Taylor Stone

Dec 31, 20225 min read

How to Make the Most of a Long Weekend in Barcelona

Only have a few days to explore Barcelona? Here's a list of what I did on my weekend trip that can help you to plan yours!

Barcelona is a fun city to explore and is also a place that you can spend as little as 2 days in and still get to see a lot. I went for 2 full days and it was a great amount of time to do everything we wanted to do.

Planning your Trip

Use "Google my Maps" to plan out your stops and things to see. All you have to do is type google my maps into your search engine and you are able to add all of your destinations in. This is very helpful when first planning your trip so that you can see where the "hot spots" are in the city and helps you book your hotel accordingly. I've linked our specific attractions we wanted to hit, but I'd recommend making your own map that is tailored to you.

Purple= places to see, Red= our hotel, Green= restaurants

My Map Link:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1iawWNSOeSljr6mT9XAMHcUYFv0UGPEI&ehbc=2E312F

Where to Stay

My roommate and I were unfamiliar with Barcelona so we chose to stay in one of the more touristy areas around La Rambla street. This was a great spot to stay for a first-time visitor as it's in the center of the city and near all the main attractions. If you are looking for an alternative, we did enjoy the Gothic Quarter area and is near La Rambla street as well. There was a definitely a lot going on with a ton of bars, restaurants, and shopping.

It is pretty to cheap to stay in Barcelona, but if you are looking to save money, we stayed in a hostel where we had our own room, but a shared bathroom. I never liked the idea of sharing a room with random people, so this was a great option for us. It was a great location (a little loud), and very safe. The place we stayed at also had options for a private bed and bath if that's more your style. In total we were able to stay for 3 nights for around 200 euros per person. (I will link the Hostels website at the bottom if interested).

What to Do and See

I visited Barcelona in November, so it was a little chillier than in the summer when most people visit. If visiting in the summer, I would add the beach to the list, however we didn't feel the need to go in November.

La Sagrada Familia
Shopping on Passeig de Gracia
Walk down La Rambla Street
Antoni Gaudi's Park Guell
Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila
Mercado de la Boqueria
Arc de Triomph
Walk along the ports
Picasso Museum (we weren't able to go but it was on our list)

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is truly breathtaking and is the one and only Barcelona attractions that you can NOT leave the city without seeing. It's construction began in 1882 and it is still being built to this day. When you buy tickets to go inside there's an option to go up into one of the towers. There's the passion facade and the nativity facade. We did the nativity facade which supposedly has better views and is also the more popular choice.

Tickets: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/tickets-individuals

Antoni Gaudi's Park Guell

Antoni Gaudi is a famous architect who has a lot of works around Barcelona. Park Guell is one of them. I'd highly recommend going not only to see his unique buildings in the park, but there are also good views of the city. *Entry is not free

Tickets: https://parkguell.barcelona/en/buy-tickets?q=en/buy-tickets

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batlló

This house on Passeig de Gracia was once occupied by the Batlló family and is now open to the public as a museum. As an Interior designer, this was a must visit, but I think even if you weren't into design, this would still be a very cool experience and something fun to do in Barcelona. If you want to buy tickets there are three multiple options. We got the Gold pass, however I honestly would just recommend the blue pass for 35 euros instead of 45.

Tickets: https://www.casabatllo.es/it/visita/

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila

Casa Mila is another famous residence designed by Antoni Gaudi. Since my roommate and I are both designers we wanted to see both houses, however, if you were to choose to do only one we both agree that you should do Casa Batlló. Both museums have unique interactive elements and learning experiences, so if you wanted to do both it is definitely worth it!

Tickets: https://www.lapedrera.com/en

If you are interested in doing Casa Mila, Batllo and Park Guell, there are packages that give you access to all three. We did not do this package because it was slightly more expensive, but is probably more convenient to just have one ticket for all.

Where to Eat

For Dinner/Lunch:

Momo Restaurant & Bar
Azul Frida
Petit Tapas
L'empanadite
Can Paixano (Cava and tapas, more of a bar)

Momo Restaurant and Bar

Spanish Restaurant with Tapas, Paella, Sangria and more. It also had really good prices for a high quality meal.

http://momoavinyo.com/

Azul Frida

Mexican Restaurant. We were craving Mexican food and this place was so good!!! They had a great menu and the cutest little restaurant. They had amazing spicy sauces and their tacos were also really good and flavorful.

https://azul-frida.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

Petit Tapas

Tapas Restaurant. This place was amazing!! It was a smaller restaurant and a little fancier and more expensive than we usually do. It would be a great date night spot. The menu had a lot of options and the patatas bravas were the best! I couldn't stop thinking about them the entire trip. You'll need a reservation.

http://www.petittapas.com/

L'Empanadite

Empanadas Restaurant. This place was more of a grab n go type of place, but they had seating outside. You should definitely try and go here when you visit the Sagrada Familia because it is near there. They were so fresh and it was fun to pick out all of the different flavors. Empanadas are a must in Barcelona!

https://lempanadite.negocio.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

For Breakfast:

Caravelle

If you're looking to do a chill brunch in Barcelona this is the place to go. The menu was slightly limited, but I would have gotten everything on it because it all sounded good. I would highly recommend.

http://www.caravellebcn.com/

Bars and Nightlife

My roommate and I kept this weekend pretty low-key since it was just the two of us, however, there was always a lot going on by our hotel in the Gothic Quarter area. If we were staying for longer and in a warmer time of year we definitely would have liked to explore the La Barceloneta area more since the area itself was very young with lots of bars/restaurant options. We tried to go to a bar near this area called Can Paixano, but the entry line was down the street. They supposedly have great Cava deals which is a well known Spanish sparkling wine that you must try!

Our 3 Day Itinerary

Day 1

10:30am- Park Guell
1pm- Lunch at L'Empandite
3:00pm- Entry to La Sagrada Familia
3:30- Entry to the Nativity towers at La Sagrada Familia
Shopping on the way back to the hotel
7:30- Dinner Reservation at Petite Tapas

Day 2

9:45am- Casa Mila Entry
12:00pm- Casa Batllo Entry
Lunch at Azul Frida
Shopping on La Rambla Street
Chill time at the hotel
7:00pm- Dinner at Momo

Day 3 (half day)

10am- Breakfast at Caravelle
11am- Mies Van Der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion
Walk along the port
Champagne happy hour at Arousa Ostres
(6:00 flight)

While there are so many other things to do in Barcelona, this is what we enjoyed on our trip. Hopefully this post can help you to start planning your trip to Barcelona! Enjoy!