Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

In February, The Continental Hotel, with balcony, will be the best place to stay in Barcelona. The price, (95 Euro, double, balcony) is a super deal compared to other places near the Ramblas, (75 Euro) and up, for much less.

The airport bus stop, (3.45 Euro) and the train (2 Euro) to the airport is less than a minute away. At the airport, the train is a much much longer walk to the terminal.

A taxi to the airport is 13 Euro, and with "extras" 17 Euro. You can barter the price to the airport in the early morning.

At the Continental, the Rambla balcony view is fantastic. Whenever we walked into the room or simple got up from bed, we were always compelled to open the balcony door and walk out on the huge balcony to check out was happening on the Ramblas.

And there was always something going on, well into the early morning. One day, there was a rooster crowing outside our window. Well, we thought there was a rooster, until we found out it was a rooster man.

His gig was making the most authentic rooster sounds you can imagine while flapping plastic wings. You would think this was quite a stupid routine, but that darn sound was so real, people could not resist his sloppy charm.

Always something going on, but it was noisy, very noisy. We could never dream of sleeping with the door open, nor would we want to sleep at the Continental when the weather was anything other than very cool. One warmer day, 19C, was enough to show us just how uncomfortable our room could get.

On the other hand, we would never want to stay in Eixample. While you can easily understand why many people like this area, it's newer, organized and the hotels are more of what many travelers expect, in our minds, you are removing yourself from one of the most exciting and unique areas in Europe, the Ramblas.

The roads in Eixample are big, busy and the long walk over to the Rambla, could possibly stop you from spending more time there and in Barcelona that would really be a huge mistake. On the Rambla, things are always changing, a fluid situation that always serves up something new with each and every pass. It's not hard to see and discover things that you'll be glad you did not miss.

In Barcelona, we found out that local restaurants, (yes that is a broad term in Barcelona) do not have a proper menu and price list. After asking, we were told that menus were not necessary because the prices are pretty much the same everywhere, varying a few cents here or there, depending on location. That turned out to be true, which made Tapas Tapas, a place that has been talked about here before, really stand out.

We like to suggest an alternative, Ciudad Condal. This tapas place was suggested by the information desk at the airport. I have this thing of asking the person on duty, the name of the last place they ate out at and Ciudad Condal was one that was mentioned.

Ciudad Condal is as upscale a place as Tapas Tapas and located only one street over on Rambla De Catalunya 18., but missing from Ciudad Condal is the huge sign with the price listings, the bright lights and the showcase windows, which really turned us off at Tapas Tapas.

Supporting a huge crowed of visitors and Spaniards, Ciudad Condal was the first place we had a meal and the challenge of finding out the prices. There was an incomplete menu that was brought out on request, but none of the staff really knew the prices. When we asked, they had to go to the register to check. The wait staff did not seem bothered by this, even though the place was super busy, but we eventually gave up asking, after noticing no one else seemed to care.

Ciudad Condal turned out to be a great find, about 1 Euro cheaper than any tapas place around Plza Catalunya. At the counter, tapas were .98, water .85, large beer 1.75, glass wine 1.10, Catalunyan's tradition Bacalao Lluna 5.10 and clams 5.95.

You can see these prices are great, reflecting street prices more than a tapas place in Eixample.

Of course, there are many other places that are much less expensive than the prices listed above, but the -fancy tapas- taste so good.

At first glance, Barcelona's tour bus is an exceptional deal, 15 Euros for 1 day, 19 Euros for 2 consecutive days, including two completely different 2 hour routes, discount book and reboarding privileges. But, although there are regular buses, the crowds are overwhelming and long waits are a possibility. We rode the full tours without getting off and with a metro pass, went back to revisit the sights we liked the best.

The tour routes are long with few major sights, but a ride through the streets of Barcelona on top of an open air bus, should not be missed.

For us, the -Blue- route was boring and we eventually got off the bus at the Port Olimpic stop, and then walked back to Barceloneta along the beach, stopping to climb up the mesh net pyramid for a comfortable view of the area. This is a really good ideal.

Barceloneta is small, you can easily walk the whole area in one hour. The outdoor cafes on the beach were the place to sit, the restaurants on the -fancy- strip were overdeveloped and desperate and the small, side street bars were filled with locals that have lived together for a long time. In these areas, visitors are an after thought.

At a fruit stand, we misread the sign for the price of grapes. The prices were so low, we asked to check, the fruit vendor said yes, later, we found out that the grapes were more than 2 Euros more expensive per kilo. After asking why he told us the lower price was correct, he responded that we were not buying so much so it didn't matter.