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Quite apart from the many restaurants, clubs, bars and discos which cater for a vibrant gay and lesbian crowd, and, of course, Sitges, forty minutes south by train and mainland Spain’s biggest gay resort (see “Out of the City”), several groups organize regular events and meetings, and are keen to welcome visitors.
There’s a lesbian and [...]
There are two ways to eat in Barcelona: you can go to a restaurant ( restaurante in Castilian) or cafeterÃa and have a full meal, or you can have a succession of tapas (small snacks; sometimes tapes in Catalan) or raciones (larger ones; racions in Catalan) at one or more bars. This last option can [...]
Mail
In Catalunya, post offices are open from 8am to noon and again from 5 to 7.30pm, though the main post office in Barcelona (see “Directory”) and big branches in larger towns and resorts have considerably longer hours; check the text for details.
You can have letters sent poste restante (general delivery) to any post office in [...]
Bars of the Old Town
Enjoy a drink or some tapas in an atmospheric fin de siècle bar.
Las Ramblas
A stroll down Barcelona’s famous thoroughfare is a must for both tourists and locals alike.
Montjuïc
The largest open space in the city, with a host of fascinating museums and the impressive buildings from the 1992 Olympics.
Parc de la Ciutadella
Barcelona’s [...]
Citizens of EU countries, including Britain and Ireland, need only a valid national identity card or passport to enter Spain for up to ninety days. Other Europeans, US citizens, Canadians and New Zealand citizens require a passport but no visa and can stay for up to ninety days. Australians do not need a visa for [...]
The quickest and easiest way of reaching Barcelona is to fly direct to El Prat de Llobregat, the city’s airport. Catalunya’s other major airport, Girona - used mainly by charter flights and less than an hour from resorts on the Costa Brava - is also handy for Barcelona. Only ninety minutes from the city by [...]
The best times to go to Barcelona are late spring and early autumn , when the weather is still comfortably warm, around 21-25°C and walking the streets isn’t a chore. In summer , the city can be unbearably hot and humid with temperatures averaging 28°C. August, especially, is a month to be avoided, since the [...]
Barcelona has something to suit everyone and, despite being big enough to house over three million people, is a surprisingly easy place to find your way around. The modern city came into being in the late nineteenth century when a vast planning project was conceived to link the small core of the old town with [...]
Barcelona has boomed since the early 1990s, when preparations for the Olympic Games wrenched it into modernity, and today it remains well in the vanguard of other Spanish cities (with the possible exception of Madrid) in terms of prosperity, stability and cultural activity. It’s a confident, progressive city, looking towards the rest of Europe for [...]