We are looking for a large apartment in Barcelona for July 2011. There will be 8 of us, 4 of which are teenagers, so we are looking for an area with that will keep them entertained. I have searched through these boards but most apartments that are recommended are too small. Anyone with experience with a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment in a good area for teens/family?

Some thoughts:

Apartments that large are less common than 1-2 BR apartments, so your choices might be limited. It will be highly unlikely that you will be able to find one apartment that size at exactly the street corner where someone else had a great 1BR apartment. Even major rental websites like oh-barcelona.com list only 15 apartments that can host 8 people in all BCN (compared to 650 apartments they claim to have for rent).

The Old Town including the favorable Born area has small historic houses. Few are made to host 8 people by 21st century standards re. size.
The Eixample area might be a more successfull area to look into.

July... will most likely be hot. I would know better places to be than in the downtown area of a sizzling city. Even if you have A/C in the apartment (which I consider a MUST in July), you will spend time outdoors a LOT.

Alternative options might be:
near/on the beach, e.g. Barceloneta. Again, only small houses, but you actually walk 1-5 minutes to the beach.
Zona Alta (Pedralbes, Sarrià, Sant Gervasi, Horta).. more breeze, better climate. If you are lucky you might even might apartments w/ pool. But you should keep an eye on proximity to next metro station. It's further away from the city center, but usually just a 10-15min metro ride.
Somewhere else on the beach.. in proximity of BCN, e.g. Castelldefels or Sitges. The upside is being in a sea resort when it's hot. The downside is the "commute" into BCN by train. Not costly, but it takes 30-40mins each time you wish to go to the city.

But to know which area will keep your teenagers entertained, you might have to give a few hints about their interests. And their age. I could think of some areas that will keep an 18 or 19yo entertained, but might offer not the right type of entertainment for a 13 or 14yo ;-)

Consider renting two apartments -- in the same bldg, same block, or even just the same neighborhood. It would be a lot easier (and just possibly, cheaper)

Try entering 'barcelona sleeps 8' into the search engine. I came up with a few, though I notice one had 3 bedrooms and only one bath. Not fun to contemplate 8 people with one bathroom.
I'm checking this place out, though you would need two apartments
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-ren...2?uni_id=90962

Note that each apartment is on it's own floor and there isn't an elevator.
Good luck in your search!

Thanks everyone. I will give your suggestions a try.

take a look at
http://www.habitatapartments.com

we used them 3 times.
they offer several 4 bdm apt with 2 bth.