Barcelona: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
In 1859 Barcelona pulled down its walls and was given a revolutionary plan: a grid of squares with cut corners, a garden inside every block, and building on only two sides. The developers built on four, filled in the gardens and added floors — and the result is the densest quarter in Europe. Gaudí built three houses in it. Two hours.
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A short history of Barcelona
At the end of the 1st century BC the Romans founded the colony of Barcino, and remains of its walls can still be seen in the Gothic Quarter. In the Middle Ages Barcelona was the seat of the Counts of Barcelona and later the maritime centre of the Crown of Aragon. On 11 September 1714 the city fell to the Bourbons after a long siege, and that day is the national day of Catalonia. In 1859 the city's expansion began according to Ildefons Cerdà's grid plan, and in 1882 construction of the Sagrada Família began, on which Antoni Gaudí worked until his death. The 1992 Olympics opened the city up to the sea.
The ten best sights in Barcelona
1Sagrada FamíliaBook a timed ticket. Nothing is sold at the door
2Park GüellThe monumental zone is ticketed; the rest of the park is free
3Casa Batlló€35 and worth it once. Go at opening
4Casa MilàThe roof is the reason. Evening tickets are quieter
5Palau GüellGaudí’s first big commission, €12, and nearly empty
6Casa VicensHis first house, in Gràcia, and the least visited
7Palau de la MúsicaA stained glass skylight over the hall. Tour or concert
8Hospital de Sant PauA working hospital until 2009, and now the quietest site in town
9Barcelona CathedralThirteen geese in the cloister, one for each year she lived
10Santa Maria del MarBuilt in fifty-four years by the people of the quarter
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Barcelona →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Barcelona:
Free walking tours in Barcelona
The Grid That Was Never Finished
In 1859 Barcelona pulled down its walls and was given a revolutionary plan: a grid of squares with cut corners, a garden inside every block, and building on only two sides. The developers built on four, filled in the gardens and added floors — and the result is the densest quarter in Europe. Gaudí built three houses in it. Two hours.
- Passeig de Gràcia · The pavement tiles are Gaudí’s, designed for a house and used for the whole street; the lamp posts with the bat on top are from 1906. One block holds three houses by three rival architects, and Barcelona calls it the block of discord.
- Casa Batlló · Gaudí did not build it — he was given an ordinary 1877 block and told to make it remarkable. There is not a straight line on the front, the balconies are skulls and the roof is the back of the dragon that Saint George killed.
- Casa Milà · The city fined the owner because the building broke the height rules and a column crossed the pavement; he refused to cut it. There is no load-bearing wall anywhere in it — every floor can be laid out from scratch, which was unheard of in 1912.
- Casa de les Punxes · Six towers on one block, built in 1905 for three sisters who each wanted her own house and would not live apart. It is the only building in the grid you can walk all the way around.
- Hospital de Sant Pau · Twenty-seven pavilions in a garden, connected by a kilometre of tunnels underneath, built on the theory that light and air cure better than corridors. It worked as a hospital until 2009, and almost nobody walks the ten minutes up to it.
- Sagrada Família · Gaudí took it over at thirty-one and spent forty-three years on it, the last twelve living on the site. He is buried in the crypt. He said his client was in no hurry, and a hundred and forty years later it is still unfinished.
The Old City
Under the Gothic Quarter sits Roman Barcino, and four thousand square metres of it are excavated and walkable. But half of what looks Gothic was built in the 1920s: the city renovated itself for a world fair and added bridges and facades that look six hundred years old. Two and a half hours.
- Museu d’Història · You go down a lift and walk four thousand square metres of Roman Barcino under the square — streets, a laundry that used urine as bleach, a wine press and a fish-sauce factory, all under the floor of the medieval palace.
- Barcelona Cathedral · Thirteen white geese live in the cloister, one for each year of the life of Saint Eulalia, who was thirteen when the Romans killed her. They have been kept there for five hundred years, and they are loud.
- El Call · The Jewish quarter until the massacre of 1391, and the lanes are the narrowest in the city because the law capped how wide a Jewish street could be. A Hebrew foundation stone from 1314 is still set into a wall on Carrer de Marlet.
- Plaça Sant Felip Neri · The scars on the church wall are from a bomb dropped in January 1938 that killed forty-two people, most of them children sheltering in the crypt. For decades the city said they were bullet marks from the war; they are not.
- Santa Maria del Mar · Built in fifty-four years, which for a cathedral is nothing, and entirely by the people of the quarter — the dockers carried every stone up from the beach on their backs, and their faces are carved on the door.
- Santa Caterina · When they dug to rebuild it they found a medieval monastery under the floor, so the new market was redesigned around the ruins. The wave roof above it is three hundred and twenty-five thousand ceramic tiles in sixty-seven colours.
The Hill and the Sea
Until 1992 Barcelona turned its back on the sea: railway lines, factories and warehouses blocked the shore, and there was not one bathing beach. For the Olympics the city demolished kilometres of industry, shipped sand in and built four beaches. It is the only city that built itself a coast. Two hours, mostly downhill.
- Montjuïc Castle · Its guns pointed at Barcelona, not at the sea — it was built to hold the city down, and it shelled it twice. Franco executed the president of Catalonia here in 1940. The army only handed it back to the city in 2007.
- Fundació Joan Miró · Miró gave the city the collection and his friend Josep Lluís Sert designed the building around it — all top light, no windows on the art, and courtyards cut into the plan so you keep stepping back outside.
- MNAC · In the 1920s teams went into the Pyrenees and peeled the Romanesque frescoes off the walls of remote churches with glue and canvas, to stop dealers buying them. They were rebuilt inside here, on replicas of the apses they came from.
- Magic Fountain · Built in under a year for the 1929 world fair by an engineer whose colleagues said it could not be done. It was destroyed in the civil war and rebuilt from his own drawings in 1955.
- Barceloneta · Built in 1753 for the people whose homes the army demolished to make room for the citadel. The plots were deliberately tiny — one room deep, two windows wide — so that the guns on the fort would always have a clear line over the roofs.
- Barceloneta Beach · There was no beach here before 1992 — the shore was railway sidings and a sewage outfall. The city removed the industry, dredged sand from the seabed and built four and a half kilometres of coast in three years.
Getting to Barcelona and getting around
- El Prat Airport · The Aerobús is 35 minutes to Plaça Catalunya, €7.25
- Barcelona Sants · The fast train to Madrid in two and a half hours
- Estació de França · A 1929 station with a marble hall, and almost no trains
- Barcelona Nord · Buses to the coast and to the Pyrenees
Cheap eats in Barcelona
Eight counters where Barcelona eats standing. A tin-can bar four metres wide where everything comes out of a jar and is better for it, a market stall with eight stools that has fed the traders since 1940, and a bodega in Barceloneta where the bomba was invented.
- Quimet i Quimet · Standing only, €4 a montadito, closed Sundays
- Bar Pinotxo, La Boqueria · From eight, closed Sundays, and the queue is short
- La Cova Fumada · Cash only, closes at three, and no sign outside
- El Xampanyet · Since 1929, their own sparkling wine, and no seats
- Bar del Pla · Standing at the bar, and the kitchen is better than it looks
- Bodega La Puntual · Vermouth from the barrel at noon, as it is done here
- Carrer de Blai · A pedestrian street of pintxo bars, €2 a stick
- Churrería Laietana · Churros fried to order, from seven in the morning
Museums in Barcelona
- Picasso Museum · €15, free Thursday evenings, and book ahead
- MNAC · €12, and the Romanesque halls are what you came for
- Fundació Joan Miró · €14, on the hill, and the roof terrace is included
- MACBA · €12, and the square outside is free and better
- Museu Marítim · €10, and the replica alone is worth it
- Palau de la Música · The only concert hall in Europe lit entirely by daylight
- CosmoCaixa · €6, and a thousand square metres of real flooded Amazon
Parks and gardens in Barcelona
- Park Güell · €18 for the terrace, and the rest of the park is free
- Bunkers del Carmel · Free, a steep climb, and go for the sunset
- Parc de la Ciutadella · Rowing boats, a waterfall, and the parliament inside it
- Montjuïc gardens · Cactus, botanic and a Greek theatre, all free
- Parc del Laberint · A real hedge maze from 1794, and only 750 people a day
- Tibidabo · A funfair from 1901 on the summit, and a tram up
Holy places in Barcelona
- Sagrada Família · €26 with the tower. Book, nothing at the door
- Santa Maria del Mar · Free in the day. The columns are the widest span in Gothic
- Barcelona Cathedral · Thirteen geese, and the roof terrace for €3 extra
- Sant Pau del Camp · The oldest church in the city, in the roughest quarter
- Colònia Güell · Twenty minutes by train, €9, and almost empty
- Montserrat · A monastery on a serrated rock, and the boys’ choir at one
Live music in Barcelona
- Palau de la Música · Tickets from €15, and the tour is €20
- Sala Apolo · A 1943 dance hall with the sprung floor still in it
- Razzmatazz · Five rooms in a factory, five kinds of music, one ticket
- Jamboree · A cellar on Plaça Reial, jazz since 1960, €15
- Harlem Jazz Club · Small, cheap, and a different band every night
- Palau Sant Jordi · The Olympic arena. Its roof was built on the ground and lifted
Nightlife in Barcelona
- El Born · Vermouth at seven, wine at ten, and it is all walkable
- Gràcia · Squares instead of bars, and everyone sits outside
- Plaça del Sol · The one square in Gràcia the whole quarter ends up in
- Poble Sec · Cheaper than El Born, and the locals know it
- Bar Brutal · Natural wine, and a wall of bottles you choose from
- Plaça Reial · Loud and touristy, but the lamp posts are Gaudí’s first
Frequently asked questions about Barcelona
What is there to see in Barcelona?
The top sights in Barcelona are Sagrada Família, Park Güell and Casa Batlló. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Barcelona?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Barcelona without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Barcelona?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Barcelona, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Grid That Was Never Finished.
How do you get to Barcelona and get around?
The main ways are El Prat Airport, Barcelona Sants and Estació de França. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Barcelona, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Barcelona that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Barcelona for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.