Barcelona neighborhoods - again
 

Still looking at apartments in Barcelona for a week in mid-May 2019. We area 60-something couple, well traveled, enjoy cultural offerings, walking, good food - and this will be the final week of a month-long adventure in Spain. This will be our first time to visit Barcelona. I'm looking at apartments in these neighborhoods - most of the apartments I am drawn to seem to have similar amenities, but I'm just not sure of the pros and cons of each location. Or should I be looking in other areas of the city, too? Anyone?

Gothic Quarter
Gracia
Eixample

You can just look at a map and get the most important issue regarding the differences which is the location IMO. And how far it is to wherever you think you will be wanting to sightsee. Then you can see quite clearly that Gracia is farther from some basic tourist sights which you may or may not want to see (eg, various Gaudi buildings, cathedrals, museums, etc). And parts of it are really far, and Eixample area is humongous also so it really depends exactly where in them you are talking about. As in any city, I look for proximity to public transportation (buses and metro), which are marked on Google maps, also. Of course the Gothic are is an older part of the city, you can sort of tell by the name, and thus streets are narrow and is it smaller and it is packed with tourists. Eixample is in general more "upscale" I guess you could say than Gracia. For example, Passeig de Gracia has a lot of high=end stores.

For someone who has never been there, I personally think the MOST IMPORTANT criteria should be location and what makes your visit easiest. For someone who has been there multiple times and knows it and wants a more relaxed, off the radar stay, that might not be as important because they may not want to be visiting some of the iconic main draws. But your opnions may differ from mine on that issue.

I think the Gothic quarter is full of too many tourists myself, but I see it recommended on here by others so they obviously disagree with me.

AS far as whether there are even more parts of the city where you should be looking, I'd say no, I think you are making this into too big a project for a first-time tourist stay.

The Eixample is an excellent neighborhood in which to stay. Although it encompasses a large area, it is primarily residential and except for a few areas, it is comfortable.

We have been visiting Barcelona since the early 1970's and were last there this past May and the Gothic quarter is too frenetic and busy.

I just came from Barcelona and stayed in the Eixample area at the Regente Hotel. If I were to go back to Barcelona I would stay in same area. I walked to the Gothic area which is very busy but interesting--especially if you like the Picasso Museum. I spent the entire day there which was enough. The Eixample area is upscale but plenty of fine restaurants, and shops. As a matter of fact, I am a walker and walked to most of the points of interest.,

I have stayed in various areas in about nine visits to the city, but Eixample ,close to Rambla de Catalunya
( not Ramblas) , has been my favorite ..

Personally near Placa de Catalunya is easiest if you need to get to and from the airport.

But any place between there and the sea is fine for me. It's only about 30 maybe a 40 minute walk from the Placa de Catalunya to the beach area. For most tourists being in that area means being close to the touristy sites.. Sagrada Familia is the main site outside this area.

I'd avoid the area nearest Ramblas.

We were happy in the Gothic Quarter. We stayed in a hotel, not an apartment, but were fortunate that our room was actually very quiet.

We loved our Eixample flat. Gracia would be a second choice. Gothic quarter was too full of tourists.
BCN is not that big, so getting around is fairly easy. We like coming home to a relatively quiet neighborhood.

While Gracia and the Gothic quarter are fairly compact neighborhoods, Eixample is a huge district. So it depends where exactly that apartment in question is located.
The part of Eixample which danon mentioned is the one with the widest range of cafes, restaurants, shops and also several major sights in walking distance. Other parts of Eixample are more residential with somewhat limited options to eat out in walking distance at night. But if you prefer to come home to a quiet neighborhood like Seamus this would be a good choice and not a downside.
As long as that place is near a metro stop, I would not worry too much about location.
Another part of Barcelona which I liked to stay in was Poble Sec.

Just back from our first time in Barcelona, and we loved it. We are not normally "big city" people, but between the Sagrada Familia (which really really SPOKE to us) and the kind lovely people there, we were sold! That said, we did stay in the "touristy" Bari Gotic, however we rented a great air bnb apartment with four little balconies to take in all the action in the narrow allies below. It was noisy (but we slept with our windows open) but that was part of the charm. This apt was around the corner from the Santa Maria Del Pi church, so google and see that it is close to everything, including metro, beach, and Placa Catalunya. Also, it was part of a family home, so there really are real families in this neighborhood (and the family was very sweet to us).

Here is the link in case you're interested:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10108082

The Gothic quarter is close to everything but on our last trip we split our time between there and the Poblenou neighborhood, which we really liked. Upscale residential area with a good selection of shops, restaurants, cafes, and much less touristy.