Katie Wanders : A Week in Spain: Part 1

My taste of a Spanish summer went a little like this:

A week of eating whatever I wanted, not a care about a calorie. A week of actual rest and relaxation, the kind I haven't felt since having kids, that feeling of being my "old" self before kids, while fiercely missing my kids. It started with a few nights in the city, riding the metro, eating and walking our way through one of the best restaurant scenes, covering double digit miles a day. We tasted the city on a walking food tour, stopped for a catamaran sunset sail sipping cava, and met some locals with tango lessons at their house. We left the city behind to see the famous monastery set into the mountainside. After three nights, we traded our train tickets for our European sized rental car and realized first hand the trouble with the EV system in Europe. Our car, quickly renamed the go kart, left Barcelona behind and took us an hour up the coast to the cute little touristy beach and boardwalk town of Santa Susanna. From there, things slowed down as we sat by the beach or walked the boardwalk at night. We took little day trips to the most beautiful little Spanish fishing villages and beach towns nestled in coves along the rocky coast known as Costa Brava. Little beach shops sold snorkel gear and floats, the most quaint shops and restaurants, and gelato shops could be found around every corner. The beach is a full day affair where you can find kids diving of rocks, topless bathers evading tan lines, couples snoozing on the pebbled beaches, and families playing in the sun.

From the city center of Barcelona to the tiny fishing village of Tamariu, one thing is for sure. Spaniards and Europeans on holiday love their beaches, long meals, drinks at any and every hour, and doing all of these things late into the night. The food is amazing, the people are friendly, and it's a reasonably affordable place to visit. We loved Spain and couldn't understand why people don't talk about this region of the country more. Sit back while I tell you all the reasons Barcelona and a Costa Brava road trip should be on your list.

I'll be sharing the major costs as I go through our Spain posts with the hopes of ditching the misconception that a trip to Europe will break the bank. We ended up going to Spain because it was actually cheaper than staying within the U.S., even during their peak season in the beginning of August. Their resorts are much cheaper, food is more affordable, and we found a great deal on flights that were pretty comparable to flying within the U.S.

Octopus 'a feira' (Galician style)

As we spent a few days in Barcelona, we kept looking at each other and repeating the same thing. "It's such a livable city". We decided to skip a car rental for the first half of our trip, opting instead to ride the metro around the city. Google maps makes using the metro abroad so easy. You plug in your destination, hit the metro option, and google maps will tell you which train, which direction, and how many stops. We bought a three day/72 hour pass for €23.80 ($26 each) which took us from the airport right down to the Hotel Barcelona Universal and around the city for the next few days.

Round trip flights from JFK/NYC to Barcelona: $650 each, carry-on only

In & Out Parking JFK: $177 for 7 nights

Hotel Barcelona Universal ($425 for two, including all taxes and fees for 3 nights)

Artificial Beaches of Barcelona

Rambla de Mar waterfront area

About Barcelona

Barcelona is a Spanish city rich in history and culture with a population of about 1.6 million within city limits. As you walk around the city, you can see the remnants from a city that was fortified for a long time. Old fortress city walls envelop you as you walk down cobblestone streets, in and out of buildings and markets. While Spain's capital of Madrid is landlocked in the center of the country, Barcelona is in the northeastern Catalonia region of Spain on the Mediterranean coast, a city on the sea. Barcelona is a transport hub and its port is one of Europe's principal seaports and busiest European passenger ports. Catalan and Spanish are spoken throughout the city (and english in the touristy areas). The city is known for its famous architectural "god" Gaudí, the mastermind behind Sagrada Familia and Park Guell.

Barcelona was founded towards the end of the 1st century, BC, during the Neolithic times by the Romans. The Spain we know now joined the European Union in 1986 and our local guide during our food tour kept reiterating that the 1992 Olympic Games hosted in Barcelona really changed the city and opened it up to tourism. The city was further developed for tourism and even artificial beaches were added to the city. The Barcelona we experienced was very clean, safe, and welcoming, even as the party scene ramped up on the weekend.

Hotel Barcelona Universal

Where we stayed

Hotel Barcelona Universal - great location in the city, right across from a Metro station. Clean rooms, hotel pool and bar, onsite restaurant. No complaints and would definitely recommend.

Mercat de la Boqueria

La Rambla

Day 1: City Exploring, Port Vell, La Rambla, & Mercat de la Boqueria

We spent our first day in the city, walking around and getting familiar with the city and the metro and of course, diving into as much food as we could. I highly recommend starting your trip on foot, just taking in the sites, the scenery, and getting your bearings and we ended up walking about 10 miles a day. We made our way to La Rambla, Barcelona's famous 1.2 km tree-lined pedestrian street. Here you can find various shops, vendors, restaurants, and the more touristy of the open markets, Mercat de la Boqueria. Here, you can find all of Spains specialties and then some. It is a great place to stop for a meal or a snack but beware, it gets pretty busy and pickpockets also frequent the market. I used a fanny pack that I kept strapped across my chest and zippered. We split our cash and always left our passports locked in the hotel safe. By the end of day 1, we were absolutely in love with the city and more importantly, the food.

Metro card (3 day pass for $26), food (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and beverages (you will have to pay for water every where you go)

What we ate: Patatas bravas, octopus, shrimp skewers, Spanish tortilla (potato omelet), Catalan Tomato Bread (Pa Amb Tomàquet), fruit smoothies, Jamón ibérico, oysters, squid ink paella, and fiduea (paella with a thin small pasta instead of rice). It was all absolutely amazing.

Walking Food Tour

Traditional Catalan Xuixo

Day 2: Walking Food Tour and Rooftop Tango Lesson

We used Viator to book a few tours while visiting the city. Between work and two young kids, I didn't have the time or energy to do a ton of research on the city and this trip so instead, we opted for tours that allowed us to experience the city in fun and different ways, with very little planning on our part. The first thing we did per our neighbors recommendation was a food tour. I was worried it may be a bit touristy but it was a fantastic way to learn some of the history, and enjoy various restaurants and food around the city from someone who was born and raised in Barcelona. After the food tour, we relaxed by the hotel pool for a bit before heading to a different part of the city for rooftop tango lessons. While we are not expert dancers, we had a lot of fun getting to know some of the locals and learning a few steps on the tango with a group on a sunny summer evening.

What we ate (food tour): Stop 1 - La Colmena for Xuixo (catalonian custard filled pastry/donut). Stop 2 - Mercat de Santa Caterina for olives in mojopican (a sauce from the canary islands), various cheeses (payoyo, manchego, montbru) and ham (serrano ham and Iberian ham - started with grain finished with acorns - jamon bellota). Stop 3 - Jai-Ca for tapas "la boma", peppers, tripe, eggplant, tomato bread and drinks. Stop 4 - Barceloneta for traditional paella and sangria. Again, it was all absolutely amazing.

Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours (four hours, $212 for two which included snacks, lunch and drinks) and Rooftop Tango Lesson (1.5 hours, $55 for two, included drinks).

Dinner and drinks

Tango Lesson

Tango lesson Barcelona

Day 3: Day Trip to Montserrat, Barceloneta/Beaches, and Sunset Sail

On our last full day in the city, we were up early to meet an 8am tour bus to head outside of the city to Montserrat. Montserrat is a gorgeous mountain with a benedictine monastery nestled into and throughout the mountain. We are not religious but opted to see the famous architecture and surroundings on Montserrat. We took the tour bus to the main area, the funicular to the top, and hiked back down where we had a quick lunch and dessert before taking the bus back to Barcelona. There is a ton of history here and it is a beautiful place to hike around. If you visit in the summer, try to pick a cooler day as there is no shade along the trails throughout the park. While I wouldn't call it a must-see, it was very interesting and I don't regret a half day visit and the tour. In the afternoon, we walked down to Barceloneta to see the beaches and enjoy some food before we left for our catamaran cruise. It was really cool to see city dwellers retreating to the beach and enjoying the ocean (there were entirely nude or topless sections of beach). We set sail on a catamaran and watched the sunset over the city from the water. The water was a bit rough for my liking, and the boat a bit crowded, but we enjoyed seeing the city from a different vantage point.

What we ate: Spanish tortilla sandwiches, octopus, shrimp, razor clams, tomato bread, Mato from Montserrat (catalan dessert cheese served with honey), Montserrat cheesecake, Argentinian steakhouse steaks.

Montserrat Tour with World Experiences ($155 for two) and Sunset Catamaran Sail with This Is Med ($98 for two)

Montserrat

On Day four, we packed up our suitcases and headed back to the airport to pick up a rental car and drive an hour north to the beach town of Santa Susanna. We left the city behind and enjoyed a few days on the Catalan coast, but that's a whole separate post.

We loved Barcelona far more than we expected. We loved the food, the energy of the city, the way kids were incorporated into everyday life, the beautiful buildings and just how livable the city felt. With so much of the world to see, I rarely have an urge to visit anywhere twice but Barcelona is certainly a city I hope to keep coming back to.

General Thoughts

Pros: Clean, approachable and friendly city. Bike paths, and walking paths or sidewalks throughout the city. A lot for kids to do and they are very integrated into family/adult life. So much amazing food, especially tapas. You may need reservations at some of the smaller spots. The city felt so livable, and every little area had it's own open air market. The beaches were a nice perk and Barcelona seemed to be the kind of place where you have it all. The metro station is wonderful (and clean) and makes getting around the city and to and from the airport, easy. English is widely spoken but I found it very helpful to have enough Spanish under my belt. The gelato is amazing, the spanish tortilla is my new favorite food, and everyone is out late into the night.

Cons: Not a ton of parks/green spaces compared to a lot of other cities. There are a lot of smokers every where you go so second hand smoke is prevalent. You have to adjust to the sloooow pace in Europe, especially when it comes to ordering out. They will seem to be offended if you don't order coffee and dessert. You will wait forever for your check. Meals are a long affair here. Things do tend to close for the afternoon as everyone goes home for a siesta from about 3 to 6.