Tips for a visit to Barcelona, Spain

Speakfreak,

Hope you have fun.

PM me if you need any more help. Be warned I've just read you are going in August which means Barca will be full of tourists and lots of Locals will be away.

Sitges will be packed with lots of Barcelonese on the weekend - escaping the city.

Anyhow, Have fun.

Clive

PS. Just realised i've repeated myself from previous post...duuuuuu - Just goes to show us oldies do ramble on a bit about the old places/times!!!

Mirablau?!?! Stanford, dude, you are having a laugh?!? AWFUL bar, but admittedly has a great view.

@Don_riina,

Not actually been to the Bar so not sure if it is Mirablau but I heard some good things about a bar in the Hills (when I lived there)...one full of young beauties and models. Or maybe I was dreaming about it.

Next time I visit Barca I shall hunt it out and let you know if my dreams came true!!! : :

@ Stanford

Thanks for your suggestions. The bar you are thinking of is Danceteria Tibidabo- I went there a few years back and you are right- it is full of absolutely stunning girls. Glad to know I wasn't the only one to notice that!

This time I'm "bringing my own sand" so to speak so more funky than glam is the direction. i.e. more Lizzard lounge than P1 just to avoid any, ahem, distraction.

Also still looking for recs on top food places. Any more?

Any recommendations on a decent hotel. staying for a week, so would be hoping to get one for about 100 euro a night or less.

I recommend using HRS.de. I just did a quick search for Barcelona and there are loads of places for under €100, even some marked as 4 star hotels.

Cheers Keydeck!

What is the weather normally like in Barcelona in Jan??
and would you recommend Barcelona or Madrid??
and recommendation on accommodation appreciated..

hey sky hoc, so we "meet" again today...

Barcelona!!
Madrid is really nice, a lot nicer than I had expected - but Barcelona just blows you away. All the Gaudi architecture is just uplifting, even if you're not normally into architecture, you can just wander around the streets all day, finding wonderful buildings everywhere (and not just the Gaudi), then it's git a brilliant location on the sea, relaxed atmosphere, tapas, the Ramblas...

In Jan you may get a chilly wind sometimes, but should also mostly be ok to sit around outside during the day at least, and wander in the evenings (warmish jacket should be enough, unless you happent o strike an unlucky year..I was there once early Dec and mostly I sat outside)

Accommodation I can't really help you, except to say that I reserved a cheap hostal on the Ramblas which was in the Rough Guide - I called them and wrote them a letter (shows how long ago this was...no internet )..and they STILL managed to have no knowledge of my reservation...this is not to put you off, but to let you know that I managed pretty much immediately to find somewhere else... and Jan isn't going to be a really busy time, so you could chance it with nothing, depending on your budget (as a lot of the really cheap/but still acceptable places don't advertise on the internet)

@ Ruaphehu - Your just full of information, maybe I should just PM you with my questions next time.. Thanks for the info

sure, you can PM me...but you may find some of the places you want info about I haven't got a clue (it'd be nice to go everywhere, but unfortunately there is also monthly rental to be paid)

And we should also see each other at the Xmas Eve Curry, which isn't shaping into a huge event (i.e. probably everyone there will get to talk to everyone else, which is also fine ) - so feel free to ask there - especially if it's about travel

Hi Guys,

I am planning a weekend trip to Barcelona in mid April and would love to hear any recommendations for hotels, must see sightes/places, nightlife etc. We are a group of girls and are looking to stay in a mid-range priced hotel in a good location. Any help/suggestiosn are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Lorna.

Topics merged by admin

Related topic: Barcelona over the Easter weekend

Already some info available here.

Hi Lorna!

I am organising a hen night in Barcelona, if you like I can give you the info I found about hotels! When are you going exactly?

To start off, rent out an apartment, even if its for a couple of days. Much nicer than a hotel and you can have a nice fridge to stock up on some cava to start off the evening...

Thanks a million for all of your replies so far.

@Poulain - That would be great! We are going the weekend of the 20th of April for 4 days.

has anyone flown with clickair? I'm gonna go visit a pal in Barcelona and they had the cheapest flight (135 euro round trip from Frankfurt).

Yes- I use them all the time- I'm now living in Barcelona and commute between here and Munich with them. They are as good as any other low cost airline and better than most. i.e. the bring your own sandwiches if you don't want to pay through the nose for the wooden tasteless stuff they try and sell you...

They have never been late apart from the one time when the clocks changed and as a result more than half of the Barcelona planeload hadn't arrived at check-in at departure time... so they deliberately delayed the flight rather than piss people off.

They are part owned by Iberia- I guess that means a little in terms of solvency- however I would always have insurance just in case...

Also they do a couple of neat things I haven't seen elsewhere. If you have a booking and arrive early enough to get an earlier flight you can get on that one at no extra charge if there's space (ok - not really relevant for the Munich flight). Conversely if you miss you flight you have one hour to book the next one at a reduced rate. Better than "FU and pay $$$" you get on Ryan air...

Plus they've got the eminently sensible thing that if you pay an extra 10EUR you can guarantee the emergency exit seat with the extra legroom.

So- go for it!

i just booked with clickair website and it was easy. if you book online, they charge you 10 Euro per piece of checked on bag (20 Euro at the gate). 7,50 Euro per credit card booking. I would have done Lastschrift, but they didn't seem to offer that (only for Spanish banks, I assume).

round trip from Frankfurt - 118 Euros (not incl. fees). insurance was 15 Euros.

Yeah, I flew with clickair (and will again next week). They're not any better or worse than any other airline but just like with Iberia, you should bring your own food & drinks (get food outside airport, drinks after security).
And yes, the only way to pay free is with a Spanish bank account (which I don't have either). The first time around I booked a flight the fees used to be a bit cheaper (that was in December). I flew to Munich and back to BCN, this time I'm flying BCN to Sevilla and back from Granada.
Their flights are really cheap at times. The Munich round trip cost me only €65!

Beware of pickpockets in Barcelona. Don't take anything valuable out with you and be on the lookout all the time. They are so quick - your bag/wallet will be gone before you notice. Police very helpful though when it does happen ...I guess when it happens so often they're used to it.

heading off to Barcelona on Thursday - woo hoo. does anyone have an tips for shopping, erm, for lingerie? I'm hoping I'll have better luck finding bras and such in Barcelona than here in Germany.

Also, I picked these two recommendations from the threads: La Fonda for food and Oveja Negra for a bar (among others). anyone have anything up-to-date they wanna share?

I'm staying in Hotel Jazz.

For lingerie, there is Etam, one store on Pelai (between Pl Catalunya and Pl Universitat, the street with the many shoe stores), and I think they should also be on Porteferrissa, if you walk down the Ramblas from Pl Catalunya it'll be to your left, the second street I think.
Or on Avinguda del Portal de l'Angel, which is a street running parallel to the Ramblas. That is where most of the stores are (the area around Porteferrissa and Portal de l'Angel). Another lingerie store is Women's Secret. Also to be found on Pelai/Porteferrissa/Portal de l'Angel.
I think the only store I bought something at was Etam, though.

There is a good tapas bar I liked. Bar Jai-ca on C/ Ginebra (Metro: Barceloneta), if you walk down Pg de Joan de Borbo take the second to the left and it'll be at the second (?) intersection on the left at the corner.

Just adding my two cents, since I am leaving Barcelona today. Yesterday, since we were staying near the university, walked to Sant Antoni market on the way to Montjuic and picked up an assortment of foodstufs for a picnic. We wandered around the "magic fountains" and the catalayan museum, olympic stadiom area, then walked to the fortress where we then had a nice little picnic. we were then lazy, so we took the funincular down, but that was by far the nice part of my stay in barcelona.

our first 3 nights, we spent a lot of time east of las ramblas and only last night did we get out and about just west of las ramblas. we ended up in les whiskey where they had 5 Euro mojitos - i had my fair share, ugh.