Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is an amazing city! It is my favorite city in Europe, there is so much to do and see it is beautiful! My favorite part about the city is the food! They have so many restaurants and cute cafes you could live there for your entire life and never go to the same place twice. There are many places to see when visiting Barcelona, there’s Las Ramblas, the port, the gothic area, the cathedral, all of Gaudi’s architectural designs, Montjuic, Camp Nou, Montserrat, Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya, Parc de la Ciutadella, Poble Espanyol, Sagrada Familia, Zoo, Aquirium, Coumbus Monument, Placa d’Espanya, Arc de Triomf, Parc del Laberint d’Horta, Estadi Olimpic, Museu de la Xocolata, Tibidabo.

When traveling to Barcelona there are so many great things to see! It is also a very easy city to get around by the metro or cab. If you are flying into the city they have buses that will take you from the airport to Barcelona, and it is pretty cheap. Once you arrive to Plaza Catalunya you can get on the metro, walk, or take a cab to where you are staying. Once you are settled you will want to start seeing the city!

Park Guell is an amazing park designed by Gaudi. He uses a lot of mosaics in the park with vibrant colors and designs. This park is amazing and it is huge! You can walk around for hours. Everything is designed; when you walk up the path into the back area the structures are even designed. This is my favorite place it is so beautiful and if you go later during the day you can sit and watch the sunset on the upper top of the park and look over all of Barcelona. You have to pay to get into the park but it is not expensive and is worth it! There is also a little bit of a walk to get up to the Park lots of stairs but they also have escalators.

After this you should walk down to Gran de Gracia (it is a street) and head over to the neighborhood called Gracia. This is an amazing neighborhood, always kids playing in the squares as well as people always sitting on the terraces. There are hundreds of restaurants and shops in this area. Cute little cafes and great gelato! I love this area and so will you, it kind of has a hippy vibe but it is so cute and warming. If you keep walking down you will get to Passeig de Gracia where is a long street that has all the designer stores on. This is a fun street to walk because there are always so many people! There are a lot of restaurants here as well. There are also a couple of buildings Gaudi designed located here, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. These buildings are beautiful and if you want to take a tour they have tours here you can go inside and end up on the rooftop. This street also holds famous stores like H&M and Zara. There are Zara’s located everywhere in Spain and they are also a lot cheaper in Spain, its amazing!

If you keep walking down this street you get to Plaza Cataluyna, which then leads you to Las Ramblas. You can walk all the way down ramblas and see the hundreds of people here because it’s always busy and full of tourists. Ramblas is very fun and there are many shops and restaurants here as well. I don’t suggest eating here on the ramblas because it is very expensive and there are better places to eat. There are many side streets to take off of ramblas, which lead you into different places or open up to squares. At the end of ramblas is the Columbus statue and if you have seen pictures the famous lions.

You can take the side streets and can find your way around to the gothic area and the cathedral. This are is amazing and one of my favorite parts of Barcelona! The gothic area is beautiful and so amazing to see. The cathedral is gorgeous and you should go inside and look as well. Walking around you see all the old architecture and stones that date back to the roman time. There are other areas in the gothic such as the Jewish area that you can tour. There is also the Roman wall that is nearly gone near the cathedral but if you walk around a little you can find a spot where it is still intact.

You can keep walking and you will get to Barceloneta where the beach is and the W Hotel. This area is very nice as well, there are a lot of restaurants and clubs right on the beach. There are also a lot of restaurants in this area and fun to walk around the beach area.

Parc de la Ciutadella is a great place to take a stroll. It is a beautiful park and there is a little lake in there where you can rent a paddleboat and paddle around. There is a huge fountain in there, which is beautiful and always kids playing in front of it and bubbles flying around. This place is really nice to walk around or bring a picnic and sit and enjoy the beautiful sites and weather!

Next to here is the Arc de Triomf where you can walk to and walk under. This Arc if beautiful and so large, there is always people about usually working out around here. They sometimes have street people dancing and performing.

If you like chocolate there is a museum of chocolate (Museu de la Xocolata) near here too. It is pretty fun to go and learn about chocolate and how they make different things with it and the process. At the end they give you free chocolate, yum!

La Sagrada Familia is a beautiful basilica in which Gaudi designed. It is not even finished yet, there is still construction and has taken over a hundred years to build. Check times before going because if you want to see the inside they only have tours at specific times. This is the most beautiful and amazing basilica I have ever seen. There are fruit ceramics on the top of it and everything is designed. It reminds me of a drip castle at the beach. If you analyzed this basilica it would take so long because every inch has a detail. It is truly amazing and a great place to see.

Placa d’Espanya is a square that is right in front of the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya that was also a palace. There is a big fountain in the middle of a roundabout. Next to there is the old bull fighting stadium and it is amazing looking, it is huge and decorated in brick. This is now a mall with shops and restaurants. If you walk up all the steps and check out the museum it is beautiful and great for pictures. If you keep walking to the right side you will arrive at the Estadi Olimpic where they held the Olympic games and walk around. If you keep walking you will get to a place called Poble Espanyol. This place is amazing; it is a museum of buildings that represent a real Iberian village. It is so beautiful and there are many different architectural types in here. They have artisan shops inside as well as places to eat and coffee shops. It is so beautiful in here and I love how it represents a village you don’t normally see now of days.

Parc del Laberint d’Horta is a garden and the oldest of its kind. It is so beautiful here and you can walk around for hours trying not to get lost in the labyrinth! The gardens are so beautiful and there are two sections of them.

Camp Nou is a soccer (futbol) stadium where FC Barcelona plays. It also consists of a museum of FC Barcelona. This is a really great museum to go to and it is a lot of fun. You walk through the museum and they explain you the whole history and all the championships. They have all the trophies they have won and shoes of important players. They also have videos of big games where Messi scored the winning goal and what not. You then go through and can see the locker rooms and the church that is in the tunnel before you get out onto the field. Once you go through the tunnel you can go out into the stadium, which is really cool to see how big it is.

Montserrat is a mountain top monastery. It is probably easiest to take the train here. It is a hike if you want to hike to it but depends on your timetable. This place is very beautiful though. There are also many walks through the beautiful mountains here if that is if you so wish. I highly suggest going here because there is nothing else like it and it is beautiful to see, especially with the views!

Tibidabo is another mountaintop in Barcelona that is home to a theme park. If you have more time and want to have some fun this theme park is insane! It is dived into sections like Wild West, Mediterranean, and Chinese. They are all a different theme and it is so fun to go to and go on the rollercoasters and other rides.

WARNING: Get use to walking because Barcelona is a great city to walk. It is very easy to walk everywhere as well but you probably will walk for a long time. It might be hard the first day but it is worth it! Yes your feet will hurt but after eating all the amazing food here you work it off by walking all day!

Enjoy!