Barcelona
 

Looking for a bit of help. Trying to decide where to go for a week in early June.
On the list is Barcelona. We love Paris, London and Rome. We love Italy the most for the food.
How would you rate Barcelona in comparison to these other three cities?
We love history, great food and the feel of the culture when we travel.
If it is Barcelona, we hear it is best to stay centrally. We always like to get a place that is in a quiet location but near the sites, We are ok with spending around 200 euros per night.
We would appreciate hearing the opinions of this forum. You are always so knowledgeable.
Thank you in advance.

Whatever some say, UK has no real food history. Some of their chefs are catching up but as a whole they don't know what food is. Period.

Besides they decided to drop out of Europe, so they'll lapse back into prehistorical times, expect cannibalism soon. Fullstop.

Barcelona Roma and Paris are roughly equal in terms of
- food : gorgeous everywhere. More pasta in Roma, more seafood in Barcelona. Good everywhere.
- culture : contrary to UK who are actually warriors with no education who feel frustrated at home and need space to colonize, Roma and Paris are full of ancient monuments.
- architecture : drawback of the above, these uncivilized Brits have mixed old and new, and sometimes, just sometimes, they hit paydirt.
- history : equal : all old cities, all full of history. Some more ancient, some less.
- size : Paris is doable on foot, as is most of Barcelona, Roma is bigger and London is quiote big.
- cost : London is the most expensive, I'd put Roma as second, Paris third and Barcelona last.

So : play head or tails, all cities are gorgeous.

Ah. London speaks a weird language, other cities a beautiful latine language. But if your ears can stand cockney, why not ;-)

Barcelona is a Mediterenian city ( port) right on the sea..
smaller than Rome, Paris or London ( very walkable ), 2000 year old history, some
unique architecture, great food and wine, several interesting museums, lovely
avenues and beautiful parks.

Without criticizing Woinparis's comparisons, I'll simply note that I am not inclined to make comparisons.

I agree with danon's summary, and with your stated interests, I would think Barcelona a very good choice.

For areas to stay, search this forum -- there are LOTS of threads on the topic.

And of course, get a good guidebook or two -- the cost will be nominal in comparison to the cost of the trip, and you will learn things you didn't even realize that you should ask!

danon sums it up excellently. And here you can follow up in more detail: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/

Do you like eating late (after 9PM is helpful)?

Do you like "living statues?"

Do you like "cathedrals" which look like some kid's semi-washed-away sand castle at the beach or more or less "classic gothic in some section of tow known as 'gothic?'

Swirls of humanity along with bird and flower sellers, shell games, a couple of pickpockets, an opera house that has burned down three different times, and a department store "food court" which looks out over the tops of the buildings?

A fantasy-driven park and a couple of buildings that defy description?

Yeah, it is definitely "for you."

We really enjoyed our time in Barcelona. We also love Paris, London and Rome and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed Barcelona. We enjoyed the food, history, architecture and museums. We were only there for about three days but would have happily stayed longer.

I think Dukey must have missed the best of Barcelona - we loved our time there. Click on my screen name to go to my report. Di

Barcelona surprised us, we didn't expect to enjoy it as much as we did. We had some lovely meals there and really enjoyed the city.

We thought it was beautiful and will definitely go back.

You can see our pics here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...57644215874841

And I whole heartedly disagree about food in the UK. We now have a fantastic food scene whether you like street food or Michelin restaurants. A little research will show this to be true. I never eat poorly and I live in London! It is easy to eat poorly everywhere...even in Paris and Brussels!

agree wholeheartedly jamikins

Thank you, everyone. We really appreciated reading all th comments. We booked Barcelona for 6 nights in mid June and we are excited about it.

We are staying near the Arc du Triomphf at a great place.

What we would appreciate hearing from you about the following knowing we are staying 6 nights:

1) great restaurants - we love quality restaurants and we also know that great family run restaurants are fantastic finds. We love good fish too. We would appreciate any thoughts.

2) going to sights. What are the best times of the day to see the sights?

3) best areas for shopping.

4) best beach area

5). Train - if we were to take one or two days to go to some nice surrounding areas and experience a fishing village etc what should you recommend? We would rather not be on a train for more than approximately an hour. Someone mentioned there is a Roma site near by worth seeing. Also, any recommended restaurants at that site.

Thank you, everyone! Have a good day.

We loved Tickets...but you need to reserve as soon as the booking window opens to get a table. Very inventive and fun tapas.

http://www.ticketsbar.es/en/coneix

Here is my 2015 Trip report with photos. First five days are in Barcelona. This should give you lots of ideas and what to reserve before you go.

<B>http://travelswithmaitaitom.com/spain-2015/</B>

((H))

Now that you've decided to go, please get yourselves a decent guidebook. The cost will be nugatory in comparison to the cost of your trip, and you will learn things that you don't even know to ask.

The Roman site nearby is Tarragona.

There are MANY threads on Barcelona on this board; please use the search function to find them and browse through them.

And for another trip report,
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-catalunya.cfm

Super. Thank you, everyone.....so helpful as usual.

Byron1, enjoy your time in Barcelona. Believe me, I did not miss "the best" but only the "my opinion is so much better than yours" people. I suspect you'll agree once you arrive, too.

Maitaitom I just read you link. You did an amazing job. Thanks so much!!!!

Everyone, we are thinking of going by train one day from Barcelona tô Tarragona. What train service would we take? Thanks.

Take a look at rome2rio.com -- it should have the links you need for transportation information.

Six nights is not a lot!

To get to Tarragona, you can take the train but times, hours spent and costs vary. There is a fast train (the one from Barcelona to Madrid) that stops in Camp Tarragona but this is not the closest station to the center. You might take a slower train, get off at Tarragona stop which is right on the sea and an easy but uphill walk to the center. You can check the timetable at renfe.com.

I love to hang out and eat and drink in Placa del Forum in Tarragona. Most tourists end up at Placa de la Font but that is not where the locals go. The whole square (where the Roman forum was) is tapas bars. My favorite is Espai Vi.

Another fab restaurant in Tarragona is Almosta:
https://www.facebook.com/ginkgo.biloba.56

But honestly for a day trip I would do tapas so that you have more time to walk around and explore.

Do try to catch a viewing of the castellers (human towers.) You can usually find them in Barcelona on the weekends, somewhere. The schedule is here -
http://www.cccc.cat/contents/calendar-of-performances-6