The beauty of Barcelona.
So many hidden gems in this wonderful city of Barcelona, Spain! Barcelona was never on my travel bucket list, but I am so happy I made the trip out here. So many adventures you can partake in and so many lovely sights to see. If you have a love of taking travel photos, Barcelona has endless Pinterest worthy shots. Their food is delicious and have so many different blends of spices to ignite your taste buds.
Barcelona, Spain was our first destination before we made our way to Venice. If your itinerary is a lot like ours don’t miss my VENICE post, were you can collect great information for your spectacular trip!
I’am a traveler who enjoys soaking up all sights and history. For me the best way to do this is by scheduling tours of the main tourist attractions. Although I always schedule at least one free day to roam and explore the city with no day plan.
We spent 4 days in Barcelona. I felt that it was plenty of time to experience the culture and be able to cross off enough on my Barcelona bucket list.
Before I travel I do my research and make an in depth list of everything I want to do, try, and see. My list revolves around lots of food, sightseeing, exploring nature, and of course coffee! Obviously it is impossible to see everything and try all the yummy food, but in the four days that we explored I enjoyed every minute of it. Hopefully our itinerary can benefit someone who is about to embark on a short Barcelona journey.
1st day:
We arrived Saturday early morning, and arrived at our hotel Casa Camper Barcelona (Calle Elisabets, 11, Barcelona, 08001 Spain). Absolutely beautiful hotel, and one of my husbands favorite hotels that we have ever stayed at. It’s a cozy clean hotel with a very modern feel. The bathrooms in the room are relatively large compared to most of the hotels in Europe we have stayed in. Our Hotel was right off of Las Ramblas, which was perfect for our us. Depending what is on your itinerary I would advise booking a room around that same area. Everything we wanted to explore was within walking distance of our hotel, and it was in a safe area that we felt comfortable in.
La Boqueria Market
My favorite attraction in Barcelona, and the one place we kept returning back to. Thankfully it was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. The minute you step into this market you are surrounded by a pleasant aroma of fresh bread, fruit, chocolate, tapas, cheese, and so much more. Try as much food as you possibly can!
One of the main reasons why I would go back to Barcelona is because of this market. No matter when you go it will be crowded, don’t be overwhelmed by all the humans walking around, just soak up the experience. There are probably over 50 food cart options and even though I didn’t try all of them, I sincerely 100% believe that every food stand is delicious. If you are a meat lover make sure you try a meat and cheese cone! Try all the fruit you can and make sure you indulge in tapas bravas. It is potatoes galore and ohh it’s so delicious.
About an hour later we left the market with a full belly and just roamed the streets a little before we headed back to our hotel to take a quick power nap.
After feeling refreshed and clean we explored the streets and tried some local coffee and hot chocolate. Make sure you try their rich and deliciously sweet hot chocolate… now I am a coffee lover and will always order coffee over hot chocolate, but you have to order it at least once. Our 1st night we didn’t have a plan, and this was our day to venture off without a tour guide.
Walking around the Gothic Quarter felt like we were teleported to a classic black and white film. It had so much life and zest.
We took pictures in front of Cathedral Gotica and viewed it from the inside and became entranced by the holiness and peace you feel when entering. I recommend the 1st night you arrive to just walk around the city with no plan in motion and soak in all the culture and sights.
2nd Day:
Today we were early birds and scheduled a packaged tour of Park Güell along with La Sagrada Familia. Even though both attractions are as touristy as you can get, you can not see them. For me the best way to experience them is by booking a tour and we booked it on Viator before landing in Barcelona.
The tour we booked was Skip the Line: Park Güell and La Sagrada Familia Tour in Barcelona + Towers. Highly recommend booking this exact same tour.
This tour was great for us, because we didn’t have to wait in line, we gained access to the tower in La Sagrada Familia, and we had our own tour guide who was absolutely fabulous and was able to answer all of our questions. The tour is only half a day (4 ½ hrs to be exact), which was a perfect amount of time for each attraction without feeling rushed, and allowed us free time to do our own exploring in the afternoon.
Park Guell
We took a cab and arrived to Park Güell a little early which worked out great, because there was a small coffee shop located right across where we were able to grab some fresh coffee and pastries.
Park Güell is truly a sight I will never be able to compare with anything in this world. It’s a huge outdoor art museum. My husband and I joked that Gaudi had to be on some sort of drug to have the imagination to design something like Park Guell. While walking through the park I was struck at the uniqueness of it all.
His house reminded me of the witches castle in the fairytale Hansel and Gretel.
The park was built from 1900-1914, which I find astonishing considering the architect was very strange and yet so beautiful, and the design of the park was way ahead of its time. . Our tour guide informed us that Gaudi truly tried to capture nature in his work…. And it shows. I know Park Guell has now become overrun by tourist, but book a tour and go. You will not regret it. After come back and leave me comments on what you thought of it.
After leaving Park Güell you have a little bit of time (about 40 mins) before you start your tour in La Sagrada Familia. We took that time to eat some yummy churros dipped in warm milk chocolate and of course more coffee. La Sagrada Familia. Man, I don’t even know how to express the architectural detail in this church. Also designed by Antoni Gaudi, who started this project back in 1882, and till this day it is still under construction and will not be finished till the year 2026.
Gaudi was a religious man, and we were told that the tallest tower of the church will be one meter shorter than the highest mountain point, because Gaudi did not want his creation higher than Gods.
I found it all magical, and if you are going to visit this church do it right, and pay the extra money to visit the towers. You came all this way, might as well see everything.
After making it back to our hotel we decided to have a late lunch at settled on eating at Pura Brasa Gastronomic Grill. It is a great place to go with a group and it had a very bar like establishment. They have an open kitchen, friendly atmosphere, and have many options on their menu; consisting of vegetarian options, platters for sharing, meats, pasta, and tapas that are all within a reasonable price. If you happen to be craving a burger and aren’t really feeling for spanish cuisine I would come to Pura Brasa.
For dinner and drinks we devoured the food at Arume (Carrer d’En Botella, 11, 13, 08001 Barcelona, Spain). We were told by our waiter to order Arume’s seafood paella and we were not disappointed. This place is a perfect spot to enjoy some yummy cocktails (mine is photographed below) and delicious spanish cuisine.
We arrived for dinner around 10:30 pm. It was not crowded and we were able to enjoy our meal in peace and quiet. Make sure you order their dessert even if you feel like you are going to explode from overeating I don’t care, order their chocolate cookie with noissete butter, berries, hibiscus, and violet. I actually loved my dessert more than my entree. I have also decided that no matter where you go in Barcelona the dessert is always yummy.
3rd Day:
Today we mosied around and started our day a little late. Our breakfast consisted of chocolate from a marvelous little shop called Chok. We happened to stumble across it on accident, but thank God we did. I have never in my life tasted chocolate as delicious as Chok. That is not an understatement. If you don’t take away anything I have written except this, I will take that as a success. Chok is a delicate shop, and has so many options of sweets I became overwhelmed because there was no way my belly would be able to handle all that chocolate. We went back here three times, and everything we tried was 10 out 10. All of it was a sweet delight, wrapped in chocolate goodness, what more could you ask for?
We scheduled a tour to explore Montserrat around 3pm. The tour we scheduled was, Montserrat Monastery Tour from Barcelona Including Cogwheel Train Ride
I thoroughly enjoyed spending a day outside of Barcelona, and Montserrat was breathtaking. If you want to escape the crowds and don’t have any plans for the day in Barcelona I suggest spending an evening in Montserrat. If you have a love for mountains definitely add this to your list. The train ride up is picturesque and the whole place is a photographers dream. The only down side of our tour was we didn’t really enjoy our tour guide. We found her to be rude and it seemed to us that she didn’t want to be touring. So hopefully, you have an enthusiastic tour guide, and even if you dont we still enjoyed the experience.
It is only half a day, and when you arrive they give you a little history and you are free to wander around for an hour. Make sure you check out the church and the statue of Mary and Jesus that they found in the 1500’s. Even if you are not a religious spirit I would still check it out. It was hard for my husband and I to keep going to these churches that are embellished with so much gold and fancy tile, because we kept thinking all this money spent on churches could of helped so many people in need. Go with an open mind though, it is a beautiful sight with so much history in the air.
I wouldn’t waste your belly space on eating at the restaurant in Montserrat, order some coffee and a light snack because the food is nothing special and you can find something better when you get back to Barcelona. If you feel like spending the day in nature and escaping the crowds definitely recommend some time spent in Montserrat.
By the time we reached back to our hotel we were starving and decided to on dinner at El Pintxo (Carrer de Petritxol, 9, 08002 Barcelona, Spain). This was a very interesting restaurant, and we found many locals also enjoying their dinner here (which is always a good sign).
The Food was great, very friendly service, and they have a wide variety of tapas. It is a self serve kind of restaurant, and they have their tapas offered at the bar. You pick out the food you would like and the waiter will bring them to you. Great food for a reasonable value. Order a beer, with quite a few tapas, (I recommend ordering the patas bravas), and relax and unwind.
4th Day:
Our last day! So of course we spent the morning at La Boqueria Market and had breakfast. Which I definitely think everyone should do. We tried duck liver for the first time ever. It had a very similar taste to eggplant, and I will most likely never try it again.
After exploring the market for a final time we headed back to our hotel, packed up our things, and checked out. Leaving our suitcases at the hotel we set out for our last Barcelona exploration.
We bought tickets to ride the Montjuic cable cart. We took a cab to Parc Montjuic and bought a cable car ticket for the way down.
With 20 minutes to kill we stopped and smelt the roses and sat in amazement of one of my favorite views of the city.
The parc has beautiful flowers. Had me feeling like I had fell down the rabbit hole like Alice and went into wonderland.
Beautiful statues surround the garden and they have many benches, so you can relax and enjoy the great outdoors. If you aren’t a fan of heights I don’t recommend riding the cable cart. You are able to purchase your ticket on the spot, so it isn’t necessary to book online. We purchased a one way ticket, because the cable cart dropped us right around the Barcelona Beach and we didn’t have a desire to ride it twice.
We did not swim at the beach, we only walked the strip. If you happen to go in the summer pack a bathing suit, the beach was marvelous. However if you are looking to spend your whole vacation at a beach I wouldn’t consider Barcelona as a vacation spot for you.
There are many shops along the strip where you can grab quick snacks and gelato. By chance we ended up walking towards Barcelona’s aquarium and decided to spend some time there. My husband is a huge fan of aquatic life, so it was more for his benefit. If you are just moseying around with not much to do I would suggest spending an hour here. Nothing really too special, but they have a walk through tunnel with a 360 view of the animals… that was a sight to see.
We stopped for coffee at Alsur Cafe, and I savored every sip of my coffee. The cafe was charming and the barista did a cute design in both of our coffees. If you are feeling for a little day drinking they even have funky cocktails along with the classics such as a cosmopolitan or mojito.
We attempted to go to Palau de la Musica, but sadly I ended up broken hearted because it was closed. Now even though I didn’t get to personally experience visiting it, I think you should add it on your travel itinerary. The pictures online were striking, and I wish I could of viewed it from the inside.
The outside of the building alone was alluring. If you do decide to spend some time at Palau de la Musica, check the hours. Online it said it was open, but it obviously wasn’t. I would suggest calling before. Ending our last day with a hint of sadness that Palau de la Musica was closed, I perked up as I grabbed my last piece of chocolate from Chok and made our way to the airport.
How are you spending your days in Barcelona?