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jetsetsaby · 6 years

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Barcelona, Spain

On our trip to Spain, we spent 6 Days, 5 Nights in Barcelona. 2 of those nights we were at the W Hotel in Barceloneta Beach & 3 Nights were at the H10 Metropolitan in Plaza Catalunya (a more central area of the city). This amount of time allowed for a lot of leisure and a less “packed” itinerary. One of these days included a half-day day trip to Girona, Spain.

The Hola BCN card is definitely worth it if you plan on using the metro and other public transportation trains besides the Renfe train. Validate this at any metro station by putting in your validation code on your voucher. Additionally, we used the Aerobus (a separate ticket) for our trip back to the airport. Main pick up location is at Pl. Catalunya, where they have buses continually running throughout the day. Took us about 30-40 mins once we got on to the airport.

Points of Interest:

Talk a walk down Passeig De Gracia (Barcelona’s Rodeo Drive), on this walk you can visit Casa Battlo & Casa Mila (I’d recommend buying both these tickets in advance)

El Nacional- a trendy “Eataly” type place to visit while in this area. Check out the inside & maybe grab a drink. I don’t really recommend eating there as the food is touristy and disappointing.

Mercado de La Boqueria

EL QUIM!!! Note the exclamation marks!!!

Bar Pinotxo- we did not get to try this, but it’s a highly recommended place to visit. The owner has cooked and run this place for 50+ years and is still there everyday.

Buy a mixed Jamon & Cheese cone. We bought ours from Mas.

El Born- a cute spanish hipster area with great restaurants worth checking out for casual tapa hopping. If you turn the right corners, you might find some great streets worth taking a few IG worth pictures due to the various string lights hung across the alleyways.

Gothic Quarter- Very old neighborhood full of charm. Oldest part of the city and the “OG” Barcelona neighborhood. Fun fact: the original Barcelona consisted of the Gothic Quarter, Born and Raval neighborhoods. The rest were expansions beyond the original city walls thereafter. For instance, Barceloneta is man made!

Montjuïc Magic Fountain- was a beautiful show (~1 Hr); get there in advance at least a half hour to get a good spot as it gets very crowded! The best view is by the 4 massive pillars of Palau Nacional.

Montijuic Castle- we did not visit here due to the weather, but it is supposed to have a great city/beach view of Barcelona.

Arc De Triomf & Ciutadella Park

These two are very close to one another, so I’d visit them in tandem. Arc de Triomf would be a quick visit just to view the architecture, whereas Cituadella Park requires some walking through the park. The area with the lake/fountain is pretty nice.

Mt. Tibidabo- was pretty complicated to travel here.. and the expectation vs. reality was not impressive. We could have gone on a bad day, so if you’re still up for it & have the time I’d still give it a try.

Near Tibidabo is a rooftop bar called Mirablau which supposedly offers great views of Barcelona. We unfortunately were unable to go here as it seemed complicated to get there as well (nor did we really feel compelled to go because of the disappointing view we saw at Tibidabo already).

Expectation vs Reality- WHERE IS THE OCEANNN?! (also rained the day before, so not sure why it was so overcast/hazy)

Park Guell- the park is pretty huge, I’d say you’d spend a good 2 hours here walking around if you want to explore the whole thing. If you’re planning to visit the inside of the Park, buy tickets in advance. There are multiple entrance points around the park in which you can see the center portion that is only available by purchasing a ticket.

Sagrada Famila- Obviously.. *buy tickets in advance*

Across the ticket entrance is a park where you can get some pretty cool shots of the Sagrada.

Visit Ayre Hotel Rosellon- for this amazing shot of the Sagrada Familia. Just buy a drink in the hotel lobby & head up to the 6th floor.

Restaurants:

Most restaurants have bar seating where you just stand behind the stools and wait till the customers are done dinning. Then you can sit down and eat. We usually waited <30 min.

El Quim in La Boqueria- *MUST GO* we went here 3x

FYI- their tapas portions are not small, they’re more like regular portion sizes so just keep that in mind when you order

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Fried eggs with Prawns in Cava sauce- *Must Try*

Most people get the Fried Eggs with Baby Squid, but we both liked the prawns version better

Oxtail Risotto- DELICIOUS

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Scallops with Miso

Oxtail “Quim’s Syle” - Basically Galbi Jjim Spanish style. Darren really liked. Large portion though - be warned!

Halibut Ceviche

Potatoes w/ Aioli Sauce “Patatas Bravas” - was good and is a frequently ordered tapa everywhere, but as a general rule of thumb, I’d save the stomach food for the other items on their menu

Ciudad Condal- *Another Must* we went here 2x

We ate at a rival place called Cerveceria Catalana. Most of their tapas were the same so when we did a side-by-side comparison of what we ate, we unanimously concluded that Ciudad was better. Tapas were more consistent and the ingredients were fresher (the bread especially, which makes a huge difference).

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Smoked Salmon with Langostino Montadito- *my personal favorite*

Huevos Cabrearos- *Darren’s Favorite* (not on the menu, must ask for it, can also for a half portion if you want to try many things)

Beef Tenderloin

Stir Fried Mushrooms (ask for the mixed mushrooms - comes with chantarelles and all kinds of delicious mushrooms)

Squid with Asparagus and Langostino Montadito

La Mar Salada- (Barceloneta Area)

We only had paella once in Barcelona, but this paella was pretty delicious. The flavors were well-balanced and it had the perfect amount of crispness (”soccarat”) to the bottom layer of the rice. FYI- with most paella places, you must order at least 2 portions and prices are listed per portion.

Cera 23

Did some tapa hopping on our last night and ended up here, Darren & I shared the beef cheek dish which was pretty amazing. So tender... mmmm mmm.

Tapeo

Last spot of our tapa hopping 7€ 1/2L of Sangria!!

Slow Cooked Iberico Pork Ribs

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri

Viana

This place was rated #1 on TripAdvisor and therefore seems to be catered a lot towards tourists. It is also a little on the pricier side, however the food was still pretty good. I’d recommend you make a reservation in advance if you plan to go here.

We ordered:

Prawn & White Fish Ceviche

Burrata Cheese with Tomatoes & Guacamole

Galician Octopus

Steak Special

Blackberry Mojito- pretty delicious drink they’re known for

Places we did not try, but was on our list were Arume (for small portion paella sizes), La Luna & Teoric.

Nightlife:

Barcelona nightlife starts and ends super late. Most clubs start getting more lively around 1 AM and will close at 6 AM.

Razzmatazz - our personal favorite. There are 5 rooms each with different genres of music. If you get bored just go to another!

Entrance in club was 17€, which includes one cocktail or two beers

We came here at 3 AM, and there was still a line to get in. The line moves fairly quickly though.

Barceloneta Area

Opium, Shoko, Pacha

All three are literally right next to each other, perfect for ultimate club hopping.

https://barcelonaparties.com/ to get on the guestlist for these clubs, however you have to arrive before 12 AM (no drink ticket included). If you arrive later, your entrance ticket will come with 1 or 2 drink tickets. For Shoko, we were able to find a promoter who let us skip the line.

Opium- (preferred this club more than Shoko as it was more spacious) Electro, RNB, Hip Hop however we found it more to be more like hits. It’s the most spacious out of the three Barceloneta clubs and therefore we had a better time there than at Shoko where there was some elbow bumping.

Shoko- Electro, RNB, Hip Hop also found it more to be more like hits

Pacha- did not go here, however it looked pretty busy as well; RNB, Hip Hop club

Based on the two clubs we visited, people were not dressed as nicely as what the dress code states online. We saw many people in the club in t-shirts and shorts.

W Hotel

Finding a taxi after leaving this area can be a pain outside of the hotel, so depending on where you are staying or going, I’d recommend walking alongside the beach and catching a bicycle ride and asking if they can take you closer towards inside the city. Feel free to haggle. If you’re going to a club in Barceloneta, we hustled a bike ride for 10€ instead of 20. hehehe

Compared to Opium & Shoko, there were definitely people dressed more sophisticated here.

Also, these close earlier than other places (3AM), so I’d go here first on a night out. Serves as a good pre-game before the other bigger clubs.

Eclipse @ the W Hotel- more of an inside lounge on the 26th floor of the hotel. There are two sides, one playing electro & the other hits.

Wet Deck @ the W Hotel- this was not open when we were there, but apparently they have great summer parties that overlook the beach.

6.2018

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