amazement, the only nude person I saw was a very elderly woman laying right along the beach boardwalk! Bravo for her I guess.
Hoo boy! See if you can start a fight between some Spaniards and Catalonians!
edit: somewhat on topic…
While I loved Barcelona, and thought that my visits to Sagrada Familia were a peak life experience, I was also sort of disappointed. Before going I had seen so many videos where the host found some dark, ancient tavern with vermouth flowing and tins of seafood out for nibbling. Little restaurants with local charm and stellar food. All that kind of thing.
We certainly had some excellent food a drink and many lovely experiences, but I never found stuff that wasn’t at least partially tourist oriented. Couldn’t figure out how to get off that track.
Since then, we’ve taken to hiring a local guide in most of the major cities we go to. We ask them to help us find places the locals know and love. And that’s been fantastic and not at all expensive. In Seville, our guide took us through his neighborhood and we popped into all kind of little shops to say hi, grab a snack, whatever. Went to his church and looked at the statues they take out to the big parade. In Florence, a local chef took us on a tour through one of the giant mercatos, buying a few ingredients from his preferred vendors, which he then had a different vendor cook for us. It was an amazing meal that we never would have put together ourselves. And so on, and so on.
Could be a fun thing to consider, get at least a little time away from the tourist throngs.
Oh, and if you do go to Sagrada Familia, there’s a museum downstairs with all sorts of models and engineering designs; I thought it was very cool to take a look at the design process before modern tools. One thing that stood out was that they designed the arches using string and weights (only tension) and then flipping the shape upside down for the masonry structure (only compression).
