Gimme Some Barcelona Travel Guide

El Born Barcelona

Ever since we moved to Barcelona, we continue to receive many requests for travel recommendations around the city for those of you and your friends who are planning a visit. So today, I’m happy to finally present to you our official Gimme Some Oven Travel Guide!

Barclay and I have done our best to compile a list of our favorite places to eat, visit and stay in the city. And we’ve especially worked hard on the restaurant recs, because with so much amazing food in this city, I firmly believe you should never have a bad meal here! (Always such a tragedy on vacation.) We’ve also created a list of Barcelona-specific pro travel tips for how to navigate the city like a local. And we have created a Google Map so that you can download to have easy access to all of our recommendations while you’re out and about.

We’ll try to keep updating this guide as often as possible as we continue to discover more great places around the city. But please, if you have your own Barcelona travel recommendations, be sure to share any of your favorites in the comment section below too. And if you use this guide in any way, would you mind leaving a comment below just to let us know what you enjoyed? We’ve received hundreds of emails and DMs from readers over the years who have used and loved this guide, but very few people leave comments here and I’d love for you to be able to read one another’s feedback and share recommendations too.

For more travel guides and general travel tips, feel free to also check out the archives in our Travel section on the blog. And if you would like to follow along with our adventures behind the scenes living in Barcelona, you’re always welcome to check out my personal Instagram. Alright, without any further ado, here are our favorite Barcelona travel recommendations including:

  • Our Barcelona Travel Tips
  • Our Barcelona Travel Map
  • Where To Eat
  • What To Do
  • Where To Stay

La Colmena Panellets in Barcelona Spain

We would really encourage you to download our (free!) Gimme Some Barcelona Google Map, which includes all of the recommended places listed in this guide. It’s a great way to navigate around the city and can also give you the option to make an impromptu stop somewhere nearby if a place on the list catches your eye. Be sure to also click through to read the notes for each restaurant pin, where we have included our recommendations for what to order.

Barraca paella | Gimme Some Barcelona Travel Guide

Naturally, my favorite subject. ♡  And also the #1 question we’ve received from friends, family and all of you readers coming to Barcelona — where to eat!

There are literally thousands upon thousands of places to eat here in Barcelona, with new great spots popping up literally every week. And as someone who tends to plan my vacations — and, let’s be real, everyday life — around food, it’s critically important to me that each of your meals here be home runs. So here is our current list of places we love and recommend. There should hopefully be something for everyone here!

Brunch

Bakeries

  • Baluard (Croissants, bread, and more / Multiple locations)
  • Brunells (Croissants and pastries) / El Born
  • Chök (Cronuts, donuts, chocolate / Gothic)
  • Demasié (Cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, desserts / El Born)
  • Eric & Benjamin (French breads and pastries / Eixample)
  • Hofmann Pastelería (Croissants and pastries / El Born)
  • Origo (Breads and pastries / Gràcia)
  • Turris (Breads, pastries and more / Multiple locations)

Tapas

Paella & Fideuà

Vegetarian & Healthy Food

Pizza & Italian Food

Mexican Food

Middle Eastern Food

Southeast Asian Food

Desserts / Sweets

Coffee

Drinks

Sagrada Familia | Gimme Some Barcelona Travel Guide

In a city that offers so many great things to do, choosing places to visit isn’t always an easy decision! But whether you like to see a place through its sights, sounds or flavors, we’ve put together a list of our favorite ways to experience Barcelona. Two things that we would say that you can’t miss here — visiting La Sagrada Familia (trust us, it’s not like any cathedral you’ve ever seen) and taking a food tour (always our favorite way to get to know a new city).

Museums / Cathedrals / Top Sights

Our Favorite Parks

Live Music Venues

More Fun Stuff To Do

Day Trips

A Few Of Ali’s Favorite Local Places To Shop

  • Be (fun gift shop, multiple locations)
  • Biscuit (favorite boutique)
  • Charly Therapy (cute sunglasses)
  • La Nostra Ciutat (art, apparel, gifts, all made in Barcelona)
  • Natura (apparel, home goods, gifts)
  • Oysho (yoga apparel, leisureware and more)
  • Boutique-ing around El Born or Gràcia in general. There are so many great local shops in these neighborhoods!
Alma Hotel Barcelona Spain

We still have yet to do much research on where to stay in Barcelona, but we promise to report back with some updates on great places to stay soon! A few great places we have stayed and loved so far include:

Also, for more boutique/luxury hotels, we recommend looking here. For discount hotels, check out this list. For hostels, we recommend looking here.

Cocktails In Barcelona at Dr Stravinsky

Questions? Requests? Recommendations to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. ♡

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87 Comments

  1. Courtney says:

    Random question! If you were going to a show at 23 Robadors at 8-8:30, do you guys go for dinner before or after?? I don’t want to be so North American and eat early but I also don’t know I can make it to 10:30 without dinner 😅

    Reply
    1. Ali says:

      I’d probably say after (you can also just go for the first half of the show at Robadors, which is fairly long, and then go grab a bit afterwards). Or if you want a quick bite before, we always love swinging by Bar Mendizabal which is open all day long and serves food quickly too. :) Enjoy!

  2. amanda says:

    What a great travel guide! Thank you for this! Would love to have an updated/supplemental one with your favorite activities/parks for kids now that you are parents :)

    Reply
  3. Sorina Terrell says:

    Hubs and I decided on a last minute getaway weekend to Barcelona with two teens and a kitten in tow. Although I lived in Barcelona many moons ago, I went straight to your recommendations and started checking off places to hit with our foodie bunch. Starting off upon arrival with some ‘media mañana’ at Chok, it did not disappoint. Once we had some calories in us, even our teens were interested in exploring sites. We stopped in for some take out bombas at La Cova Fumada as the place was hoppin and we were not exactly comfortable squeezing inside, yet. Everyone agreed to bar Mendizabal for dinner tonight and definitely some churros and chocolate in the morning. So far, the recommendations are spot on, I just need to make sure our 15 year old continues to pre-eat before our scheduled food stops, as hangry is a thing. Thanks again for taking the time to set up such a great travel guide, even for us semi-natives.

    Reply
  4. Kathy O’Brien says:

    Thanks so much for this great guide! We’re coming for a few days on December 5th and can’t wait! You have several of our favorite tapas restaurants on your list and we can’t wait to try the others on your list.

    We’re heading to Montserrat for our day trip.

    Thanks too for the Google map! Can’t wait to put that to good use!

    Thanks again. Love your recipes, blog, and IG.

    Reply
  5. Suzy says:

    Amazing guide! We mainly used it for food ideas and we tried the following and absolutely loved it.
    Barraca for Paella was fantastic though I wish we had more vegetarian friendly option because all the various seafood in it was a tad overwhelming. Cerveseria Catalana was a fantastic option for tapas – we just went a tad early and got seated inside without any wait. They also have barriers between the tables so we felt very safe & COVID friendly. El Nacional was beautiful for the ambiance but we chose not to eat there.
    L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele, Parking Pizza, Hummus Barcelona, Arigato were amazing to break up our meals between overloading on tapas.

    Reply
  6. Kamilah Sayyidi says:

    Best Cheap Lunches: I crave and miss their sandwiches, so good!
    Al Atlas
    Rambla del Raval, 30, 08001 Barcelona, Spain

    Reply
  7. hannah says:

    I just spent the last 4 hours combing through all this information (not nearly finished), I feel as if thank- you does not even cut it!! Do you have any recommendations for unique clothing boutiques?

    Reply
  8. Paul Moore says:

    My wife and I are actually been researching to relocate to Barcelona area and now that I have seen this site I am hoping you can either recommend moving there or not ? And are you still living there ? Any information will be greatly appreciated by us.

    Reply
  9. Kristin says:

    We’re planning to go back to Spain in the summer, and this is THE BEST travel guide for Barcelona. We haven’t been in years, and I’m hoping to really dig in to some of those tapas spots! If you haven’t been to Girona yet, plan a day trip. We LOVED it. But, I’ve heard it’s gotten a bit crazier since Game of Thrones filmed there.

    Reply
  10. Ana @labellesociety says:

    Super helpful post. I’ve been living in Barcelona for 3 years and I have to say this is very well written and informed. Have you ever had a chance to participate in Fiesta de la Merce? It is so much fun and I definitely recommend if you are around. The true Catalan spirit is absolutely amazing!

    Reply