Last updated May 2019*

Imagine if you could design and create a city from scratch.

What would yours look like?

I’d build my city on the coast. I’d build it somewhere with an abundance of light – the kind of light that bounces off the surface of the sea and up and down alleyways.

I’d place sweeping green hills around the city’s edge to give its citizens glorious views of the glistening shapes down below.

I’d dot my city with orange trees and palms. And I’d make sure there were lots of squares for people to drink and dance and dream. 

I’d build a city that looks a lot like Barcelona. 

Looking for Barcelona

I love that cities have a particular feeling you can sense as you walk around them. You find it in the sights, the smells and the tastes. It’s what makes each city unique.

Over hundreds and thousands of years, people come and go. Some stay longer than others and some shape their city more than others. But collectively all the millions of people who have walked its streets contribute to that city’s general feeling. 

And I love this feeling in Barcelona. 

As I write this local’s guide to Barcelona, my hope is to share with you what I think this feeling is.

I hope you enjoy reading it and that it gets you excited for your trip.

The links below are there to help you jump to different parts of this guide if you wish to do so. The intro sections explain my personal link to Barcelona. Then the guide starts in earnest from the third link – How not to be a Guiri.

• Intro I – leaving a city behind
• Intro II – Barcelona and me
• How not to be a Guiri
• The geography of Barcelona
• El Raval
• Barri Gòtic
• El Born
• La Barceloneta
• Eixample
• Sarrià
• Gràcia

Intro I – leaving a city behind

Geography was my favourite subject at primary school. I was fascinated by the fact that there were so many different cities and countries on earth – each with their own unique cultures, foods and landscapes.

I remember thinking it was unfair that we only got to live in one of them.

When I was a kid I’d consume the contents of enormous atlases. And I wanted to explore and live in all of the countries and cities I discovered. Or at least as many of them as I could.

Let’s live everywhere?

Most normal people would grow out of this desire the older they got. But not me. Even in my twenties I still rather naively wanted to visit and live in as many different places as I could.

One of the things that attracted me most about London when I decided to move there a decade ago was the fact that London is essentially the whole world in one city.

So moving to London struck me as a cheaper (just about), more sensible compromise than spending the next 20 years of my life travelling around the world.

But even living in London, the itch didn’t go away. I’d often feel restless. I’d dream of being able to split my time between my favourite cities on earth.

A week in Tokyo, followed by the weekend in London, and then a few days in Barcelona. That’d be nice.

Nice, but unrealistic.

No, Tom.

Sensible adults have to choose one place and stick with it.

Breaking up with a city

When you live in a place, you grow to love its unique charms. Leaving a city behind that you’ve lived in for a while can feel a bit like a break up.

In the same way that you can miss the quirks of an ex after having them around for so long, you can sometimes feel nostalgic about the little things in a city you love that you probably barely even noticed while you lived there.

When I moved to Barcelona in late 2014, I missed things about London, too.

I missed the parks, and excited people spilling out of pubs on a Friday night. I missed the over-the-top, awkward politeness. And I missed the overwhelming variety of, well, everything.

The first time I returned to London after moving to Barcelona it felt really strange to not have a set of keys in my pocket. It was as if I were a tourist in my own city.

Mediterranean dreams

Now that I’m back in London again, I feel the same way about Barcelona. A late afternoon orange glow might currently be creeping up my wall in north London, but when I look out of the window to my right, I don’t see the planes coming in to land over Montjuic in the distance. I don’t hear the songs of Joan Manuel Serrat drifting upwards from the abuela’s radio downstairs. And I can’t hear the twisting and stretching of the cranes surrounding the Sagrada Familia.

And sometimes I find myself dreaming – really dreaming – about the Mediterranean. It hurts that it’s so far away, and I can’t believe that I took it for granted when I lived a mile or so away from it.

I’d pay good money to dive into the sea at Sant Pol de Mar right now.

An (almost) local’s guide to Barcelona

I’ve written lots of different articles about Barcelona on this site. From my personal experience of the Catalan independence referendum in October 2017, to the final, exhilarating minutes of the most incredible football match I’ve ever seen at Camp Nou.

But for a while now I’ve wanted to write a guide to Barcelona based on my experiences of living in the city.

Not a typical guide, but rather a kind of map of my favourite places. An attempt to explain what Barcelona means to me and the parts of the city that have inspired me the most.

Since returning to London, friends have planned visits to Barcelona and have asked me for my recommendations beforehand. And this local’s guide to Barcelona is based partly on the emails I’d send to these friends. Emails that were often so long that my friends spent most of the flight to El Prat reading them.

I also have to admit that I’m writing this guide for therapeutic reasons, too.

I miss Barcelona a lot, and part of me hopes that somehow writing all of this down will be like a form of closure for me.

For a while after leaving the city I’d still come and go between London and Barcelona and didn’t really know which one to call home. I probably wasn’t even capable of writing this guide before I’d decided to commit to London for a while.

Oh, and a little disclaimer. You’ve probably guessed this already, but I’m not from Barcelona. I’m English. So I suppose you might reasonably argue this isn’t a genuine local’s guide to Barcelona.

But, in my defence, by the end of my three years living in the city I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of what the place is all about. After all, I spent most of that time with Barcelona locals.

In this guide I’ll share some of this insight with you so that so that you can get to know the real Barcelona that the locals call home.

I hope you enjoy it, and your time in Barcelona.

Intro II – Barcelona and me

When I wasn’t dreaming about foreign cities when I was a kid, I was probably playing football. My friends and I used to play all the time. And I really mean all the time.

When there was a break at school in the morning, we’d play football for 10 or 15 minutes. Then we’d play again at lunchtime. We’d eat our lunch in about a minute so that we could go outside and play football. In the spring and summer, we’d normally play in the park after school, too.

I remember our teacher would give us a new ball at the start of every term. It wasn’t really a football at all, but rather a little plastic thing with holes in it. By the end of term it wasn’t even ball-shaped. It was just a mangled piece of plastic. But this was only a minor inconvenience to my friends and I. We’d still kick it around.

The match

One day close to the end of the school year when I was eight years old, I was playing in a football match for my school team in Manchester. The game was against another school not far away from ours.

The whole school came to watch, including a girl called Gillian from my class who, as rumour had it, I was probably going to marry that summer.

So the match was a pretty big deal. Not only had a huge crowd come to see us beat our biggest rivals, but I also had to impress my future wife.

No pressure then.

There was just one problem. The other team had a giant playing for them.

He was a really big kid who looked at least three years older than the rest of us.

For some reason – probably to impress Gillian – I tried to tackle the giant early on in the game. But I just bounced off him, and annoyed him.

Unfortunately for me the giant was a lot more successful when he decided to tackle me a few minutes later. It felt like a truck had hit me. The tackle was bad enough, but then he fell on top of me with all of his weight. I landed awkwardly under him and immediately felt something was wrong.

Just like that – a week before the summer holidays – I’d broken my collar-bone.

The Barcelona Olympics

I had so many plans for that summer. Aside from marrying Gillian, I was going to play hundreds of games of football, a bit of tennis, and then continue building the den at the bottom of my garden with my friends.

Instead, the doctor put my my left arm in a sling and told me it would have to stay there for the whole summer.

It was July 1992. Though I didn’t know it at the time, later that summer as my friends played football in the park at the bottom of my garden, I’d be introduced to a city called Barcelona for the very first time.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics are the first Olympics I can remember watching. I thought the whole thing was amazing. I was introduced to incredible sports that I didn’t know existed before. I’d wake up early in the morning and turn on the TV to find out the schedule for that day.  

The games also introduced me to a city with a constant golden glow. The intense light shimmered on the surface of the olympic swimming pool and beat down on the tiled roofs that formed the backdrop for one of my favourite competitions, the diving.

The name of the city itself sounded so exotic to me. Barcelona. BAR-CE-LO-NA. Or, as Freddy Mercury sang in the BBC’s opening credits for their Olympic coverage, “Baaaaaarcelooooonaaaaaaaaa!”

The following summer, I went on holiday with my family to Spain and discovered that FC Barcelona had the coolest football kit I’d ever seen. I learned that the team was also known as Barça and The Dream Team.    

Over the years Barcelona would appear every now and then. Reminding me of its existence. One of my happiest memories as a football fan happened there in May 1999.

In my early twenties, my family and I would sometimes stay at a friend’s villa in Begur, which is just up the coast from Barcelona. I’d order taxis in dreadful Spanish I’d learned from a CD and secretly be amazed when they actually showed up.

A good friend of mine, Euan, ended up living in Barcelona for a few years. I visited him there a couple of times and, as we drank a beer in a square in his neighbourhood, I imagined living in the city myself one day.

And then, almost exactly 20 years after the giant fell on top of me during a school football match, I met Anna in London. She’s from Barcelona, and I ended up moving there with her a couple of years later.

Anna and I are no longer together, but thanks to her and her family I got to know Barcelona from a local’s perspective. From riding a moped to countless Barça games at Camp Nou, to going for vermut, to sitting in (awkwardly) on debates about Catalan independence during family dinners.

How not to be a Guiri

One of the purposes of this guide is to show you a more local Barcelona. In other words, not just the Barcelona frequented by Guiris.

Guiris? What is a Guiri?

A Guiri (pronounced gi-ri) is what Spanish people call a tourist. And in Barcelona the Guiri is a bit of a caricature. Typically the Guiri is a Northern European, pale-looking tourist who locals joke will pay €30 for a microwaved paella and a jug of sangria on La Rambla, before heading down to La Barceloneta beach to drink a bit more and then get horribly sunburnt.

Thanks to groups of segway-riding stag or hen parties, the Guiri is a pretty unpopular figure these days.

You don’t want to be a Guiri. Trust me.

I mean, you might still look like a Guiri. There’s nothing you can do about that. I once got sunburnt in Sheffield in May, so it won’t surprise you to hear that more often than not I was assumed to be a Guiri in Barcelona. I was still being handed English menus in restaurants nearly three years after arriving in the city, for example.

But one thing is looking like a Guiri. Another thing is acting like one.

Stay away from La Rambla (and put that sangria down)

As you’ve clicked on an article titled “a local’s guide to Barcelona”, I’m pretty confident you’re not the sangria-swilling, segway-sightseeing type.

But just in case, in this guide I’ve included some tips to let you in on what the locals are likely to be doing so you can avoid looking like too much of a Guiri.

Here’s the first one:

Don’t be a guiri tip number 1 – Don’t spend all your time on La Rambla 

Some tour guides still cite La Rambla as a must-see. But I can’t say I agree.

My friends from Barcelona very rarely go to La Rambla anymore. It’s just for the tourists. When I think of La Rambla, I don’t tend to think of a lovely, pedestrianised street cutting through the heart of the oldest part of the city. Which is a shame, because that’s what it is. Or at least what it was.

Instead, I think of a big jamon emporium with odd-looking characters in fancy dress waving manically from its balcony. I think of hundreds of tourists blocking the entrance of La Boqueria market. I think of visitors paying about five times what they should for rubbish food, and drinking jugs of sangria, and enormous beers that would look more at home in Munich.

La Rambla is still a very pretty street if you can look past these things, so go and check it out. Just don’t eat there.

Microwaved paella, remember?

The geography of Barcelona

OK, so you’re going to want to get your bearings in Barcelona. Let me try and explain the geography of the place for you.

I’ve just been telling you about La Rambla, which happens to mark the intersection between two of the three barris (neighbourhoods in Catalan) in the oldest part of the city – Barri Gòtic and El Raval. The third, El Born, lies on the other side of Barri Gòtic, by Ciutadella Park.   

The easiest way to think about the layout of Barcelona is to split it into three sections. Imagine a kind of rectangle shape, with one of the longer sides of this rectangle touching the Mediterranean Sea, and the other side flanked by the hills that sit behind the city.

Within this rectangle are the three main sections, and then individual barris within each one.

In front of the hills that sit behind the city there are village-like barris such as Gràcia and Sarrià. They used to be towns in their own right before Barcelona expanded and swallowed them up.

In the centre of the city there’s Eixample, which literally means extension in Catalan. This is where most of Barcelona’s beautiful modernist architecture can be found. It’s also laid out in a grid pattern, which you might recognise if you’ve seen shots of Barcelona from a drone or a satellite.

And then, next to the sea, you have the oldest part of the city. The old town itself is split into the three different barris I mentioned earlier, two of which flank La Rambla.

There are also other barris close to the sea such as La Barceloneta, which I’ll also cover in this guide.

But let’s begin our local’s guide to Barcelona in one of the three barris of the old town – El Raval.

El Raval – edgy, artistic echoes of a lost Barcelona

As little as 25 years ago, El Raval used to be off-limits. El Barrio Chino, as it was called then, was an area of vice that was best left to the vagabonds, those passing through, and the immigrants unlucky enough to call it home.

Much earlier, in the late 19th century, El Raval was an area of industry. The barri was full of factories and warehouses. Products and materials were made there, ready to be shipped overseas from the port.

When this industry slowly died, the old spaces that were dedicated to industry were transformed into spaces dedicated to fun. La Paloma, the oldest music hall in Barcelona, used to forge metal before murals of dancing lovers were painted onto its ceiling.

A neighbourhood transformed

For most of the second half of the 20th century, El Raval was a place people knew they shouldn’t go. But often they just couldn’t resist.

You see, while it was rife with crime and prostitution, it was also home to one of the best nights out in the city. So Barcelona’s middle-classes would arrive in droves from uptown on Saturday nights. In clubs like La Paloma, it didn’t really matter where you came from. Everyone was welcome.

But El Raval has been transformed in the last 20 years. For better or worse, the area has been cleaned. Sanitised.

It’s true that there is still an edge. It’s not that unusual, for example, to see prostitutes plying their trade fairly openly on Rambla de Raval. But you’re much more likely to see kids on skateboards, tattooed hipsters, artists and students, alongside a still sizeable immigrant population.

Hipster Barcelona

Outside MACBA – the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the stylish-looking skateboarders practising their tricks almost looks manufactured. It’s all a bit too cool. As if some hip brand’s Instagram story has got stuck on a loop.

This, more than anything else, is the image of 21st century El Raval.  

And just like in the heyday of La Paloma, the area is still where a lot of young people in Barcelona start their night out. Carrer de Joaquín Costa is as good a place as any to begin if you want to meet the locals.

After cocktails at Betty Ford’s bar, you can follow the crowd down to Sala Apolo for a gig or a club night. Or for a more traditional drinking experience, head to a great old bar called Casa Almirall a bit further down Joaquín Costa.

Sant Antoni

The market at nearby Sant Antoni had been closed for around nine years, but it reopened in 2018. It might make for a more enjoyable Barcelona market experience than elbowing other tourists out of the way at La Boqueria.     

Also worth a visit is the Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona. It’s a bar and museum dedicated to Barcelona’s lesser known beer (AKA the one that isn’t Estrella.)

And not far from there is Carrer del Parlament, which is a pretty little street full of cafes and welcoming bodegas where people spill out onto the street in the summer. It’s also home to one of the best ice-cream shops in the city, called Orxateria Sirvent.

Don’t be a guiri tip number 2 – Eat local, Valencian-style ice cream

There are plenty of Italian-style Gelaterias around town, selling the typical flavours that you’d find in any other ice cream shop in the world.

But not only are these places all pretty expensive, they’re also not the kind of ice cream that the locals tend to eat. So instead, you should look out for shops with the name Orxateria.

Orxata is horchata in Catalan – the typical sweet summer drink from the Valencia region of Spain. But if horchata isn’t your thing, check out the delicious and unique ice cream flavours that are the favourites of locals, such as leche merengada and mantecao.

 Try Orxateria Sirvent in El Raval or Sirvent Orxateria Geladeria Turroneria in Gràcia.

Barri Gòtic – ancient alleyways leading to hidden squares

Each of Barcelona’s oldest neighbourhoods have their very own vibe. You notice an immediate difference in the atmosphere as you cross over La Rambla from El Raval into Barri Gòtic.

You can also tell that there are a lot more tourists when you arrive in Barri Gòtic. But there are still some more hidden spots waiting to be discovered.

And there’s also a reason why there are so many tourists in Barri Gòtic. It’s really, really beautiful. Everywhere you look there’s some stunning piece of history waiting to be discovered.

The area is also what a lot of people think of when they think of Barcelona. Lots of snaking alleyways with darkened buildings and ornate balconies leaning in toward one another. You could see an image of one of those streets and know immediately that it’s in Barcelona.

Don’t be afraid to get lost

You can walk for hours in Barri Gòtic in a state of almost permanent wonder. It’s easy to lose yourself there, and get lost. And you should get lost, actually. It’s the best way to see the place. Forget Google Maps. Put your phone away and just walk.

I once went for a walk in Barri Gòtic really early one morning when the streets were deserted.

It was great.

Odd waves of dawn light created shapes in the alleyways, illuminating doorways and revealing thousand-year-old grooves in stone walls.

Scars of the Civil War

You see, if you haven’t already noticed, I have a bit of an obsession with the light in Barcelona. And I find that Barri Gòtic is where it dances around most magically.

As the tightly enclosed alleyways can sometimes block out the sun, its rays pierce even more fiercely when you emerge from one of these darkened, winding labyrinths into a hidden, radiant square.

My favourite square in Barcelona is in Barri Gòtic. It’s called Plaça de Sant Felip Neri. It’s one of the most poignant memorials to war that I know of. During the Spanish Civil War, a couple of bombs fell there, killing 42 people. Many of those killed were children from the school in the square.

There’s still a school at Plaça de Sant Felip Neri today. Children play in the square at lunchtime, while behind them the walls remain pockmarked by the damage of the bombs that fell more than 80 years ago.

Time travel

It’s easy to transport yourself back in time all over Barri Gòtic. Everywhere you look there are medieval spires peeking out at you from above apartment buildings.  

As well as Barcelona Cathedral, there’s the beautiful Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi and the statue-topped Basílica de la Mercè, which looms above you as you walk down toward the sea.

You can travel even further back in time in Barri Gòtic, too. Just around the corner from Plaça de Sant Jaume you can gaze up at ancient columns that formed the Temple of Augustus, built in the 1st century BCE.

The Roman wall also circles the neighbourhood, even popping up unexpectedly underneath an antique shop.

A little bit of Manchester in Barcelona

After all the culture and history on offer in the barri, you might want to chill out and grab a drink somewhere.

So, what’s the nightlife like in Barri Gòtic?

Well, in a VICE magazine guide to Barcelona written a few years ago, it was correctly noted that although some are attempting to market the city as “Miami on the Med”, you’re much more likely to end your night drinking a bottle of Estrella in an alleyway somewhere than sipping a cocktail on a yacht.    

And it’s more than likely that alleyway will be in Barri Gòtic.

But ignore the Irish pubs or the fancy looking places that will charge you €15 for a “gintonic”. Go to Manchester instead. Bar Manchester that is.

Not only is this place nestled in one of the most Instagrammed locations in the city, but it’s also a cool bar with decent prices and (Manchester-inspired) music.

Bar Manchester, together with nearby The Bollocks are, in my opinion, quintessential Barcelona bars. Dark, with murky red lighting, they’re a bit sweaty and refreshingly cheap. You can find bars like them all over the city.

If you do go to either of these bars and work up a bit of an appetite, there’s an incredible Syrian place called El Cuiner de Damasc not far away on Carrer dels Templers. This is where locals go for the best kebabs in the city.

El Born – the beating heart of Barcelona    

As you walk under the long shadow of the huge Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, it’s hard not to think that you’ve arrived at the beating heart of Barcelona.

Opposite the front of the 14th-century, Gothic-style church, there’s a restaurant with tables and chairs outside. And a cursory glance behind the building that houses the restaurant – at its huge wooden beams – tells you that it’s been around for about as long as the church itself has.

Like the other barris in the oldest part of town, El Born breathes history. It’s impossible to avoid it.

This history is particularly noticeable at the El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria. The important word here being Memòria.

Memory.

1714 – a bittersweet year for Catalans

From the outside the building looks like just another Barcelona market. But when you step inside you find yourself in a huge room full of excavations. The ruins reveal an older Barcelona below ground. The crumbled walls are from the Barcelona of 1714. A year that is visibly imprinted on the Catalan consciousness as the year that Catalonia stopped being Catalonia and simply became a region within Spain instead.

The museum tells the story of how that came to pass. About the Catalans ultimately picking the wrong side in the War of the Spanish Succession, which led to the siege of Barcelona.

But it’s also a space that celebrates Catalan culture.

The specific date of the fall of Barcelona is 11 September 1714. To this day 11 September is celebrated as La Diada. The national day. National meaning Catalonia, rather than Spain, of course.

In other words, Catalans commemorate their unique culture not on a joyous day of victory, but on a day that reminds them of a painful defeat. On the very day that some Catalans believe their nation was lost. 

The independence flag

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets on this day to ask for the right to a referendum on Catalan independence.

I discovered during my time in Barcelona that Catalans can be fond of symbolism. If you go to watch a Barça game at Camp Nou, keep an eye on the clock. On the 17th minute and 14th second of each half, Catalan flags are unfurled all around the steep stands of the grand old stadium, and Barça supporters chant in support of independence.

1714. In Barcelona people have long memories. El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria is as good a place as any to begin to understand why.

I’ve written other articles on this site that explain a bit more about Catalan independence. If you’re interested, you can read this one for a bit of background, and this one for my personal experience of the October 2017 referendum.

It’s hard to truly understand Barcelona without considering the independence question. You’ll notice the Catalan flags wherever you go. All you need to do is look up.

For now though, let’s head back to El Born.

Cava?

Double back from the El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria towards the Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar. In the winding alleyways that snake off from the church, you might find yourself caught in the middle of a cruise ship tour group following a guide with a huge white umbrella toward the Picasso museum. Or perhaps you’ll encounter a hen party exploring El Born on segways.

I’m honestly not sure which of these groups is worse to get stuck behind. But either way, my advice is the same. Give up trying to squeeze past them and hide from them in El Xampanyet instead.    

El Xampanyet is a Barcelona institution. It can get pretty packed, but you can drink good quality Catalan Cava there really cheaply. It’s also the perfect place to eat tasty tapas while you partake in some people watching of the noisy locals chatting at the bar.

Another local favourite place to grab a drink is on the edges of El Born, up toward Urquinaona metro station. It’s called Antic Teatre.

As you climb its stairs, you’re greeted by a courtyard full of seats and an old tree in the middle which offers some much needed shade from the summer heat. As the sun goes down, twinkly lights appear on its branches.

There may well be a better place to have a beer outside in Barcelona, but I haven’t found it yet.

Antic Teatre is just around the corner from the Palau de la Música Catalana; the famous art nouveau concert hall. After standing in awe before its colourful columns, it might be worth heading inside – either for a tour or a show, or just to marvel at the even more beautiful interior.

Idyllic squares

El Born is also home to countless numbers of idyllic squares, full of locals having a drink under floating leaves, blissfully unaware of just how lucky they are to call the barri home.

In one of these squares, Plaça de Sant Agustí Vell, you can find a lovely little restaurant called Joanet. Little John, in English. Specialities include fried artichokes and botifarra, the Catalan sausage. If you go there for lunch at the weekend, you’ll see lots of people drinking vermut.

And you should do the same.  

Don’t be a guiri tip number 3 – Don’t drink sangria, drink vermut!

OK, here’s the thing. Vermut is the real drink of Barcelona. Sangria? Nope, that’s just for the Guiris.

Between roughly 11am and 2pm at the weekends, locals head to a nearby bar to drink vermut and eat some light tapas, such as oily anchovies or razor clams. Vermut is like a religion in Barcelona. People talk about “doing vermut”.

It’s normally served on ice, either with a slice of orange or an olive. Then you can top up the glass with soda water from retro, multi-coloured siphons that you’ll see in bars all over the city. Vermut used to be a bit of an old man drink, but now it’s equally popular amongst old men and Barcelona hipsters alike. It’s stored in wooden barrels at the back of bars throughout Barcelona.

For the best Vermut experience try Joanet in El Born, Bar Electricitat in La Barceloneta, or Bar Bodega Quimet in Gràcia.

La Barceloneta and the beaches of Barcelona    

I mentioned earlier that the barris in Barcelona’s old town have a particular vibe that sets them apart. Well, La Barceloneta seems like a village, completely independent from Barcelona. It even has its own flag which residents proudly hang from their balconies.

La Barceloneta has seemingly always had an independent spirit. Its tightly-packed streets by the sea are cut off from the rest of the city, and you get the sense that this suits the locals just fine.

The street names in the area tell you all you need to know about the history of the place and the kind of work people did. You’ve got Carrer dels Mariners (Fishermen Street), with Carrer de la Sal (Salt Street) right next to it.

These days, living in La Barceloneta is desirable. After all, who wouldn’t want to live by the Mediterranean? But it wasn’t always the case. This used to be a very working class, industrial area. The beach at La Barceloneta as we know it today didn’t really exist about 30 years ago.

Nostalgia for the old Barcelona

Before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 there was a more chaotic stretch of sand where chiringuitos (beach restaurants) would set out tables and serve paella.

And actually, some locals miss those days.

They miss them because the modern La Barceloneta is often the number one location for tourists who want to be as close to the beach as possible. As you can imagine, this is causing some tension.

There are a lot of flats being rented out illegally all over Barcelona, but it’s particularly prevalent in La Barceloneta. Locals have complained vociferously not only of the effect this is having on prices of flats in the barri, but also of the behaviour of a lot of the visitors, who sometimes treat La Barceloneta like a party playground.

The tipping point was when a few Italian tourists wandered around drunk and naked a few years ago to the horror of the locals.

That’s why, alongside the yellow and blue La Barceloneta flags hanging from balconies, you might also see banners asking for an end to illegal renting of flats in the area.

I’ve written about Barcelona’s complicated relationship with tourism elsewhere on this site. If you’re interested in learning more, you can read about it here. 

Keeping it real in Barceloneta

La Barceloneta’s history as a working class neighbourhood means the locals are still pretty down-to-earth. And this makes it a particularly fun place to go out. There are some great local bars in the neighbourhood full of colourful characters.

The best example is Bar Electricitat on the corner of Plaça Poeta Bosca. A great place to grab a vermut and some fried seafood or a bomba (you have to order the bomba!), the bar is also often frequented by local Rumba Catalana bands which can sometimes make Bar Electricitat look a bit like this:

Not far from Bar Electricitat is the quirky Bar Leo. Its owner – a bit of a legend in the barri – has decorated her bar with images of a musician called Bambino. There’s also a jukebox in the corner with plenty of classics and flamenco songs.

Bar Leo is one of those bars that’s actually quite bad, but in the best possible way. You know, the kind of bar that isn’t trying to please anyone but is just impossible to have a bad time in. The kind of bar you intend to stay for one drink in and then realise you’ve been there for six hours. You know the kind. Just go there, order a couple of drinks, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Barceloneta beach  

La Barceloneta is also famous for its seafood and paella restaurants. One of the most scenic is probably Pez Vela, which is nestled underneath the curved W Hotel at the end of the beach. If you can get a table outside, you can choose from a variety of delicious paellas while you listen to the sound of the waves calmly lapping against the shore about 50 metres away.

The beach at La Barceloneta itself can get pretty crowded in the summer. A sort of worst case La Barceloneta summer beach scene looks a bit like this:

There are a few hundred gently burning Guiris being offered one euro cans of beer which, unbeknown to them, have been cooling in a sewer somewhere. Nearby a group of bronzed, shiny men do pull ups while comparing their abs and planning which beachside club they’re going to “dominate” that evening. And look over there. Yes, there, just beyond the public toilets. There’s a man in speedos and a vest who’s adding the final flourishes to the third Homer Simpson sand sculpture that he’s made that week.

OK, OK. I did say worst case scenario. It’s not always as bad as that.

But it is true that when locals in Barcelona talk about going to the beach, they don’t tend to mean La Barceloneta beach.

Often, they mean a beach outside the city. In the summer, locals head to places like Sant Pol de Mar and Calella just up the coast. That’s where you should go if you want a more local, authentic beach experience. You can get there on the train in about an hour from Plaça de Catalunya.

The airport beach (it’s better than it sounds)

However, if you decide to stay in Barcelona, any of the other city beaches will feel quieter compared to La Barceloneta beach. Walk or cycle along the coast to the beach at Bogatell, Poble Nou or Mar Bella, and there will be considerably less Guiris there.

One of my favourite beaches in Barcelona is called Las Filipinas. It’s just behind the airport. If you’ve ever taken off from El Prat, you’ll have noticed that for the first 10 seconds or so you fly over a beach. That’s Las Filipinas.

And while admittedly a beach just behind an airport doesn’t sound great (I should probably describe it slightly differently), it’s actually really lovely both to walk along and for swimming. There’s also something quite nice about floating on your back in the sea and watching planes flying out beyond the vast blue Mediterranean behind you.

Las Filipinas beach is about 25 minutes by car from the centre of Barcelona. If there are a few of you, you could share a cab.   

Don’t be a guiri tip number 4 – For beach vibes in Barcelona, swap La Barceloneta for Poblenou

Poblenou’s industrial history led to it being referred to as the Manchester of Catalonia for quite a while. But while you’ll still stumble upon the odd chimney here and there, its industrial days are long gone. These days you’re more likely to see old warehouses converted into design studios and co-working spaces.

If you want to stay somewhere with beach vibes in Barcelona, but with less tourists, Poblenou is the place for you. Hipster favourite hangout Palo Alto Market is nearby, and there are a variety of great eating and drinking options.

When in Poblenou, eat at La Pubilla del Taulat and drink cocktails at Balius Bar.

Eixample – symmetrical blocks of elegant architecture

As beautiful as the narrowing, winding alleyways of the old town are, they did, around 150 years ago, feel more than a little claustrophobic. Especially for the richer citizens of Barcelona. People who had the money to dream of somewhere with a little more space to breathe.

It was around this time that the extension (Eixample in Catalan) of the city was approved. And luckily for us, the architects behind the extension were some of the most daring and talented that have ever lived. There’s a reason why millions of architecture students want to spend at least part of their studies in Barcelona. Most of the time they’re wandering around Eixample in awe.

Are you here for Gaudí? Great, just look up.

The most famous architect of all, Antoni Gaudí, dominates the skyline of Barcelona with his magical creations. His most enchanting work is the Sagrada Família church in the heart of Eixample.

During my time in Barcelona, the Sagrada Família never failed to make me smile when I caught sight of it. A little bit like St Paul’s Cathedral in London, you could live in the city for years but still feel the same wonder a tourist feels whenever you pass it.

More than two years after I arrived in Barcelona, I’d still stop outside the Sagrada Família for a few minutes, trying to discover a new detail I’d missed before. I must have hundreds of photos of the church on my phone.

If you want to explore the equally incredible interior of the church, buy a ticket online. You’ll understand why when you arrive and see the queue full of people who haven’t.

For an incredible close-up view of the Sagrada Família, go and have a drink on the roof terrace of the Hotel Ayre Rosselló as the sun goes down.

So many beautiful buildings it hurts

The other standout Gaudí masterpieces in Eixample are the two casas on Passeig de Gràcia – Casa Batlló and Casa Milà.

Predictably they’re full of tourists – both outside and inside – but they’re definitely unmissable sites if it’s your first time in the city.

They do somewhat hog the limelight though in an area that’s absolutely full of beautiful buildings designed by other architects. For example, when you stand outside Casa Batlló, have a look around and see how many people are studying the equally stunning Casa Amatller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, just next door.

There won’t be many.

Walking around in Eixample is a very different experience to the old town, as its block-like structure makes it impossible to get lost. The Manhattan-like grid layout means that sometimes you’ll glance over your shoulder and be able to see for miles down one wide boulevard, all the way to the sea.

And as well as being home to stunning architecture, Eixample is full of great places to eat and drink. Nearby another modernist Gaudí building called Casa Calvet, you can find the Cotton House Hotel, which offers fine dining as well as a sunlit terrace to enjoy a beer or two.

Back on Passeig de Gràcia, just down the way from Casa Batlló is El Nacional, a huge space with several different restaurants and bars. It’s the perfect place to relax for a while after a day exploring the modernist delights of Eixample.

In the tapas restaurant there is a menu, but the waiters also wander around with dishes, shouting to all of the diners what it is that they’re offering. If you like the look / sound of what they’re carrying, just shout back!

A bit of serenity in Sarrià

In a local’s guide to Barcelona, it’s only right that I include an area that isn’t really on the tourist map.

Sarrià is a well-to-do barri nestled just beneath the hills that sit behind Barcelona. It’s well and truly off the beaten path.

When I moved to Barcelona from London, I had to get used to a slower, quieter way of life. And it’s fair to say I didn’t always manage the transition particularly smoothly.

Friends would wonder why I’d be anxiously looking out for the waiter 15 minutes after ordering our drinks. They’d laugh at my frustration at having to wait at the fish counter in the market behind several abuelas who appeared to want to discuss their dinner plans for the following week with the fishmongers.

Relax Tom. It’s how it works here.

Well, Sarrià is so relaxed that it makes other parts of Barcelona look like Liverpool St Station at 5.30pm on a Friday afternoon.

Just relax

If you can’t relax in Sarrià, you won’t relax anywhere. There are tranquil squares in the barri that make you want to slump down on a bench and read that book you’ve been putting off starting for weeks.

Then there are cafes like Caffe San Marco, which have some kind of strange power to keep you there for hours. I’ve gone to San Marco several times for breakfast and before I’ve known it, two hours have passed. It’s quite normal for locals to bring a newspaper in and read it cover to cover.

No rush. Take your time.

However, if you really feel like you must move on from San Marco, you can take a leisurely 10 second stroll across the street to Foix de Sarrià. It’s one of Barcelona’s best patisseries. If you can leave there with only one cake, you’re made of stronger stuff then me.

Força Barça

From Sarrià it’s only a 15-20 minute walk to Camp Nou, where things are generally a little less tranquil.

Especially when Real Madrid are in town.

My first ever Barça game at Camp Nou was El Clásico against Real Madrid. I remember I had lunch in La Barceloneta, and then travelled through the city to the stadium on the back of a friend’s moped. The closer we got to Camp Nou, the more mopeds there were stopping next to ours at traffic lights. Horns were pounded and flags swirled in the air as the bikes weaved in and out of the traffic and towards the giant concrete bowl that loomed into view in the distance.

This, I thought, was going to be a bit special. And it was.

I was really lucky to watch as many Barça games as I did. The block I sat in was full of locals, some of whom had been watching the team for 30 years or more. The better my Spanish got, the more I spoke with these socis (members) about what Barça meant to them.

It was an amazing experience at one of the most special football clubs in the world. If you can, do try to catch a game while you’re in town. Preferably while Lionel Messi (the unofficial God of Barcelona) is still playing!

Don’t be a guiri tip number 5 – Don’t just go to Park Güell for Barcelona views

The views from Parc Güell are great, but some tourists assume it’s the only place to go for sweeping views across Barcelona.

It isn’t.

A short walk from Sarrià is the Pedralbes Monestary, and behind the monestary there’s a path up to the hills that sit behind the city. If you climb up this path, you’ll eventually arrive at Carretera de les Aigües, which offers some incredible views of Barcelona. You can follow the path until it brings you back down the hill to Sarrià.

The other spot you have to check out to admire Barcelona from on high are the Bunkers del Carmel, behind Parc del Guinardó. These Civil War era anti-aircraft installations might now rival the space outside MACBA for “most hipster location in Barcelona”, but it’s also possibly the best view in the city. From there you can follow the wide boulevards of Eixample all the way down to the sparkling Mediterranean. Get there for sunrise or sunset if you can and you’ll see the whole city change colour before your eyes.

Live like a local in Gràcia

Gràcia was my local neighbourhood in Barcelona, and a lot of my happiest memories of the city took place in the village-like barri.

I suppose you’re always going to be a little bit biased about an area of a city that you’ve lived in yourself. There are other neighbourhoods in Barcelona that I haven’t even covered in this guide that probably would be included had I lived there. Areas like Sants or Les Corts.

But there’s just something special about Gràcia. When I walked its tree-lined streets and shady squares, I felt at home. Pretty much right from the start.

Community spirit

I don’t claim to have been part of the community in Gràcia. During my time there I was learning Spanish and only knew a little Catalan, so I think to truly integrate I would have had to be there for longer. But I sensed that there was a pretty strong community spirit in the barri.

The history of the place is tied to a culture of protest. Gràcia often feels quite political. It’s not uncommon to arrive at one of the squares in the barri to find hundreds of people wearing masks and holding placards.

But it’s also an area of contrasts. One day I left a square full of people protesting against a bank, with a police helicopter circling above. I walked for five minutes and stumbled upon another square full of smiling people dancing to traditional Catalan music.

That, I thought to myself, is Gràcia in a nutshell.

Resistance to change

If you arrive in Gràcia from the grand, spacious avenues of Eixample, the tightly-packed barri can remind you a little of the chaos of the old town. But somehow the narrow streets of Gràcia don’t feel quite as cramped as those closer to the sea. That’s possibly because there are fewer tourists, apart from those making their way up to Parc Güell.

And there has been some resistance from locals in Gràcia of what they see as an encroachment of tourism into the neighbourhood.

Perhaps this is because residents have seen how much other barris like La Barceloneta have changed. However, Gràcia is still largely a local place, other than a pretty sizeable immigrant population from elsewhere. People like me, for example.

A neighbourhood of festivals

The local atmosphere in Gràcia is reflected in the traditional festivals that always seem to be taking place in the barri. Whatever the time of year, it’s pretty likely you’ll stumble upon some kind of local party in Gràcia.

In early spring you might happen upon a neighbourhood calçotada (dedicated to the spring onion-like calçot) in Plaça de Rovira i Trias. Or perhaps you’ll find yourself ducking for cover under a shower of sweets raining down on you from the carriages pulled by horses down Travessera de Gràcia.

Later in the spring you’ll see the soaring Castels human towers in Plaça Revolució.

And then, as the heavy, late-summer air crackles and breaks above you, it’s time for the Festa Major de Gràcia, where the barri’s streets are transformed into a variety of fantasy worlds for a week.

Carrer Verdi

All of these local festivals made me smile. I think when you decide to live overseas, it’s the local traditions like these that you look forward to most.

It’s what the eight year old me was fascinated by in geography classes. What made me fall in love with the idea of living in other countries.

A good place for you to start in order to get a sense of what Gràcia is all about is Carrer Verdi. It’s often a hub during these festivals, and it’s probably my favourite street in Barcelona.

The little stretch between Plaça de la Virreina and Plaça Revolució is particularly pretty. It’s full of boutique shops, restaurants and a local cinema. If you’re hungry, you can stop at Gasterea for some pinxtos (Basque Country tapas) and then have a beer in the square outside Bar Canigó.

From Carrer Verdi, you can slowly meander through Gràcia and do what the locals do. You could try some vermut and tapas at Vermuteria Lou near Joanic metro, or at Bar Bodega Quimet on the other side of the barri. You could sample one of the many local craft beers on offer at La Rovira on the corner of Plaça de Rovira i Trias, or check out the incredible Catalan lunch menu at La Pubilla by Mercat de la Llibertat.

Then, when it’s time for dinner, La Singular offers an authentic taste of Barcelona. But if you’re in the mood for something different, you can find the best Thai food in the city at El Petit Bangkok, just around the corner from the newly renovated Casa Vicens. Another Gaudí masterpiece.

Parc Güell

And speaking of Gaudí, Gràcia is the closest barri to Parc Güell, which is about a 15 minute walk uphill from the north of the neighbourhood.

Locals tend to be a bit torn when it comes to Parc Güell. Although they’re proud of how popular it is, those of a certain age can remember running around the park as kids when it was more or less deserted.

These days, Parc Güell, like La Rambla, is a kind of battle ground for the soul of Barcelona. A soul that many fear has been sold for tourism.

I’m pretty torn about the place myself. Sometimes I’ve visited the park and felt genuinely inspired by it. At other times I’ve been desperate to get out.

The sheer numbers of tourists there can be a little overwhelming.

I’d still recommend that you visit the park, but I don’t think it’s worth paying, as the vast majority of it is free. And so are the sweeping views.

Don’t be a guiri tip number 6 – Explore alternative Barcelona markets

La Boqueria is the most famous market in Barcelona. And for that reason it’s the busiest. It’s seen as a must-visit location for tourists who are visiting the city. However, there are lots of others that offer a more genuine Barcelona market experience.

If you want to experience a typical local Saturday morning, go to any local neighbourhood market and just have a stroll around. Locals spend an hour or two there, wandering from their favourite seafood counter to the fruit and vegetables stand, asking the staff for recommendations and explaining the meals they are going to cook that week.

My memory of the market in Barcelona is of anxiously waiting in line, trying to remember the names of different fish in Spanish, while keeping an eye on the little abuela to my right who always seemed to want to push in front of me. That’s the real, local Barcelona experience.

The fruit juices and frozen yoghurts of La Boqueria are just for the Guiris.

The video below, which also happens to be one of the best cover songs I know of, more accurately represents the typical Barcelona market scene (without the band of course) than the one you see at La Boqueria.

Check out Mercat de la Llibertat in Gràcia, Santa Caterina Market in El Born, or Mercat de la Barceloneta in La Barceloneta.  

My Barcelona

We all see cities differently. Our personal experiences can filter our judgement of a place.

While writing this, I’ve asked myself: what does Barcelona mean to me?

And the answer is that it’s lots of different things.

It’s the feeling of the surf washing over my feet and the anticipation of swimming in the Mediterranean. It’s the taste of vermut. The smell of paella. It’s the shafts of clear white light flashing down alleyways in the old town.

But it’s also the view from my old balcony in Gràcia. It’s the feeling of the warm sun on my neck. And it’s the song that’s played at Camp Nou just before the players emerge onto the pitch.

This local’s guide to Barcelona is really just a view of my Barcelona. It’s a Barcelona that was introduced to me by locals, but this version of it is unique to me.

My hope is that you can take something from it and use it as a base for you to go and find your own version.

And when you do, let me know what yours looks like in the comments below.

One final thing. Here’s a playlist with some music that reminds me of Barcelona.

I hope it gets you in the mood for your trip.