Barcelona - places to visit, things to see, photos, top tips and chat

[brella]

Hey...Im in Barcelona right now!In MB 92 port on the yacht I work on!havent really read the thread but if anyones here maybe I\ll see you!Ill be here until the 28th of October was supposed to be here until 21st of November but quit my job like the freak that I am.Regretting it a bit Anyway going for a stroll down La Ramblas in half an hour Anyone go to the porn festival this weekend here in Barca?I did it was SOOO funny,not erotic at all!And has anyone been to the dow jones bar?

 

[mrkikiet]

the train is running again from the airport, has been since september-ish. if you buy aticket at the station and are going to use the metro or bus while you are there (not the tourist bus) then get a t-10 from the machine. this gives 10 journeys for about 6,60€ rather than a 3€ single.
enjoy.

 

[fruitimix]

anyone know what the squatting scene is like over there now, was there a couple of years ago and it seemed pretty cool with notices up outside squats saying what was going on where, with film nights etc, seemed a fuck of a lot more organized than london...

 

[Dubversion]

i think there's been some clearances - it seemed less obvious last time i was there and gentrification in the Raval etc has lost some, but maybe they've just moved further out?

 

[rennie]

the train is running again from the airport, has been since september-ish. if you buy aticket at the station and are going to use the metro or bus while you are there (not the tourist bus) then get a t-10 from the machine. this gives 10 journeys for about 6,60€ rather than a 3€ single.
enjoy.

so you get to use the train from the airport and buses or metro in the city for 6.60 euros? bargain!

 

[Mapped]

so you get to use the train from the airport and buses or metro in the city for 6.60 euros? bargain!

'fraid not, the T10 is only for the central zone, like zone 1/2 in London, it is still very good value though. It won't get you to/from the airport. But the airport bus is quite cheap

 

[fruitimix]

i think there's been some clearances - it seemed less obvious last time i was there and gentrification in the Raval etc has lost some, but maybe they've just moved further out?

ah bollocks, last time i was there it i dunno what area it was but was mostly north african but seemed like it was at least half squats there!

am sure i'll find something out there, i know manik are pretty much based out there these days so should be a party or two to be had, was just hoping to go to some of the more social centrey stuff...

anyone got any recommendations for tekno or drum n bass clubs?

 

[mrkikiet]

'fraid not, the T10 is only for the central zone, like zone 1/2 in London, it is still very good value though. It won't get you to/from the airport. But the airport bus is quite cheap

YES IT WILL. (unless they've changed it since the 24th December 2006, which i doubt)
the okupas are being moved out of the raval, they are also being moved out of the area between via laetana (sp) and parc ciutadella, poble nou is also being businessified.

 

[fruitimix]

can anyone recommend somewhere to stay for about 60-85 euros a night, double room pref with ensuite + balcony..have been looking aroond on the interweb and have read all the threads on here, was just wondering if anyone had any specific recomendations..?

 

[Mapped]

can anyone recommend somewhere to stay for about 60-85 euros a night, double room pref with ensuite + balcony..have been looking aroond on the interweb and have read all the threads on here, was just wondering if anyone had any specific recomendations..?

We stayed in these appartments in the Gothic Quarter last year, they are 65 euro out of peak season and 92 in peak season

http://www.decimononico.com/pagina.asp?0=4&1=95958&2=8123&3=14567

I would highly reccomend them. They are really well located, between the beach and the city centre, and the Gothic quarter is really atmospheric. You get good size bedrooms, living room and kitchen area and they are really nicely done out. It says on the website you get balconies, but they aren't really big enough to sit out on.

 

[fruitimix]

that can't be right can it? in all the other places i've looked 65 euros will get ye a fairly bog standard room, but those appartments look really nice and are a whole appartment for the same price?!

edit: ah its per person, that explains it! my price range is much more limited, am looking for 60-80 euros for both of us..

 

[rennie]

Try Oh-barcelona.com...

 

[mrkikiet]

go to the champaneria in barceloneta, it's excellent.

 

[Citizen66]

I'm off to Barcelona again in 3 weeks for a long weekend it's a proper cool city

There's an area there called Gracia/Grassia dunno how it's spelt but it's alright for drinks and food etc. Can't remember what any of the rest of it's called I just kind of get steered about

 

[Blagsta]

Gracia is near Parc Guell. Cool area.





I recommend eating in Origens
http://www.origen99.com/web/

 

[mrkikiet]

for a more original eating experience go to meson david.

 

[Sweaty Betty]

Ive just come back from barcelona, well for a cheaper option we flew to gerona with Ryanair for £39 return for the both of us, then stayed in lloret de mar as it was much cheaper- lloret de mar is a toilet im sorry to say- oweing to the louts that go and stay there from our country

Barcelona was good, but the whole tourist thing at the ramblas was awful and the service by some there was nothing but fucking rude- i spoke broken spanish to them with a smile and they just avoided eye contact and frowned- i was about to spend over 50 euros in this one shop when half way through transaction i just thought fuck this and left the shop without the goods.

thankfully not all were so rude, but if the women wernt scowling the men were being pervs

By the end of it all i came away a bit dissapointed and fed up with the over saturation of all the gaudi rip offs...

I want to go back again and give it another try as there was alot we didnt get to see, but i will go to Berlin before i do that as our last visit to Hamburg knocked spots off barcelona in many ways.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

...i spoke broken spanish to them with a smile and they just avoided eye contact and frowned...

Next time you should try speaking broken Catalan. Some Catalan folk would be extremely offended by foreigners expecting them to communicate in another foreign language.

I find much of Barcelona is just to focused on tourist money. If you want to enjoy a real Spanish city where everyday stuff happens happily alongside the tourist stuff you want to visit Granada. They speak Spanish here also. Well, a sort of abbreviated Spanish at least.

 

[Sweaty Betty]

Next time you should try speaking broken Catalan. Some Catalan folk would be extremely offended by foreigners expecting them to communicate in another foreign language.

I find much of Barcelona is just to focused on tourist money. If you want to enjoy a real Spanish city where everyday stuff happens happily alongside the tourist stuff you want to visit Granada. They speak Spanish here also. Well, a sort of abbreviated Spanish at least.

I didnt want them to communicate in any language just a smile and no attitude- surely thats a universal language, i mean my spanish was nothing more than hello- how much- yes please - thank you very much and goodbye

After santander last year, lloret and barcelona im taking a break from spain and going back to Germany this year- im very surprised that some German folk are far more friendlier than some Spanish peeps.....

 

[Orang Utan]

I've always found Catalonians very friendly and obliging

 

[Sweaty Betty]

I've always found Catalonians very friendly and obliging

I dare say they are lovely, indeed i met a wonderful lady in a shoe shop who just kept smiling, but out of id say 10 interactions more than half were just rude and arrogant which when visiting a country for the first time leaves you with a dissapointed impression- i had much the same experience in santander, only i expected that as we were not in a tourist area..... shame

 

[Blagsta]

Ive just come back from barcelona, well for a cheaper option we flew to gerona with Ryanair for £39 return for the both of us, then stayed in lloret de mar as it was much cheaper- lloret de mar is a toilet im sorry to say- oweing to the louts that go and stay there from our country

Barcelona was good, but the whole tourist thing at the ramblas was awful and the service by some there was nothing but fucking rude- i spoke broken spanish to them with a smile and they just avoided eye contact and frowned- i was about to spend over 50 euros in this one shop when half way through transaction i just thought fuck this and left the shop without the goods.

thankfully not all were so rude, but if the women wernt scowling the men were being pervs

By the end of it all i came away a bit dissapointed and fed up with the over saturation of all the gaudi rip offs...

I want to go back again and give it another try as there was alot we didnt get to see, but i will go to Berlin before i do that as our last visit to Hamburg knocked spots off barcelona in many ways.

That's Las Ramblas for you. The only bad experiences I've had in Barcelona (visited 3 times) is from touristy places on or just off Las Ramblas. Cockroaches crawling on the pizza in one place and getting deliberatly short changed in another. Avoid the touristy places and it's quite friendly IME.

 

[soulman]

Next time you should try speaking broken Catalan. Some Catalan folk would be extremely offended by foreigners expecting them to communicate in another foreign language.

I find much of Barcelona is just to focused on tourist money. If you want to enjoy a real Spanish city where everyday stuff happens happily alongside the tourist stuff you want to visit Granada. They speak Spanish here also. Well, a sort of abbreviated Spanish at least.

Having visited both I agree about Granada. It's a much more relaxed atmosphere.

 

[May Kasahara]

I've always found Catalonians very friendly and obliging

Likewise - the only time I've had attitude, it was the 'cool kid' attitude that you get from any snotty young person in their home city

Anyway, if I haven't already mentioned it, I like Casa Paco as a watering hole (C/Allada Vermell 10, Sant Pere) - it's scruffy and the music is usually great.

 

[Nixon]

I am here now and on the hunts for the "squatter/alternative bit"..La Ramblas is ok,but my green mowhawk isn´t going down well with the german tourists ;(

Any suggestions of alternative places? Only been here a day so only really checked out La Ramblas.And where´s the gay bit?

 

[t0bytoo]

Check out the clubs and bars around Carrer Pallars in Poble Nou. Near to the metro Bogatell. Always loads of young folk around there on the weekend nights. And zero tourists.

(sorry just reread yer post - it's not the gay bit)

 

[mrkikiet]

after being there last week my comment is that Irish bars continue to reproduce at an alarming rate.

 

[lang rabbie]

Una propuesta modesta

A long time ago (On 26-07-2005 at 17:52 to be precise) I wrote:

By my reckoning there are at least sixteen threads in this forum with substantial Barca recommendations worth following up. IIRC it is now the favourite short break destination from the UK. Should there now be a sticky ?

Given that there only appear to have been two new Barcelona recommendations on this thread for almost eighteen months, is it time to "de-sticky" this, and replace it with a Madrid thread

 

[Stanley Edwards]

A long time ago (On 26-07-2005 at 17:52 to be precise) I wrote:



Given that there only appear to have been two new Barcelona recommendations on this thread for almost eighteen months, is it time to "de-sticky" this, and replace it with a Madrid thread

Madrid is shyte by comparison. My tip would be to explore Sant Pere streets. By far the 'best' bit of town IMO.

I'll come back with better bar recommendations after a week, or so of exploring and being guided by local people

e2a; Top tip before I forget. If you want to eat very cheap and not to far from tourist central, seek out the Traveller Bar at 8PM for food for a €1. So I'm reliably informed, but not tried myself yet.

 

[mrkikiet]

e2a; Top tip before I forget. If you want to eat very cheap and not to far from tourist central, seek out the Traveller Bar at 8PM for food for a €1. So I'm reliably informed, but not tried myself yet.

doesn't sound too touristy...
if it's the one i think it is you aren't going to get much, if any, local flavour there.