Barcelona, Spain

Here I am finally dedicating some time to share more about our three week trip in Europe and Africa! We've been home over a month now, which I can't even believe how time is flying by. If you missed my itinerary, click HERE to see how much time we spent in each location and how we traveled. We traveled through Spain, Portugal, and Morocco!

 First stop....Barcelona! For Spain, we got Rick Steves Spain travel guide book. It helped a lot but we also tried to adventure on our own without following a step by step itinerary. I highly recommend getting his book but also being free to explore on your own and see what you find. Some of our favorite restaurants were places we just happened upon. Rick gives many good recommendations though as well.

We flew right into El Prat Airport and headed straight down to the metro station which is attached right to the airport. Here is my first bit of advice when getting into Barcelona...Buy a tourist transportation ticket! We got one for the full three days we would be there and it was good for ALLLLL of our transportation throughout Barcelona. Trains, Metro, Buses, and Funiculars. We didn't have to worry about buying a bus ticket or metro ticket at all. I think it was around 10 euros per day which was totally worth it for us. On our last day in Barcelona, we purchased a fast train ticket from Barcelona to Madrid at the El Corte Ingles which is a shopping mall about a mile from our hotel. Make sure you have your passport for that!

While in Barcelona, we stayed at the Hotel Medinaceli. The photo above is the view from our window! It was located right in the old Gothic Quarters of Barcelona, just one or two blocks over from La Rambla! It's right where you want to be. It was comfortable, clean, and a beautiful hotel. There was a small cafe just across the street from it where we went a few times for breakfast...Crepes and fresh natural smoothies. Side note: One thing that is different in Europe than America is when you get into the room, you have to put your key into a slot for the electricity and hot water to work haha. We learned this quite slowly and found it was the same in Madrid as well. Also, YOU NEED CONVERTERS. I got these ones on Amazon HERE. You need type E/F for Spain.

Here are our full three days in Barcelona. We were absolutely satisfied with our time there and what we did. It was magical to say the least. To make this post fun but also easier to navigate, enjoy scrolling through our photos (there are A LOT!!) and then I will share our must see, do, eat, etc. at the bottom of the post!

 Oh this was a funny time. This wild boar was just roaming the streets. Dummy me decided to get up close and he then chose to come after me. It was quite traumatizing by a funny story to leave with.

 Just to clarify, Alan and I weren't too interested in spending time in Museums. Barcelona has a few very famous and amazing museums so if you're into that, make sure you look them up. They won't be in my recommendations because we didn't go to any! There are a lot of options in Barcelona and you kinda have to narrow down to what's the most important unless you have more time there. We only had three days.

Here is our must do list. The things we loved! Also thank you to those who gave us recommendations. K, here goes:

*Take a free walking tour through The Travel Bar. (you'll need to tip your guide.) This showed us what was in the old Gothic Cathedral and some of it's history! Our guide spoke English and was so sweet. I'd do this first as it walks around the old part of town and you'll be able to enjoy seeing and knowing the history of sights you'll see often while you're there. It was a two hour tour.

*Visit Tibidabo. MUST DO! This beautiful place sat at the top of Barcelona with the prettiest view. Enjoy the travel there sightseeing as you must take a bus and a very cool funicular to the top. Here there is a beautiful cathedral and a small amusement park! We got tickets to ride the ferris wheel and got Churros con chocolate, which is a must, at the cart near the Ferris Wheel. Also, the Cathedral is stunning and you can get an even better view of the city climbing up its stairs! This was one of our favorite parts of Barcelona. Thank you to my instagram follower who recommended it, otherwise we wouldn't have known about it.

*Cathedral Barcelona- go after 6pm for free!

*Sagrada Familia- Although I did think this was beautiful, I wasn't as blown away by it. I actually enjoyed the Cathedral Barcelona better. It was older and I enjoyed its character more. Also Sagrada Familia is very crowded so beware. It's still a must see though!

*Parque Guell. We didn't actually go inside the park because there was a two hour wait to get in. But we enjoyed the area around the park. Another place to beware of the crowds.

*JUST WALK AROUND! Barcelona is beautiful with its narrow streets, small shops, bars for tapas, and bustling scene. We found our favorite pizza place by wandering...I wish I remembered what is was called! It was so random. We also ran into a few vintage shops on the old blue light district street. If you take the walking tour, you'll go to this area.

Food:

*Bodega Biarritz was our favorite place for Tapas.

*Dino Naturalmente for gelado. We went here a few times! It was very well priced and had the most delicious gelado. It was just a few blocks from our hotel.

*La Boqueria for Jamon and fresh juice! If you go later in the day, they lower the prices. We went twice a day haha.

Feel free to leave a comment below or email me if you have any questions about Barcelona. If you visit Spain, Barcelona is a must. We enjoyed it so much!

xoxo