My girlfriends and I have traveled together at least once a year for the past 4 years and when what appeared to be a very well priced Barcelona package popped up on Travel Zoo last November for our February school vacation week, I suggested we give it a go. We traveled from NYC on American (not my favorite these days) with only our carry on (the only way to go IMO) and arrived without a hitch. Cabbed it to HCC Open (30E) , unpacked in a flash and walked to the Placa de Cataluna (about 15 min). There we boarded one of the on/off buses and did the red route around the city to get an idea of what was instore for us. I'd highly recommend this for first timers. We bought the 2 day pass (30E) and did the blue route the following day. Thanks Kwoo for your great trip report. We used a lot of your ideas during our week.
Fine dining is not a priority with my friends, so don't use this report as a guide for that. We did have just right tapas meals and were treated to an authentic Catalonian meal at a friend's house. We loved drinking cava however and our meals generally ran 20 E each for dinner and less if we ate lunch (most of the time we didn't). The hotel has a fine breakfast and we made sure to eat well in the morning. More to come later........

I'm looking forward to your report.

We are planing to be in Barcelona at the end of April for 3 night. Appreciate any hotel recommendations.

We're waaaiiting.

Glad to hear my trip report was helpful. Looking forward to the rest of your report.