I will be in Barcelona from October 20th until the 26th for my honeymoon and am looking for some nice ideas of places to take the new wifey, things to do, etc. We are an easy going couple who have wide ranging interests. We can enjoy exciting night clubs or quiet parks just the same.
I have been to the city once for X06, which is what made me consider it for our honeymoon, though I didn’t get a lot of time to explore the city.
So far we’ve got the following things on our list:
Las Ramblas - Shopping and sight seeing
Barcelona Aquarium - Fishies!
Zoo Barcelona - Animals!
Olympic Port and Port Vell - Shopping, sight seeing, and nightlife
Tibidabo Funfair - Old amusement park on the hill overlooking the city
Tablao de Carmen - multi course dinner with flamenco show
A handful of bars, nightclubs, and restaurants
What else would you recommend us see or do while we are there?
I love the City of Barcelona. I would live there if I could.
Definitely spend time in the Gothic Quarter and the surrounding old city.
Also track down the various buildings designed by Antonin Guadi including la Sagrada Família (his unfinshed cathedral), Casa Milà which you can go in an tour and Park Güell to which you should devote an entire morning.
I liked the Gothic quarter and the Sagrada familia a fair bit. They also have an old fort and military museam up on the hill by the shore that I thought was pretty neat. Has some good views too.
My girlfriend-at-the-time had gone to high school in Barcelona so we were off the beaten path for most of our trip. The most touristy thing we did was on the last day when we went to the gift shop at Park Güell and, sure enough, her wallet with our passports in it got lifted. (Doh! Lots of lessons learned about keeping passports in hotel safes and leaving a photocopy with a friend stateside.)
It was a frantic afternoon of scrambling from the police station to the embassy, all the way across town for traveler’s checks, to the photo booth and back to the embassy with five minutes to spare. But this adventure was all followed by beer, pulpitos and white fish tapas in an outdoor cafe which is a fine way to end any day.
Thirded for the thieving bit. They’re bold and good.
If some scene or person distracts you, then grap onto your stuff. The bottom of the Rambla also has quite agressive African hookers.
Also the Rambla isn’t that good for shopping. Explore the smaller streets.
My only advice when it comes to food in Barca is that if it’s gone 8pm and the place is quiet, don’t go in, it’s empty for a reason. Either the food is crap, it’s expensive or both.
Its a bit kitsch, but still fun - next to the wax museum (bottom left of Las Ramblas) there is a bar called “Bosc de les fades” Theatrical and surreal with indoor bridges and waterfalls. Sit back and enjoy a cold one, with frogs croaking, pixies staring, indoor lightning shows and freaky wax figures.
Then there is a nice & quiet park tucked away - Parc del Laberint d’Horta (Labyrinth Park) a playfully romantic park in Montbau, offers welcome respite from the urban bustle of Barcelona. Built in 1791, the grounds are situated on different levels with ornamented stairways and expansive gardens dotted with statues of Eros and Narcissus. - Take the metro to the station Mundet Metro on the green Line 3. When you get out of Mundet metro station, it is a 10 minute slight uphill walk to the Horta labyrinth park.
Random Gaudi stuff, for sure. The half-finished cathedral is not all that impressive, IMO, but various of his buildings around town are pretty cool.
Avoid the tourist seafood restaurants. There may possibly be some great restaurants in Barcelona, but some of them are pretty awful, too.
Montserrat, perhaps? I went because one of my traveling companions was Catholic and wanted to visit the shrine, but it was a nice walk with pretty views as I vaguely recall.
8PM for food? Don’t they mostly eat dinner after 10PM in Spain? Or is that more of a Madrid thing? I mean, I usually ate at the usual time for me, but I think the natives have late dinners.
Edit: Oh yeah, shopping. Not one of my areas of expertise, really, but when I was there it was impossible to tell what was in any given shop from the outside because all the plate glass was completely covered in “rebaixes” signs. I’m afraid the whole place is a bit of a tourist trap. Not as bad as Toledo, maybe, but still…
During my work trip to Barcelona I had a close run in with a pickpocketer but managed to keep all my stuff. They are very creative and talented at their craft, that’s for sure. The fiance has been given a quick crash course in “hold on to and pay attention to your stuff” and I’ll be extra paranoid once we’re in the city, too.
Photo-copying the passport is a great idea. What else should we have on hand on the off chance that our passports are stolen or go missing? Do we just need a copy and alternate form of ID?
Don’t be afraid of taking one of those open-topped tour buses. It may seem a bit tacky, and a little pricey, but there are few better ways of seeing all the major sights in a short amount of time. There’s a northern and southern tourist loop; both converge at the Placa Catalunya.
Oh wait, you’re staying for a month? Heck, you could fit in a drive to Valencia, the Cote d’Azur, or beyond!
Random Gaudi stuff, for sure. The half-finished cathedral is not all that impressive, IMO, but various of his buildings around town are pretty cool.
It is now. It’s still a building site but I’m hardpushed to think of another building to compare it against and think “pfft, don’t know what all the fuss is about”.
8PM for food? Don’t they mostly eat dinner after 10PM in Spain? Or is that more of a Madrid thing? I mean, I usually ate at the usual time for me, but I think the natives have late dinners.
Depends I guess. Both places we could actually get into were pretty shoddy to the point of both being expensive and serving food I’d be embarrassed to put in front of people and claim to be €5 worth of Tapas let alone €50 but then we do seem to have a knack of going to places famous for food and having terrible meals.
Don’t be afraid of taking one of those open-topped tour buses. It may seem a bit tacky, and a little pricey, but there are few better ways of seeing all the major sights in a short amount of time. There’s a northern and southern tourist loop; both converge at the Placa Catalunya.
We only had two days so found the buses incredibly useful. A two day pass was €30 odd each I think but they basically come every couple of minutes and drive big loops round every major landmark in the city. You see something interesting, get off, get on the next one coming along and carry on until you find something interesting again. And take your headphones with you, there’s and audio tour as part of it (though I think they give you headphones with the ticket).
If staying for a month, I would definitely want to visit Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba among other places. Lots of interesting stuff to see in Andalusia, and IMO better food too than Barcelona, though I imagine a seafood devotee might prefer Barcelona if you can find the right restaurants.
I only stayed briefly in Madrid, but it looked like a fun and interesting city. Toledo, however, seemed like one enormous interconnected tawdry gift shop, and I wouldn’t go back there again.
Oh good god – I missed that you were staying for a month! In that case, you absolutely have to spend two or three days in Cadaques on the Costa Brava:
It’s about a two and a half hour drive from Barcelona and it’s one of the most beautful and quaint fishing villages in the world. It was a famous haunt of a lot of famous artists including Dali, Miro and Duchamp. You can still drink in the same cafe they frequented, or at least you could when I was there 8 years ago.
From Cadaques you can also take a beautiful walk through olive groves to the next town over, Port Lligat, where you can visit Dali’s old house. The house itself is tacky and depressing but it’s worth it for the walk itself.
The food in Cadaques is amazing and you really get a feel for the Catalan culture, even more so than in Barcelona.
Big typo on my part. Meant to say October 20th until the 25th! I have started to include some day trip locations on the list, with the goal of narrowing down to one of them if the fiance is interested.
I’ve added the bus tour. That seems like a great idea. They seem to bring you to many of the sight-seeing locations I had already put on my list. Thanks for that tip!
You might want to swing by the Naval Museum, which is down at the harbor end of Las Ramblas. Definitely some cool stuff there, like an authentic galleon:
And a wooden submarine (replica of the original, but still cool).
The Naval Museum was pretty nice, especially the Battle of Lepanto exhibit. When I was there in 2003, it had a swell Tintin side exhibition.
The Military Museum on Montjuich is also worth a visit, though maybe not on a honeymoon (unless she’s really into Mausers). If you’re up there, you might be better off seeing the Fundacio Joan Miro. I’d pass on seeing the Olympic Stadium in favor of a visit to Camp Nou, if you want to see someplace sporty. Make sure you have your picture taken with the soccer ball signed by Jean-Claude Van Damme!
