Barcelona advice

Fluff15

adonis10 wrote: »

Weekend v weekday trip - thoughts?

Weekend better but I really want to watch a barcelona match and there's one on the wed so tempted to do mon-thur!

Big city so always going to be something going on?

Always something going on - I went Mon-Friday and there was plenty to do. The only difference is some of the museums are free at weekends.

I am a young female and travelled solo there, and took the same precautions as I would walking around London. I didn't feel any less safe. In fact, I probably felt safer than London. All the staff in restaurants warned me about leaving my bag etc, and would always be friendly.

I stayed in L'Eixample near the hospital, which is close to good metro stations and a load of nice restaurants. Also just up the road is Las Ramblas, but for me that was too 'touristy', apart from La Boqueria which is a market and does nice food.

I did the gothic tour with Runner Bean tours (free), great fun and very informative. Helped me get used to the backstreets of Barca, so when walking back to to places another day, I knew where I was.

I saw the Caterdral de Barcelona (Sant Eulalia - good story behind this as told by Runner Bean), Sagradia Familia (most impressive building I've ever seen), Parc Guell, the beach. Never made it up the mountain unfortunately.

If you like seafood, I recommend the La Paradeta chain - so much fresh seafood for good prices. Tapeo is good for Pixtos, I went here twice on my stay.

I could easily visit Barcelona again, and would recommend it highly.

Also - I see you're asking about how cheap it is. I took 250 euros with me, came home with 50 after five days, and I was self catered.

phatbear

adonis10 wrote: »

Horribly expensive and lots of crime. Sounds tip top.

it can be expensive but anywhere is expensive if you eat/drink in the the tourist areas, mainly las ramblas, however if you walk for another 5mins then all of the restaurants are cheaper, in my experience, than london. For example my last trip me and the better half put 150 euro each into a food & drink pot and 3 days later we still had some money left and we ate well and spent a bit too much time in a really nice cocktail bar, yet i have spent more than that on a night out in london and the food wasnt anywhere near as good

and because its a tourist hub there will always be crime more people = more opportunity but as previously stated by lots of people if you keep your wits about you, as you would in any big city, then you will be tickety boo

adonis10

phatbear wrote: »

it can be expensive but anywhere is expensive if you eat/drink in the the tourist areas, mainly las ramblas, however if you walk for another 5mins then all of the restaurants are cheaper, in my experience, than london. For example my last trip me and the better half put 150 euro each into a food & drink pot and 3 days later we still had some money left and we ate well and spent a bit too much time in a really nice cocktail bar, yet i have spent more than that on a night out in london and the food wasnt anywhere near as good

and because its a tourist hub there will always be crime more people = more opportunity but as previously stated by lots of people if you keep your wits about you, as you would in any big city, then you will be tickety boo

That sounds good to me. If we get back having spent max 300 euros we'll be more than happy.

Found some decent hotels for around £290 for the 3 nights, which looks ok.

Next, I need to source tickets for Barcleona v Almeria! Anyone have any tips or best to just play the waiting game? Not going to risk any of the many dodgy ticket selling websites or touts, though!

aaroncaz

1st time we went to Barcelona I was worried abt pickpockets, the 2nd time I went didn't give it a thought.... common sense is all that is needed.


It's a great city for sights, shopping , eating etc.... not expensive either like London, on Las Ramblas for example there is a Carrefour supermarket, bottle of coke was 0.79 euro, that would have been over £1.50 to buy in central London...you can find expensive bit also do it cheap. Great place would go again.

aaroncaz

adonis10 wrote: »

That sounds good to me. If we get back having spent max 300 euros we'll be more than happy.

Found some decent hotels for around £290 for the 3 nights, which looks ok.

Next, I need to source tickets for Barcleona v Almeria! Anyone have any tips or best to just play the waiting game? Not going to risk any of the many dodgy ticket selling websites or touts, though!

You can buy tickets on their website, but ask on Tripadvisor they will know the best place :


http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g187497-i44-Barcelona_Catalonia.html


We did the stadium tour there, now the prices in their shop were expensive, over a 100 euro for the shirt....but maybe that is cheap! I'm no expert.

adonis10

aaroncaz wrote: »

You can buy tickets on their website, but ask on Tripadvisor they will know the best place :


http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g187497-i44-Barcelona_Catalonia.html


We did the stadium tour there, now the prices in their shop were expensive, over a 100 euro for the shirt....but maybe that is cheap! I'm no expert.

Will do.

That's horribly expensive, but not unexpected given the amount of tourists they get through their door.

Personally not interested in buying anything other than a match ticket and a couple of beers!

emz_m

I travelled solo to Barcelona in 2012, and fortunately I wasn’t the victim of a crime. I took the usual precautions mentioned in the posts above and wore a cross-body bag for extra security.

I stayed at the Hotel Europark, which is a 15 minute walk away from Sagrada Familia. It was a nice hotel but ideally, I would have preferred something more central. Hotel Jazz, belonging to the same hotel group and near Plaça de Catalunya, was my first choice but was fully booked at the time. There may be discount codes available on Tripadvisor.

I saw FC Barcelona vs Celta Vigo, having purchased the tickets less than 2 weeks prior. There were still quite a few decent single seats left, but getting two or more seats together would have been far more difficult. I booked using the official website. http://www.fcbarcelona.com/info-tickets

totallybored

I echo the warnings about crime. I've travelled a lot on my own but I was probably more on guard in Barcelona than at any point when I travelled around Asia. Barcelona is notorious for pickpockets, I believe it's one of the worst in the world. I saw several thefts on the metro and one in the street where a woman managed to steal a watch from someone's wrist! I live in London so I'm fairly street smart when it comes to staying safe but Barcelona did seem the worst place I've been to for petty crime. That said, I didn't feel unsafe and have been to far dodgier places. Just hang on to your bag and phone and don't talk to strangers.

notanewuser

Alter_ego wrote: »

Please be very careful in Barcelona. Everyone I know who has visited the city has either been robbed/mugged or at least an attempted.

7 of us went in October and experienced no problems (and we were around la ramblas a lot!

bignred05

have a look at Hotel Azul, can't speak highly enough about it

very handy/central for various things e.g. main airport transfer buses, plus a number of well known visitor attractions

also as for the pickpockets, do your research, keep your witts about you and you should be fine

been a number of times never had a problem, but herd many horror stories