Barcelona

Peyton Manning

Just booked a trip to Barcelona for myself and my girlfriend, just wondering if anyone that was in Barcelona before could recommend something for couples to do? I dont think herself would fancy a tour of the Nou Camp

biko

Availing of clickair.com are you? I'm thinking of going myself.

masterK

The best advice I could give is to take the 2 day bus tour of the city, you can jump off where you want along the way, the buses come every 15 minutes so your never waiting long on the next one.

I wouldn't bother with the Familia Sagrada, I never felt so ripped off for paying money into a building site. You should do the Nou Camp too, your other half will probably enjoy it (mine did after many protests for having to go).

Peyton Manning

Sure did

2 people, return flights and 4 nights accomodation week after St. Patricks day, all for only €350. Not too bad at all.

Fr Dougal

Nou Camp is worth a visit.
Guell park, designed by Gaudi is also nice.
A visit to the Aquarium is good, you actually walk through glass tunnels with the fish all around and over you.
Placa Ca Cataluna for some nice restaurants.
Las Ramblas for a walk during the daytime, not sure I'd reccomend it at night though.
Some nice Tapas bars near Las Ramblas

jester77

Bus tour is the best way to do it. It covers all the major sites and you can hop on and hop off whenever you like.
Avoid the main area's for food, it's a rip-off and generally the quality is not great. Las Ramblas is notorious for pickpockets, so be very careful. Friend had his lifted on our first night there and everywhere we went the locals would warn us, little too late for my friend then!

kmick

Barcelona rocks - one of the best cities in Europe.

Highlights
I enjoyed the Familia Sagrada but half the group that were there hated it. It is building as art. Gaudi built it that when you look out an opening/window you should

be able to see two things of interest. This means when you look in any direction you can see a mural, mosaic, tower, gargoyle. It is fantastic. Bear this in mind

when you go it enhances the experience. Gaudi's other buildings installations around the city are also worth a visit. It is not due to be finished until 2028 so

there is a building site feel to it. However if you bear in mind the fact it was built solely by donations from the people of that city (and whatever the tourists give)

then you realise that this is a monument to the people of Barcelona.

Barcelona is a city with spirit. It is encumbent on Burgers of the city who become successful to give back to the city. This means that when someone gets rich

in Barcelona they build a monument, a park, a church, a garden. Beacuase of this the city is beautiful and feels homely.

The city has 4.5 km of beaches around Barceloneta to the newest, sandless bathing zone in the Forum. These are all man made! They had no beach there so

they brought down the sand from the mountains and made a beach. The bars along there while expensive are a nice place to hang out after 5 o'clock with all the

locals descending with DJ's and tapas.

The Nou camp is defo worth a visit. Ditch the gf/wife to the shops one afternoon and get the bus/taxi out to one of the tours. You will be in awe I promise. Dont

miss it.

Nightlife is totally different to ireland. They come out to eat there about 10/11 and finish up around 1. Then they go to a bar for a couple of hours. Then they go to

the club at 3/4 till dawn. This is weird for me. I want to have my dinner at 7 . Go to pub. Drink. Home at 2 or 3. if you do this you will be the only people out.

Well you and the other couple from ireland/England at the next table. Its worth doing the Spanish thing for one of the nights just to experience it. It means the

next day is a write off tho.

Food in Barcelona is a mixed bag. It is worth hitting the web to find the best/trendiest spots as they change and evolve constantly. We tried some of the bigger Tapas houses and found them to be adequate. On other visits I have been in back street bars where they serve tapas and they were just as good. So it is luck of the draw with Tapas im afraid. I found the best meal in Barcelona is the long lunch. All there fish is excellent and I love the tomato bread that they serve as an appetiser. Again do some research before you go.

Lowlights
I have been mugged there at night at the end of the ramblas towards the Port. it is hopping around there at night but it draws mainly hawkers, prostitutes, drug sellers, muggers, hippies, jugglers and lollygaggers. Be prepared for hassle, sales pitches, pickpocket attempts etc. It is not as bad as it sounds but if you are visibly drunk prepare to get rolled. Keep your wits about you and if anyone wants to talk to you when they ask you where you are form say Iceland and you only speak Icelandish. That confuses them terribly. I do this in every foreign country when approcahed by Hawkers.

Also an attempted mugging - the last time we were there we stayed in an apartment and came home late every night. The last night there was a group waiting for us (they must have been watching us for days) to come home to mug us. If we had been in smaller groups we were in trouble. The first guys who walked around the corner were surrounded but then the rest of us came around and they just disapeared. That is one thing - violent incidents there are very low. My point is Barcelona is not an overly safe city. Dont be freaked out but be careful at night.

There is loads more highlights by the way but go and enjoy.

peter1892

Casa Battlo & La Pedrera (Passeig de Gracia, just up from Place Catalunya) - two houses that Gaudi designed/renovated that are worth a look. A lot of Barcelona's architecture is inspired by gaudi, Sagrada Familia being the most obvious example.

If you are remotely interested in football then do not miss the Camp Nou. FCB are linked into the very soul of the city, region & it's people. In fact even if you're not into football I'd say go along anyway.

As mentioned, the bus tours are very handy for getting around & they stop at many of the main points of interest. It's a great city, do be careful around the Ramblas at night. I've been twice & thankfully never had a problem, I've got mates who live there & while sh!tty things do happen they do feel relatively safe there.

Peyton Manning

lol Barcelona are one of my favourite teams - not a chance Id miss the Nou Camp.

Whats the city like size-wise? All these places mentioned, are they within walking distance of each other? We are staying at the Hotel Lami - does anyboyd know where this is in relation to all these places mentioned?

smemon

metro is an absolute breeze to use, i advise getting a 'T10' ticket which means you can hop on any tram/train/bus and just swipe it for 10 journeys.

the city is huge... for example, the nou camp to aquarium could not be walked well it could but it takes about half an hour on the metro

just look for a red 'M' sign, and there's a metro about. The metro system rocks..

also, DO NOT miss 'The Magic Fountain of Montjuic' (google it).

absolutely incredible, very romantic also so the two of you will enjoy it. Show starts @ 7pm every evening and last for 10 minutes. It's like a fireworks display only with water

melekalikimaka

warning tho, las ramblas at night is a freakin hellhole, hookers/muggers galore, dont EVER put anything in your back pocket, dont talk to anyone morrocan looking and dont expect the police to be of assistance if anything happens

Peyton Manning

Is Las Ramblas really as bad as they say? What if u just walked briskly, minding your own business? And if its to be avoided at night-time, what time would you want to start leaving that general area at?

Last thing, does anyone know where Hotel Lami is situated? And where is the general nightlife hub? I hope its not Las Ramblas after what Ive heard

masterK

Archimedes wrote:

Is Las Ramblas really as bad as they say? What if u just walked briskly, minding your own business? And if its to be avoided at night-time, what time would you want to start leaving that general area at?

Last thing, does anyone know where Hotel Lami is situated? And where is the general nightlife hub? I hope its not Las Ramblas after what Ive heard

I was there during the summer for 4 nights and never noticed any sort of trouble around Los Ramblos, it's probably much the same as O'Connel St/Oxford St. or the main thoroughfare in an major city just use common sense and you'll be all right.

As for nightlife, I didn't find it all that great. There is a big square about 2/3rds of the way down Los Ramblos off a little side street(actually more like an alley). There are a load of restaurants and a few bars there (including some total rip-off Irish bars). There was a lovely restaurant in the main square, I'm can't recall the name of it. If you walk onto the square from Los Ramblos it would be in the top left corner of the square. Also there was a tiny side street to the right of the square where there was a really lovely and cheap restaurant that specialized in veal (you'll know it by the queues outside).

golden

Would go along with Jester77 my brotherinlaw was in Barcelona and he had his rucksack taken from his back (strap was cut) needless to say he lost it, but having said that he had a great time

CombatCow

Yup park Guell is really nice, it's on the bus tour route, and i would recommend it. Also iv never had a problem with la rambla if you act sensible and don't linger around watching the street acts. Mountains,city and beach...Barcelona has it all, it's one of my favorite places. Bari Gothic is great to do a walking tour of aswell, they start from placa de catalunya (sp)


Enjoy,

CC

melekalikimaka

Archimedes wrote:

Is Las Ramblas really as bad as they say? What if u just walked briskly, minding your own business? And if its to be avoided at night-time, what time would you want to start leaving that general area at?

Last thing, does anyone know where Hotel Lami is situated? And where is the general nightlife hub? I hope its not Las Ramblas after what Ive heard

its at the end of las ramblas on a pier, a complex of niteclubs, more down the coast to the left if standing at the bottom looking to the sea. yes it is that bad, you will be offered every drug and type of woman under the sun, my mate got a box off a hooker for telling her to f off cos she follweded us halkway home. go in big groups and be wary and you'll be ok. taxi drivers tend to take ya for a piss take drive round the city going home also. once ya know what to look out for it is great fun, been there a number of times

imeatingchips

have a read of http://wikitravel.org/en/Barcelona we found it very good. defo go to the restaurant "le quinze nits" its savaiste. and go to the market just off ramblas "La Boqueria" i think it's called.

rediguana

Barca's great!

I actually went to FC Barcelona versus Atletico Madrid with my girlfriend. She had a great time with the atmosphere and the spectacle etc, even though the match itself was raw. Tours can suck but a game would be good, even for a girl. It's hardly Oriel Park

Sagrada Familia is amazing. I went there reluctantly, but I gotta say it was worth it. Nice unassuming part of the city too.

Um, what else... Oh yeah, check out the aquarium. You'd walk around it in an hour and you get great close ups of sharks. You can go through a tunnel and all, so the sharks are swimming over you. There are even penguins there, though not in the shark tank.

If you haven't booked your hotel yet, I wholeheartedly recommend Gran Hotel Torre Catalunya. The Ryanair bus from Reus stops right outside (Southern Bus Station) but it's accessible from everywhere, really. It has a spa centre there with lovely staff, to assuage your GF's football anguish.

Raskolnikov

If you want to enjoy Barcelona, do your homework. The guidebooks I've read are all pretty much crap. They'll prattle on about the magificence of strolling down Las Ramblas when the reality is an enormous tourist trap with plenty of pasty-faced suckers waiting for their wallets to be emptied. One of the few things the Lonely Planet book dismissed was the Aquarium (the same book that made terrible recommendations in relation to the Ramblas), my girlfriend and I loved it! Do your homework, follow the recommendations of others who have been to Barcelona. There's so much that's good about Barcelona, but equally, there's so much that's awful about it.

My biggest gripe about Barcelona is food. It's not like Dublin where you can walk into almost anywhere and expect at least an acceptable meal. There are just so many places that service awful, awful crap. You can pretty much discount any restaraunt on Las Ramblas. Overpriced, filthy tapas joints with cockroaches jumping out of the walls. Infact, you're best off not buying anything at all on Las Ramblas, everything will be 2x as expensive as it should be.

In terms of security. Never bring your passport outside with you. Never bring a significant amount of money. When approached by anyone of N. African/Arabian extraction, walk on and ignore. No disrespect, but 99.99% of the time, they'll only try to offer you drugs, beer or hookers. If the streets are empty and it's night time, find a taxi ASAP. The worst places for the dodgy elements are near the water, so avoid those areas.

My little known Barcelona tip. Conesa sandwiches. These are so yummy and cheap. The Barcelona people queue for ages to get their fix so you know it'll be good. The address is in the link.

BHW

I was there before xmas with the gf. This thead makes it sound like a ****hole! I stayed just off las ramblas, at night there was a few people seling drugs we just walk past they siad nothing sure You get that in lots of citys.

Sagrada Familia and nou camp are a must, make sure you get the lift to the top of the Sagrada Familia, las ramblas is great during the day, There is a street parralel to las ramblas called via letanna(?) this is amazing.

a GREAT GREAR plcae if you ask me. I only g=have good things to say about barcelona.

Enjoy

girloperfection

was in salou in april and went to barcelona for a day to do a bit of shopping and sight seeing, i would highly recommend the zoo in barcelona if you are and animal lover, the animals are unbelievably close to you, unlike dublin zoo where you are looking into the distance at the animals (sometimes wondering if anything is there at all...). well worth a visit imo.

trixiem

Defintely do the open air bus tour it goes everywhere and the tour is in English. It goes to the Nou Camp too

I did the Nou Camp tour with my boyfriend and it was enjoyable and I'm not a soccer fan - just take her shopping along AV Diagonal and she'll be fine!

Be sure to take one of the boat trips around the port too.

There is a cable car which goes from the port up to the hills which is supposed to be lovely.

I have heard a lot of the pickpocketing too and people we met had been targeted but never saw anything.
We got very drunk one night in a fab irish bar called the george payne and believe me if we werent robbed that night we would never be robbed.

enjoy your trip, its a great city

SarahSassy

Take her to El Bosc De Les Fades. Its a bar which was built by the wax museum. Its in a small lane adjacent to the wax museum at the bottom of Las Ramblas (at the port).

Its stunning and watch mirrors changing into statues and weird things like that. Well worth seeing.

fifib

is it really that bad for muggings etc... im headin there in a few weeks and absoluitely sh***n a brick now! 2 of us are stayin in an apartment down carrier nou de la rambla, which is at the back of las ramblas so im worried now bout quiet lil streets at nite! while the others are in a hotel on las ramblas!