kja

Oooh, if you can see the castellers, do!

danon

We enjoyed a day trip to Tarragona
..took the slower train( an hour);
just walked up to town from the station.
You might purchase tickets for Sagrada Familia on line to avoid
the lineups.
Unlike others, I did not like Tickets

For elegant cafes , shops and restaurants visit Rambla de Catalunya
( NOT Ramblas ) and Paseo de Gracia.


Don't know the best part of the beach - just take a walk by the sea, stop
at one of many restaurants , join the locals who know
how to relax in this unique place.

Byron1

Everything, thank you once again for this information. As we continue to plan, we may ask more questions.

benmia

We LOVED Barcelona. Take time to see the Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, Casa Battlo, and Park Guell, all of which you should purchase tickets in advance. If you can, see a performance at the Music Palace. We did a lovely day trip to Girona and toured wqith a private guide.

TPAYT

Bookmarking

Mimar

But if you can't attend a performance at the Palace of Catalan Music, take a tour of it. It's one of my most memorable visits in an architecturally memorable city.

What I really regret missing is the Hospital of Sant Pau, a complex of modernist buildings not far from the Sagrada Familia. Well, next time....

Both of the above were designed by by the Catalan art nouveau architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and each is a World Heritage Site.

Byron1

Thank you everyone. Great suggestions.
We read a lot about pick pocketing but you hear that in a lot of major cities.
Any comments?

emily71

Byron1- We are going to Barcelona in a few days and yes Barcelona has a huge pickpocketing problem. I was in Madrid a few years ago and the news there had a segment about the highest crime cities. Even the Spanish acknowledge that Barcelona is bad.

That said, rules still apply. Don't leave purse, cell phones, wallet on the tables in restaurants. Only carry enough cash and a credit card for what you will need in a day-leave everything else in hotel safe.If someone comes too close to you, tries to distract you or pushes you, keep one hand on your purse/wallet at all times. Americans tend to not want to seem rude but I've had to push some people away from me on the Metro.

Otherwise, enjoy and while you can be vigilant-have fun as well.

danon

I have been to Barcelona nine times, never had a problem
Used public transit daily, often at night.
Having said that, I understand that some people had a bad experience and that
being careful is a good idea.

kwren

We just got back from a week in Barcelona. Sorry Dukey, but if you were describing Barcelona above, then we were in the wrong city!

Best meal - Mont Bar - the tuna tartar is art on a plate, the crispy poached egg with potato puree and truffles might have been the best thing we have ever eaten anywhere
Another very good one - the Experience Menu at Arcano (but be sure you are hungry)
Sensi Bistro for the fresh truffle ravioli in parmesan cream
Orio was fun. You help yourself to tapas from the many serving dishes on the bar or hot items which were passed around. Keep your pile of toothpicks and pay at the end based on how many you have on your plate. 2.10 euros a pick. The best food? No, but good, a very different way to eat, quick if you want it to be and we had fun.

We usually ate around 7 - 7:30.

People might recommend the 7 Portes, but we were not enamored by the snooty waiters or even the food particularly.

I haven't started my trip report, but we stayed in the H10 Cubik which was the perfect spot and half a block from 2 major metro lines. We could easily walk to the old town and also to the Casa Batllo and La Pedrana. It was across from the Music Hall (yes, take the tour and/or see a concert - you probably don't need to do both since you will see the same things unless you want to hear all about it.) I know you have a hotel and the Arc de Triumpf is within walking distance of our hotel so I think you will be happy although you will have to walk farther to get to the Gaudi houses I just mentioned.

We didn't get pickpocketed but there were announcements to be careful so we paid attention.

The hospital tour was great - Sant Pau REcinta Modernista. What an amazing and beautiful group of buildings. If you go there and like hot chocolate, go to the little cafe across the street from the main entrance - Insolita Gea. OMG that HC was the BEST ever. Thick sort of like pudding. Who cares if it is summer! Perfectly sweet but not overpoweringly so. HC and churros are a big thing in Barcelona. The day we were at this cafe, the cooks were in at 11 so they didn't have churros when we got there early (which might be a winter things, I'm not sure). You won't regret stopping for a snack or meal either. They cook everything fresh there and the guys working there were very friendly.

Definitely go to the Tablao Cordoba for dinner and the flamenco show. You can walk there from your hotel. The food was just OK but when you get dinner, you also get the best seats right up by the little stage. You can also go for the show and drink but the seats aren't quite as good, although I would still do that instead of missing this performance. We did it our first night after a nap and it helped get us over our jet lag because there was no way we were going to fall asleep during this performance. One of the highlights for us for sure! There were no lines anywhere in Feb but in June you might want to follow the recommendations to book things in advance.

So this just turned into a mini trip report. Other than our hotel, most of what I wrote about were recommended to us by other people, especially the restaurants. It was an incredible trip I wish we had been there longer than a week!

kja

I thought Dukey1 captured part of Barcelona's unique and quirky charm quite well, even if it doesn't capture ALL of Barcelona. JMO.

Byron1

Thank you everyone. Kwren, you just got back and you took the time to write us so much. Thank you. The restaurants sound great. I assume you did not take a side day trip anywhere outside of Barcelona? We know there is lots to do there.

Thanks again.

kimhe

Orio could give you a fine taste of the famous Basque cuisine, here they serve the so called pintxos, an essential part of the food culture in Spain's gastronomical heartland. http://www.oriogastronomiavasca.com/eng/comer-en-orio/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...Catalonia.html

Very few pintxos bars counting tooth pics in the Basque Country itself, here it's normally all based on trust, and a pintxos bar crawl could be a fantastic and affordable gastronomical experience. Perhaps an inspiration for a future trip? http://www.euskoguide.com/food-drink...ntxos-pinchos/

39 Michelin star restaurants in the small Basque Country with only 2,2 mill people. And on the last "World's best restaurants" list, there are four Basque restaurants among top 21, twice as many as both US, UK and France: http://www.euskoguide.com/food-drink...r-restaurants/
http://www.theworlds50best.com/

kwren

Thanks kimhe - we really enjoyed Orio - I didn't know it was something special! It was amazing to see an 'honor' restaurant. I have a picture of my plate with the used toothpicks all lined up. Byron - this place is in the old town.

Byron - yes, we did take a day trip. We took the train to Montserrat. I didn't mention it because you were asking about trips to Tarragona. We enjoyed Montserrat and if we could have done the hiking, it would have been even better.

We were in Barcelona by chance over the weekend of the Santa Eulalia Festival. One morning there were about 6 castellan teams building their human towers for about 1 1/2 hours. Never saw anything like it. If you have the chance, do try to see that.

We went to Parc Guell at the end of the day. I wouldn't go then again because the sun was not shining on anything other than Barcelona itself and the sea. The colors at the park would be so much more vibrant if the sun was shining directly on the park (but maybe it would be in Jun as opposed to Feb - who knows)

kimhe

Well, Orio is now one of very many places in Barcelona that are doing the Basque style pintxos thing, and it seems like they're doing it fine. They're probably collaborating with, or they are an offspring from, the Euskal Etxea Basque Cultural center in Barcelona. At least their homepage presentations are almost identical, and Euskal Etxea is a fine place. http://www.euskaletxeataberna.com/comer-en-euskaletxea/
http://www.oriogastronomiavasca.com/eng/comer-en-orio/

But pintxos in the Basque Country is another world and something I highly recommend to try out on a future trip to Spain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WowXrGJdFCU
"Pintxos crawl with Michelin star chefs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmBAvqa_0U

All about going for pintxos in San Sebastián and a few other cities: http://www.todopintxos.com/home/home.php?lang=en

kwren

Orio was one of the restaurants which wasn't specifically recommended to us - we saw it and decided to give it a try - a good choice for us. We loved sitting at the bar.

kwren

In case anyone is interested, I just started my Barcelona trip report. It is going to take a while to do it all, but at least I started!

BARCELONA! Tapas, tours & towers - flamenco, festas & food!

kwren

Someone pointed out that I should have added the link so here it is:


http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...estas-food.cfm