Situated along the coast of Spain, Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, a region with its own distinct culture and personality. And they are proud of it!
We recently visited during March and although we were there during an unusual spate of poor weather, we relished in Barcelona’s rich history and world-class food scene. From Gaudí architecture during the day, to flamenco and cooking classes by night, Barcelona is an exceptional city to spend a few days immersing yourself in Catalonian culture.
Barcelona Map
Below is a map of our trip including points of interest, activities, and restaurants. Toggle the sidebar for details.
Arrival & Helpful Tips
Getting Around
Barcelona’s metro system was clean, efficient, and got us everywhere we couldn’t walk to in the city. For our trip, we found the best option to be purchasing a Hola Barcelona card for 4 days (96 hours). This card allowed us unlimited journeys on public transportation like the metro, buses, and regional railways, including to and from the airport which otherwise has a surcharge.
We purchased our cards upon arrival at the ticket office just outside the airport metro line entrance. We paid EUR 34.40 each. The time starts ticking at the card’s first use, so pick the duration that works best for your trip (48, 72, 96, or 120 hours). Note if you are going back to the airport, you will need to scan your card upon arrival to the airport, so factor that into your timing. We made it to the airport with just one hour left on our cards. Phew!
Arrival
Upon arrival you will need to go through immigration and customs. At this time, no visa is needed for U.S. passport holders, although this is expected to change in 2026 when the ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) comes into effect.
When we arrived on a Monday morning at 9am, the customs line moved painfully slow. No electronic kiosks were used and we waited about an hour to get through.
We took the metro from the airport to our Airbnb which was an hour ride, and required changing lines once, but very cost efficient.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at an Airbnb in the Gràcia neighborhood. We loved this location which was very close to two different metro lines, and walkable to many other attractions and restaurants. We could even see the towers of Sagrada Família from our apartment’s living room! The quiet, bohemian vibe of the neighborhood was a perfect fit for our stay.
Day 1 | Settle In & Sightsee
By the time we made it through customs and to the city, it was already midday, so our first priority was lunch. Near our Airbnb, we had coffee and sandwiches at Bicioci Bike Café. This was the perfect spot for a quick nibble and a jolt of caffeine.
We then made our way by metro to the famed “Block of Discord” so named for its unique, contrasting modern facades. See for yourself!
Casa Amatller
Designed as a residence for wealthy chocolatier, Antoni Amatller, this house is one of the best known examples of the Catalan modernism architecture style. The house is preserved in its original condition with all the furniture and decor from the early 20th Century.
We took a tour during which you listen to an audio guide in your preferred language, but are part of a group accompanied by a staff member. Seeing the unique stained glass throughout along with the opulent decorations and architectural details in each room was fantastic.
The tour ends in the gift shop where you are given a free chocolate tasting. We loved ours so much we purchased some to take home. At the cafe, we ordered a cup of “hot chocolate”, or Tassa de Xocolata, that came with mini pieces of toast for dipping. It was some of the best chocolate we’ve ever tasted. After 300 years in business, they really know their stuff!
Need to Know
- Tours: The audio-guided visit we did is generally offered daily, every 30 minutes, from 10am-7pm, but check the website for current hours. The tour lasted 45 minutes.
- Tickets: EUR 20/adult. Purchasing advance tickets online is recommended as they are for specific time slots which can sell out, although when we visited on a Monday afternoon there were only four other people in our group.
Casa Batlló
Casa Batlló was the first Gaudí-designed building we visited and what a great one to start at. Antoni Gaudí completely reimagined the space, inside and out, for Josep Batlló, a wealthy businessman.
We were initially struck by the facade which is known locally as the “House of Bones”, owing to its skeletal-like features. Inside, a nautical theme is prevalent and we noticed nautilus spirals, fishermen net-like balconies, all manner of blue hues, gorgeous carved wood staircases, and a ribcage-like loft comprised of dozens of arches. The roof terrace is just as impressive with clusters of colorful chimney stacks and the famous dragon back design.
The house has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. If we were going to pick just one of the private residences in Barcelona to visit, we’d recommend this one. Our visit lasted roughly one hour.
Need to Know
- Hours: Generally open daily 8:30am-7pm but check the website for current hours which may change seasonally.
- Tickets: Purchasing advance tickets online is strongly recommended as they are for specific time slots and often sell out. Tickets prices vary based on the date, time of day, and type of visit, but we paid EUR 25/pp for the “Silver Ticket”. This included an audio guide and access to the Dragon’s Rooftop, which we think is worth the few extra Euro.
Dinner
After you’ve been awake for 30+ hours, sometimes all you can muster the energy for is a plate of empanadas paired with a grocery store beer, then crash. Which is exactly what we did! If you’re looking for a quick and easy dinner, or even a snack, we loved the empanadas we got from the Empanada Club. We shared an order of the spicy beef, ham & cheese, and chorizo flavors. Yum!
Day 2 | Food Tour, Park Güell & Casa Milà
Secret Food Tour
We always endeavor to join a food tour in a new country straightaway, so our second day kicked off with a tour through the Barceloneta and Born neighborhoods with Secret Food Tours Barcelona. We had a great experience on this 3-hour tour and would highly recommend it. Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and kept things running smoothly. Only seven others joined our tour making the size very manageable and easy to get to know everyone.
Things kicked off in the city’s Gothic Quarter at 10:30am with a visit to a traditional bakery, La Colmena, in operation since 1849! We savored the Xuixo de Crema, a pastry of creamy custard fried and coated in sugar. This was the best pastry we had during our entire time in Spain.
We then visited Santa Caterina Market where we saw more locals doing their daily shopping than tourists. Although it has since been renovated, the market originally opened in 1845 and was constructed on the former site of the Convent of Santa Caterina. A portion of those excavated ruins were preserved and you can still see them today. We really enjoyed this stop for this history, authentic feel, and the local cheese and Iberian ham we sampled.
After a leisurely stroll through the Born neighborhood, we sat down at a proper tapas restaurant. We had a delicious vermouth cocktail along with bites of sardines in vinegar, Bomba, Spanish omelette, bread with tomato, Padrón peppers, and eggplant with sugar molasses.
A short walk away found us at our final stop with a glass of sangria and seafood paella. We capped off the tour with a small digestif and the secret tasting of our tour, white chocolate and cocoa powdered almonds from our first stop, La Colmena.
Not only did we walk away satiated, but with a better understanding of how to properly order, and eat, the dishes like a local Catalan!
Pro tip!: Book the drinks upgrade for a slightly more premium drink experience on the tour.
When we booked online with Secret Food Tours, their website popped up a discount code for a free drinks upgrade. I simply made two separate bookings for our tour and we were each able to get the upgrade for free. ✓
Park Güell
In the afternoon, we made our way to Park Güell, a park designed by Gaudí at the behest of Eusebi Güell. Interestingly, this was never intended to be a public park, but rather a small community of luxury homes, but the project was unsuccessful.
The park is filled with elevated pathways, arches, viaducts, and a terrace along whose perimeter runs a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984 as part of the “Works of Antoni Gaudí”.
We joined a guided tour of the park and were so glad we did, in order to learn about its history and key architectural details. After the hour long tour, we spent another half hour exploring on our own.
Need to Know
- Hours: Generally open to tourists daily 9:30am-7:30pm but check the website for current hours which may change seasonally.
- Tickets: Ticket availability is very limited, so purchasing advance tickets online is strongly recommended. You can book a ticket for a specific day and time up to 3 months prior to your visit. Admission tickets are EUR 18/adult. Note on the day we visited we saw that tickets were sold out by early afternoon.
- Our Experience: We booked this guided tour which included an entrance ticket. We really appreciated the guided tour for the information that was conveyed and the fact that we could stay in the park for as long as we wanted after.
Dinner
For dinner we visited El Nacional Barcelona, an upscale food hall designed to showcase foods from around the Iberian Peninsula. There are many different spots you can choose from, but we picked La Taperia. These were some of our favorite tapas we ate in Spain and thanks to our food tour, we knew exactly what we wanted to order!
We shared a bean salad with ham & mint, ham croquettes, king prawns, meatballs with ratatouille, shoestring fries with ham & poached egg, and traditional crispy bread with tomato. This was all accompanied by glasses of a lovely Tempranillo wine.
Casa Milà (La Pedrera) | Night Experience
Casa Milà was the last private residence designed by Gaudí, commissioned by Pere Milà. The building’s nickname, La Pedrera, means “stone quarry” thanks to its resemblance to an open quarry. Its construction employed several novel innovations like interior courtyards to improve ventilation and lighting for the apartments, and a structural system of pillars made of stone and other materials which eliminated the need for load-bearing walls. Casa Milà is also a part of the World Heritage Site designation in 1984 of the “Works of Antoni Gaudí”.
For a unique perspective, we opted to take part in the Night Experience. Our guided tour included visits to both the Flower and Butterfly courtyards, a walk through a tenant’s apartment, and the “Whale Attic” (named for the 270 brick arches resembling the interior of a whale).
Thankfully the rain held off and we were also able to visit the Warrior Rooftop filled with undulating surfaces and ventilation towers and chimneys who are the warrior guardians of the space. We had spectacular views of the city at night and there was also a short sound and light show projection on the rooftop. At its conclusion, we walked down to the Butterly Courtyard where we capped the night off with some sweets and a glass of cava, a Spanish sparkling wine.
Need to Know
- Hours: Hours vary by summer and winter seasons, so check the website for hours during your visit.
- Tickets: There is a vast choice of ticket options from visits at sunrise to a night experience, to a regular daytime visit. Visit the website to choose the option that most interests you.
- Our Experience: We booked the Night Experience. We really enjoyed touring the house with a smaller group of people compared to the crowds during the day. The views of Barcelona all lit up at night were fantastic and having a glass of cava at the end was a special treat!
Day 3 | Walking Tour, Sagrada Família, Flamenco & Cooking Class
Old Town & Gothic Quarter Walking Tour
To gain a better understanding of the history of Barcelona, we booked this walking tour of the Old Town and Gothic Quarter. For just over two hours, our group of 10 toured incredible historic sites and learned details we would have otherwise missed on our own (think bullet holes in buildings and sword sharpening marks on a cathedral). We saw the remains of ancient Roman aqueducts and a forum, the restaurant where Picasso held his first exhibition, the steps where Columbus was received upon return from his infamous journey, and more. If you are interested in history, we highly recommend joining this tour.
Lunch
Our walking tour ended at Barcelona’s most well-known market, La Boqueria. Even if you don’t purchase any food (though we think it would be hard not to!), this market is worth a stroll through to admire the many vendors selling meat, fish, fruit, produce, and candy. We weren’t ready for a full meal, but we did get jamón y queso (ham and cheese) snacks. Note unless you sit down at one of the tapas bars, there isn’t really seating in the market, so be prepared to carve out a corner to stand in and eat your food.
After taking the metro towards our next destination, Sagrada Família, it was still pouring rain. Hungry and soaking wet, we stumbled into Marmot, a cafe serving homemade sandwiches and brunch. We sank into the last table available, ordered, and proceeded to be blown away by our lunch. We had a special lunch combination that included a drink, sandwich, and dessert. The Cubanito and Bahn Mi sandwiches were served with a salad and potatoes, and the cappuccinos and matcha white chocolate cookies were divine.
Sagrada Família
Prior to visiting Barcelona, Sagrada Família was our most coveted sightseeing destination. The church, much of which was designed by Gaudí, has been under construction for over 140 years and has reached almost mythical status. Seeing it in person was unbelievable.
We joined a guided tour to get the most out of our visit, during which our guide shared detailed information about the symbolism of the architectural features, particularly around the three facades (Passion, Nativity, and Glory). The interior was positively cavernous, with amazing stained glass and 52 columns meant to look like trees. After the tour we were able to spend time wandering around on our own which we took full advantage of because the church was almost hard to take in.
Of all the sites we visited in Barcelona, this was by far the most impressive and the one we’d absolutely recommend putting on your itinerary. Note we had booked a visit to one of the towers as part of our tour, but unfortunately due to the rain and wind, the towers were closed.
Need to Know
- Hours: Hours vary by season and ticket type, so check the website for hours during your visit.
- Tickets: You can purchase a ticket for entry only (an audio guide is included) that includes a tower visit or not, or a guided tour with the same options. Prices range from EUR 26-36 per adult. Tickets very routinely sell out weeks in advance, so book your ticket as early as the website allows (generally 2-3 months in advance).
- Our Experience: We booked a guided tour with a visit to the Nativity Tower, paying EUR 40 each. We thought the live, guided tour was fantastic. Unfortunately we could not visit the tower, but we did receive an automatic refund for that portion of our ticket.
- Note: You must go through airport-style security to get into the church and lines can be long. Be sure to allow enough time prior to your tour/entry timeslot to get through security.
Flamenco Show at Casa Sors
Flamenco is a passionate Spanish performance consisting of dance accompanied by vocals, guitar, clapping and castanets. We booked a show at Casa Sors which felt like watching a private flamenco show in our living room. There were only eight other attendees in the room! There was a small stage with four musicians and two dancers who over the course of an hour gave an intense, brooding, and sorrowful performance.
After the show, we were invited to visit the on-site guitar museum for a “tour” where a staff member showed instruments from famous guitar makers (one was made from cardboard!) and even played a few songs on the various types.
Need to Know
- Tickets: You can purchase tickets in advance on the Casa Sors website. Performances are generally held daily at 6pm, 7:30pm, and 9pm. The basic ticket of the show and guitar museum visit is EUR 37 each.
- A Few Notes Based on Our Experience: The show is billed as Barcelona’s most intimate flamenco performance and it really is a very small and intimate space (it’s actually a former recording studio). There is a bar on site where you can purchase cocktails and wine, but we found them to be very expensive at nearly EUR 20/each, so did not purchase any. There was the opportunity at the end to take photos with the performers during which a tip jar was put out. The whole thing felt awkward to us, so we quietly ducked out of the room.
For all these reasons, this show may not be for everyone. We did, however, really enjoy the performance itself and thought every one of the performers was absolutely incredible.
Cooking Class at The Paella Club
If you like cooking, drinking, dancing, eating, laughing, and having an amazing time, then run and book a cooking class at The Paella Club. This was the most fun we had in Barcelona. Over the course of 3 hours we enjoyed a hands-on paella cooking class, followed by a 5-course dinner. Oh, and bottomless wine.
After being greeted by our enthusiastic hosts, we donned our aprons, toasted with cava, and got to cooking. Each pair of chefs was assigned a different type of paella and we made a vegetable paella with artichokes, deglazed with red wine, and topped with a drizzle of truffle oil. Amidst all the cooking there was loud, danceable music playing with a ton of laughing while learning.
Once our job was complete, we sat down as a new family to enjoy the fruits of our efforts. In addition to the paellas (we truly liked our paella best!), we had tomato bread with smoked sea salt, tomato gazpacho, a sorbet pallet cleanser, and a chocolate mousse with honey and smoked sea salt. We really appreciated the fact that all of the ingredients used during the class, and the wine we drank, were from Catalonia.
In addition to being a ridiculously fun experience, The Paella Club is a class act company. We had originally booked our Full Menu Experience for April 2020. When we had to cancel our trip due to the pandemic, we were offered a voucher to use until December 2021. We were never able to travel to Barcelona until March 2025, so I decided to reach out and see if any portion of the voucher was still salvageable. To my shock and delight, The Paella Club validated the entire voucher and we were able to attend the class five years later, at no additional cost. Amazing!!!
Day 4 | Day Trip to Montserrat & Winery
For our last day in Barcelona, we booked this full-day tour to Montserrat and a family-run winery. Located an hour from the city center, Montserrat is a Benedictine monk mountain retreat. Nestled among jagged, sawtooth mountain peaks, the backdrop to the monastery is supposed to be spectacular. Unfortunately when we went it was raining and completed fogged in, so we saw nothing! Nonetheless, we made the most of it and here is what we did during our three hours:
- Visited the Basílica de Montserrat, a Gothic and Renaissance-style church. This is also home to the Black Madonna, a centuries-old wooden statue, thought to have been blackened either due to lengthly exposure to candle smoke or a chemical reaction caused by a varnish used as a paint sealant.
- Toured the outside of the buildings and historic monastery gates.
- Browsed the gift shop and purchased yummy cream-filled pastries.
- Walked the path to St. Michael’s Cross which is supposed to have wonderful views, but we of course saw nothing. It was still a nice, paved path and took about 40 minutes roundtrip.
- Strolled through the outdoor cheese market, purchasing a small cup of the local delicacy, Mel i Mató, fresh cheese drizzled with honey.
- Watched the 1:00pm performance of the Montserrat Boy’s Choir, one of the oldest in Europe. Although only 10 minutes in duration, the performance was truly angelic and moving.
The day we visited vs. the really cool views we were hoping for.☺
Photo credit: Barcelona Turisme.
Need to Know
- Getting to Montserrat: Although we went as part of a tour, you can visit Montserrat on your own either by driving or by taking a train from the city center and then taking either a cable car or cog railway to the top.
- Our Experience: We were happy to have booked the tour which took the hassle out of purchasing separate transportation and admission tickets. Although we traveled by a large coach bus from the Barcelona Nord bus station, upon arrival at Montserrat and the winery we were broken out into small groups of about eight people and led around by a tour guide for a portion of the day. At Montserrat we had over 2 hours of free time after visiting the basilica.
- Boy’s Choir: We paid an extra fee of EUR 11 each to watch the Boy’s Choir performance which we absolutely recommend. We arrived to the basilica about 25 minutes prior to the performance time and seating was already half full. The Boy’s Choir only performs on certain days, so be sure to check performance times when planningyour visit, if this is important to you.
- Black Madonna: If you want to visit very closely with the Black Madonna, you must also pay an extra fee. We thought the view from the interior of the basilica was just fine, however, and did not opt for this extra charge.
Our last stop of the day was at a family-run winery, Oller del Mas, which dates back to 964 AD! Their wine is unique in that it is all natural and aged in clay pots.
We enjoyed a delicious three-course lunch with wine and went on a short vineyard tour before doing a tasting of three different wines inside the castle on site. This was a great visit!
Near 7pm we arrived back in Barcelona after 10 hours. It was a very long day and of course we wished for better weather and views, but we still enjoyed our day trip. Our only critique of the tour would have been to spend a bit less time at the winery and come back to the city an hour earlier. If time on your itinerary permits, we think Montserrat is a highlight not to be missed.
Dinner
Our last dinner in Barcelona was at the small, wildly popular tapas restaurant La Pepita. Definitely make a reservation here or be prepared to wait a long time. It was a bit chaotic and very loud, but the food was really delicious. We had glasses of vermouth accompanied by tomato bread, smoked sardines*, grilled octopus, red shrimp croquettes*, Argentine beef skewers, and fried chicken*. Those * denote the standout dishes based on our experience. Hands down our best meal in Barcelona and a great way to cap off a whirlwind four days in the capital of Catalonia!
