Wanting to go to Barcelona middle of September. Any recommendations of areas to stay in, hotels to stay at, places to go, things to do etc etc?

Thank you in advance for any help 🙂

Great place with a beach and lots of attractions like the nou camp and the cathederal(forgotten the name of it),just avoid la ramblas strip at night time as it is a hooker and pick pocket haven,but is fine in the daytime.

I’m going at end of September too.
Never visited a country that didn’t speak English – is it widely spoken in the City?
Want to book flights and hotel seperately – is it pretty easy to travel from the airport?

The Born is a ‘happening’ area though i really like Gracia as it’s less touristy and to the north of the city but everywhere is accessible on a bus or tube
i always get the train to sants or passeig de gracia with a T10 (10 trip travel card). the station at the end of the terminal concourse a is not that well signposted so you walk right to the end of the terminal to get to the renfe trains.

my top tip if you are flying sleazy jet, the departures are from a separate terminal that is reached by walking outside the main terminal and across an empty car-park via a few bus stops (opposite end of the renfe station) and is very poorly signposted if you are running late and flustered you will never find it.

avoid the Ramblas it’s a tourist nightmare, only reason to go there is to visit the market or for churros at cafe de l’opera.

this is a really nice hotel and great restaurant, not stayed there myself as i stay with friends in the city but this is where they advise people to stay if they want a hotel.

http://www.hotelbanysorientals.com/en/

Never visited a country that didn’t speak English – is it widely spoken in the City?

a bit but if you are polite and say ‘Habla Inglés?’ and learn how to say please and thank you, no yes, etc then it’s not a big deal, just dont do the brit tourist thing of shouting CHIPS AND BEER GARCON while thrusting a €50 note in the waiters face.
‘dos cerveza por favor’ is quite useful.

If you want a posh dinner while you’re in barca, I can’t recommend highly enough a restaurant called Pla; http://www.elpla.cat/pla/barcelona-restaurant/index.html – was good service & great food & wine when we went there. (we got engaged there!)

Portions aren’t big, price wasn’t too bad but the food was great. possibly the nicest meal we’ve had over the last 5years.

We walked from the Sagrada Familia & the beach, then back to the top or Las Ramblas – not a good idea, was a long trek although we probably didn’t take the most direct route!
Definitely a good idea using one of the circular tourist bus routes to get around as it’s quite spread out – not normally a fan of them but in Barcelona it seemed a good way to find where things are & decide if you want to go to them as things are spread out.

This website: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/ was the most inspirational for me.

We stayed at Hotel Jazz, and got breakfasts at local cafes, it was ok.

I’ve stayed at Hotel Acta Ink606 a couple of times; it’s nice, comfortable/clean/AC etc, without being a fancy-pants luxury hotel and is very handy for most things.

Sagrada Familia (the giant unfinished cathedral) is well worth a visit – just accept you’re going to have to queue – but the rest of the Gaudi stuff, not so much unless you’re a massive fan. Parc Guell is quite nice but I think they’ve started charging for entry.

Go to any one of the Bacoa burger outlets and stuff your face. Absolutely amazing, great value food. http://bacoa.es/en/

A great day trip out is getting the train to Montserrat and hiking up to the top of the mountain. You can get a combined train and rack-rail ticket to the monastery (itself in a pretty cool spot) then do some walks from there.

Get a T-10 travel ticket at the airport as it works out much cheaper than singles. Don’t fall asleep on the metro or in the stations though – we saw some unfortunate drunk/asleep guy getting his pockets and bag emptied on the platform, and it wasn’t even a rough area.

If you get a warm dry evening, get a beer at one of the bars on Placa Reial (recommend the Glaciar bar in the corner) and sit out and enjoy people-watching. It’s off Las Ramblas but is much nicer. Definitely avoid eating or drinking on the Ramblas itself as it’ll be crap and you’ll get ripped off.

The beaches are ok but in my view, nothing that special.

Hotel really depends on budget to be honest. I’ve stayed at a few that varied. Food though. For me, a can’t miss is Los Coracoles (or something similar). Down in the Barrio Gotic. It’s in most tourist guides but it is good.

Thanks for the Bacoa burger recommendation. Stuffed our faces today, proper yum.

Make sure you go wandering about down the side streets off La Ramblas in the early hours of the morning. The good natured north african prostitutes and their pimps will engage you in cheery good natured banter. Its great fun!

Only had one issue- a restaurant that didn’t have beer prices up. Found out post beer it was 8euros a pint. I asked the manager loudly if it was a stripbar..his waiter found it funny but quickly stop laughing when the manager turned towards him 😀

Los Ramblos- theres a veggie parlour there- lush 😀

We hired an apartment direct and booked the flights seperately.

Ohh, and try The Baghdad Club

I should have realised what was about to happen when one ‘lady’ was dancing to ‘I’m a Barbie Girl’…

Life’s fantastic.
When you’re plastic…

😯

Fantastic city IMHO and I never tire of going.

As has already been said, it has all the usual city attractions plus the Sagrada, the beach, the Zoo (no more albino gorilla though), the Camp Nou. The old cathedral is worth a visit as are the markets.

I tend to buy an all day ticket for the Metro as sometimes stuff can be busy so you can end up on and off it a fair bit. The map/ticket info can be quite confusing but all you really need to know is that the entire city falls in Zone 1 – there’s actually an app for it these days which is a genuinely useful tool for finding your way around the network.

Last few times we’ve stayed at the H10 Montcada which usually has good deals & we find it conveniently located for the things we want to see & do. It’s also nice to watch the sunset from the rooftop jacuzzi with a bottle or two 🙂

Camper Hotel

Keep a close eye on your bag / wallet..