June 4, 2007
Barcelona: Do You Like Me?
Update (6/6): Holy crap, you guys are awesome (and well traveled). Thanks for all your recommendations and advice! I don't mean to be a lazy bum, but instead of coming up with another, better-sounding reason I'll just say that I really am too lazy to reply to each comment individually as I usually do. And you know that I do like to acknowledge all my readers, because without you this site would kinda suck! (HAI U GUYZ!) I'll give a collective THANK YOU for now and crawl into my bed in a moment for a not-so-good night's sleep.
I thought I should inform you that Diana and I decided that we are most definitely nooot going to Barcelona this summer, but will hopefully go...later. Yes. There is a plan in the works to go to Italy in September to romp around the Land of Gelato (and by that I mean Italy) with our favorite weegie. I'll let you know when that's confirmed. ;)
This is another one of those random entries where I don't actually talk about food. Sorry. So for the 99% of who you don't care, I hope you come back soon. For the other < 1% who found the title interesting (or are just very bored) maybe you can help me.
Diana and I considered going to Barcelona during the last full week of July because neither of us had been there before and we both wanted to go. Obviously. Also, we would be able to meet up with the fabulous ADELYN who is currently skipping around Europe and getting trapped in elevators in the process.
Unfortunately, Diana and I have kind of hit this wall of "OMG EXPENSIVE", in that this trip will probably cost a buttload and a half plus since we don't actually know anywhere there who we can bum a couch off of and we are more comfortable staying in a hotel than a hostel. While we could say, "Screw it!" and spend the money, it would be kind of reckless. I don't know if I can blow a few thousand dollars at the moment. (Er, probably not.) Still thinking about it.
My question is, do I have any readers in the Barcelona area? Or does anyone have tips to give us for the future? Now that we've talked about it, we're pretty sure we'd like to go...eventually, whether that's later this year or next year. May as well start planning now.
Thanks for your help!
Posted by roboppy at 11:11 PM
Comments (28)
i'm planning a trip to barcelona too! i'm also hoping to also hit up madrid, south of france, and paris. i saw that you went to paris a while back and i'm planning to search through your backentries to see where i MUST go for food!
i saw this article in nyt a few days ago and thought i'd share. it seems like at least some of the fooding that they mention is low cost, but definitely not all. http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/travel/03choice.html
i love the blog, btw! i'm a displaced ny-er and i'm hoping to return once i'm done with school. in the meantime, i visit and catch up on all the yummy eats!
Hi Robyn!
Ah, Barcelona - my third home! :)
I'll go through all my notes on Barcelona and write you an email soon. July is high season and so a cheap hotel may be difficult to find but it may be possible if you book in advance.
Food is definitely affordable - soooo much cheaper than London. And a visit to La Boqueria is mandatory!
I don't remember Barcelona being particularly expensive (I just got back from London a few weeks ago and THAT was pricey) but then again I was there about three years ago during winter. But I agree with Su-Lin above that food was really affordable and there are some really great restaurants and tapas.
If you're planning on spending the whole week there then I'd agree that a hostel for the entire time wouldn't really be pleasant. But if hotels are too expensive, you can always rough it for a few nights in a hostel and then switch over to a nicer place for the rest of the time. I've done that on other trips and it can work nicely, as long as you don't mind packing up your stuff in the middle of the trip.
It's a wonderful city. I hope you make it. When we went, we rented an apartment for a week and that saved us a ton of money. I think you should be able to find one for about 500 or so Euros a week, maybe less. Look online for private apartment rentals.
The hostels in Barcelona that I saw on Las Ramblas were nasty so I wouldn't recommend staying there. Same goes for the food...DO NOT EAT WITHIN 2 BLOCKS OF LAS RAMBLAS.
Hey Robyn,
I found your site somewhere along my tour of the NYC food blogging circuit. No blog of my own, but I do enjoy reading and eating (and reading about eating)!
I've been to Barcelona twice and found it quite affordable. Also WELL worth the trip. It's a gorgeous city and there is a lot of incredible eating to be done (I see someone else posted the NYTimes article--it's worth a read). I had many phenomenal meals there for ~10 euros.
I stayed in hostels both times and found them very budget-friendly and not uncomfortable. Also, most hostels allow you to book a private room for 1 or 2 people that's slightly more expensive than a shared room but still cheaper than a hotel or B&B.
I spent 3 months backpacking through Europe and found the LetsGo guide to be an amazing resource for travelers on a budget. I can't recall the names of the places I stayed, but I know I found them in the LetsGo book. Both hostels were affordable, clean, and friendly.
As for food, La Boqueria is a must (http://www.boqueria.info/). It's off La Rambla. I spent many delightful hours there--it's well worth pushing through the crowds.
I hope you decide to go!
Hannah
Posted by: hannah at June 5, 2007 11:20 AM [#]
LOVE Barcelona - highly recommend. If you can get through the airfare, costs are not bad (even with the exchange) once you get there. Air France is having a sale thru 6/8 for travel in June/July - might be worth checking out.
Places to stay - have stayed at Banys Oriental (www.hotelbanysorientals.com) in the Born area - great hotel, relatively reasonable (esp with two people) - you can get a double room for 98E. Have also had great luck with apartment rentals through Friendly Rentals (friendlyrentals.com) (with friends and alone). Pretty good deals and off season, have seen some large studios (like, our studios in NYC look like a closet to these) for 90E a night. When you factor in that you can buy food and wine (at the Boqueria definitely!) for some of your meals/snacking, it works out really well.
My favorite place (beside the Boqueria) is El Xampanyet (http://www.10best.com/Barcelona/Restaurants/Tapas/index.html?businessID=17813). Try the anchovies and the sardines. And the cava. Never thought I would eat anchovies and sardines, but when you get here, you will. There are tons of other little places to try. Had really good luck with the TimeOUt guide to Barcelona.
Have you thought about Seville, Cadiz, Ronda....all amazing and you can actually go to all 3 pretty easily. We were in Seville for 3 days, drove down to Cadiz (awesome, right on the ocean - had an amazing squid ink dish that blew me away in this little restaurant run by two spanish speaking (and only spanish) brothers in their 70's...are and drank with them all night), spent the next day driving to Ronda which is built into a ravine - the food is more rustic - alot of game vs the seafood in Cadiz...could spend months in Spain just eating...god i wish i could be there right now!
Best of luck!
Posted by: Jen at June 5, 2007 2:18 PM [#]
Barcelona is great! Unfortunately the crime rate is very high. Do be careful when u are there.
My girlfriend and her girlfriend just got "robbed" a total of 1000€ on their arrival 3 wks ago. A car pulled over and 2 Barcelonians pretended (showed some ID) to be some drug officers and demanded to check my their documents. They only discovered that their money was gone after the 2 left.
Good Luck!
Lily
Posted by: Lily at June 5, 2007 2:40 PM [#]
A great place to stay is HelloBCN on the west side of Barcelona (check it out on Hostelworld). Cheap, clean and friendly, it's also fully equipped with a bar in the lobby area to catch that nightcap before heading to bed, and a kitchen if you want to get some raw supplies at La Boqueria and just cook it up at the hostel. At La Boqueria, definitely definitely get a seafood plate at one of the stalls where people are just sitting around and eating delicious-smelling seafood. No menu, just a "plate for one" or a "plate for two." It's about $20 bucks American. A little pricey and seriously worth it. The absolute freshest razor clams, calamari, baby octopus, shrimp and scallops fresh off the grill and dressed with a little ladlefull of olive oil, lemon juice & parsley. Truly memorable.
Posted by: Nancy at June 5, 2007 4:13 PM [#]
Have you considered camping? This isn't as absurd as it sounds. Europe has fully equipped camp grounds that are very well maintained, complete with clean showers etc. With the money you save, you can rent a car. But Europe's ground transportation is notoriously good, so it may not even be necessary.
Posted by: dana at June 5, 2007 6:21 PM [#]
I forget the exact name of the place, but there was this one place that had really yummy churros and this dense hot chocolate to dip them in. Sooo good. But make sure you get churros. We even had some custard filled ones off a street cart. They didn't look good, but they were fantastic!
Staying in a hostel ain't that bad! You can check hostelworld.com for hostels there. I stayed in a hostel for a week recently in Tokyo - it was extremely comfortable.
Posted by: missy-j at June 6, 2007 5:11 AM [#]
Barcelona Recommendations:
- Gaudi's Works - most definitely including the Sagrada Familia
- La Boqueria - gorgeous colourful food markets
- The Magic Fountain - my favourite part of the entire trip. I recommend it to everyone I know who's going to Barcelona and somehow they always miss it! Definitely not to be missed!
And definitely DO NOT EAT ON LA RAMBLAS!! I made that mistake... it wasn't good! :( If you can find it Can Rosa in Port Vell do awesome spanish food... and cheap too! :)
For further reference please see my blog posts one, two and three. Also photos here!
Robyn! u MUST go to www.chocolatmilano.it for gelato. it was so good i'd take a train down 40 min just to have some. if u're in italy for gelato - may as well have the best!!
It's real near the Milano Cardona train station, around the corner. just ask, i'm sure the locals will know.
Posted by: Italy lover at June 7, 2007 1:13 AM [#]
i stayed at Paraiso Travellers Hostel, it was nicer than my student dorm here in the UK. it was
about 60 euros for three days in a 4 person room. it's close to a lot of things, the closest metro station is Para-lel.
i agree with a previous poster...anything edible at Las Ramblas is ridiculously overpriced. we were about to get some beers until we found out it was 14 euro for a large mug...forget that!
i was a lot happier with prices in Barcelona than in London...since i live 30 minutes away from London, i travel there often...the prices are a pain in the ass not to mention the fact that the British pound is currently around $2...d'oh!
the beach is small but i got excited seeing it...i miss the Florida beach i left 4 months ago :(
i had a wonderful time...Barcelona is beautiful and we were lucky to have sunny weather the 3 days we spent there.
brush up on your Spanish; some speak English but definitely not the majority. however, my friend who is semi-fluent in Castellano (the main dialect in Spain) had trouble in Barcelona because the main language is Catalan. the staff at the hostel i mentioned however speaks English.
speaking of Italy, i'll be there in 5 days...woohoo!
Posted by: Janice at June 7, 2007 10:10 AM [#]
I've been to Barcelona before on a shoe string budget. It can be done if you live in a hostel. It's safe enough.
Go during summer and visit La Ramblas near the Plaza de Catalunia. Agree that crime can be such a problem with pickpocketing.
Favorite site was Sagrada Familia and the Picasso Museum.
Favorite food was seafood paella.
Have fun!
Try this site for a free couch:
http://www.couchsurfing.com/
Posted by: Regina at June 8, 2007 4:57 AM [#]
Dear Robyn,
Italy was fabulous when I went in the fall. No need to spend mondoEuro on food when you go but you must hit the bakeries for hot out o' the oven goodness, esp. in the form of the tiny pizzas. Try the plainest pasta you can get, just for the sheer pleasure of flavor explosion. I had orrichiette with parsley, sultanas, olive oil, and transluscent onion bit that made me sigh aloud. Any finally, my favorite gelato flavor was violet, with pistachio and the deep dark chocolate hot on its heels. Enjoy!!!!
Posted by: Aunt Jx at June 8, 2007 3:24 PM [#]
The beautiful museum of Catalonian history is also stunning...they installed beautiful Romanesque chapels from the countryside within the museum to better preserve their priceless mosaics.
Also, a reasonably priced day trip (easy to do....just buy a totMonserrat pass from the automated machines in the subway..everything is included) is to head to Montserrat...the monastery on top of the mountain is gorgeous, and the scenery is stunning.
Posted by: tom at June 8, 2007 6:28 PM [#]
hey i went to Barcelona on spring break this year during my semester abroad in prague. i absolutely LOVED the city - the greatest vibe to the city. you're never going to leave. here are places i HIGHLY recommend. and yes, DO STAY AWAY FROM LAS RAMBLAS.
maoz - i know you did a post on this in nyc, but you should compare it to the maoz in Europe... MUCH BETTER. i tried the one in union sq. and thought it was pretty horrible.
El Xampanyet (tapas) - small, tapas bar in the Barri Gotic/La Ribera part of town. There's always a crowd so go early to get a seat. [c/Montcada 22 closed Sun eve & Mon]
Xaica (paellas) - this looks a bit run-down, but you can tell it's authentic. my friend & i happened to walk by it and the paella was AMAZING. [C/Jovellanos 5-7, by Placa Catalunya - there are two restaurants Xaica & Petit Xaica, go to the smaller one]
Bar Kasparo - GREAT cafe in a small placa off of Las Ramblas [Placa Vicenc Martorell 4, in El Raval]
Bar-Restaurante Can Tomas - never made it here but supposedly the one of the best tapas in town (AND CHEAP!) [C/Major de Sarria 49, a bit farther out in Barcelon]
Any bar in Gracia - just check out the neighborhood in general. Comparable to the LES of new york, very artsy & hip, much quieter and almost no tourists : )
Posted by: sakiko 
at June 9, 2007 11:07 AM [#]
hey i went to Barcelona on spring break this year during my semester abroad in prague. i absolutely LOVED the city - the greatest vibe to the city. you're never going to leave. here are places i HIGHLY recommend. and yes, DO STAY AWAY FROM LAS RAMBLAS.
maoz - i know you did a post on this in nyc, but you should compare it to the maoz in Europe... MUCH BETTER. i tried the one in union sq. and thought it was pretty horrible.
El Xampanyet (tapas) - small, tapas bar in the Barri Gotic/La Ribera part of town. There's always a crowd so go early to get a seat. [c/Montcada 22 closed Sun eve & Mon]
Xaica (paellas) - this looks a bit run-down, but you can tell it's authentic. my friend & i happened to walk by it and the paella was AMAZING. [C/Jovellanos 5-7, by Placa Catalunya - there are two restaurants Xaica & Petit Xaica, go to the smaller one]
Bar Kasparo - GREAT cafe in a small placa off of Las Ramblas [Placa Vicenc Martorell 4, in El Raval]
Bar-Restaurante Can Tomas - never made it here but supposedly the one of the best tapas in town (AND CHEAP!) [C/Major de Sarria 49, a bit farther out in Barcelon]
Any bar in Gracia - just check out the neighborhood in general. Comparable to the LES of new york, very artsy & hip, much quieter and almost no tourists : )
Posted by: sakiko at June 9, 2007 11:08 AM [#]
ps - so i know you love macaroons. so you MUST go to this dessert shop - it's called bubo. it's open late night and it's this dessert bar and they have macaroons of EVERY COLOR IMAGINABLE.
not sure if you're into to tea or whatnot, but try Salterio's specialty mint tea. AMAZING. i don't whats in it, but it is AMAZING. even better, there's this cute spanish old lady that works there and brews the tea for you. [Santo Domingo del Call 4]
Posted by: sakiko at June 9, 2007 11:14 AM [#]
haha, let's face it, you're addicted to gelato, your macaron passion is endangered ;)
Posted by: Mickjagger at June 9, 2007 11:34 PM [#]
Italy...I remember being there a while back - only to Florence and Rome though. If you go by the Spanish Steps - a few blocks away, tucked in a little side street is Edy's. I think they're in a Rome Time Out guide or something. They have this tin foil pasta that's so good. Beware- only one of the waiters seemed to know English. This may have changed. :)
Other than that, we just walked around so I don't remember much of the places. There was this tiny restaurant with all Italian staff and one of the guys behind the counter looked exactly like Robert DeNiro. We had a hard time ordering because they didn't speak English and we were the only ones in there that didn't speak Italian. Good food though.:)
Posted by: Yuizaki at June 10, 2007 3:40 PM [#]
this is pretty irrelevant but this video kind of makes me want to go to paris.. and barcelona:
http://www.dailymotion.com/rated/lablogotheque/video/xmlc0_241-im-from-barcelona-were-from
Posted by: jodie at June 10, 2007 9:50 PM [#]
hey there, just found your blog, i'm a fellow foodblogger, and i live in barcelona, so let me know when you're planning on going, i'll give you all kinds of recommendations, on and off the beaten path, courtney at http://thedoughball.blogspot.com/
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: This is the 
ah yes, this infamous trip to barcelona. i really hope we get to meet up b/c that would be awesome. actually i've stayed in plenty of hostels and they were all really good. check out www.hostelworld.com. seriously, they are not that bad!
omigod, i haven't even started planning my trip to spain yet! i just know when i'm arriving and departing. LOL. i haven't even gotten the guide book to ireland and that's way before spain! dude, i'm such a slacker traveler. this is why i get stuck in elevators and am too embarrassed to call for help. :-P
no, YOU are FABULOUS, dear. YOU ARE.
xx -a.
Posted by: adelyn at June 5, 2007 12:36 AM [#]