Advice sought: Where to stay, eat and what to see in or around Barcelona area at the end of October?

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
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Five days max. All recommendations, especially for places to stay, but also to eat and tour, much appreciated!!

Drew

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Also, for the record, I’ve never been to Tuscany or Florence or surrounding areas.

Any must stays or eat here?:
https://www.relaischateaux.com/us/destinations/europe/spain/catalonia-aragon/

Thanks!!

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@A_S_K_R_O_B_A_C_K - check out this thread on a recent visit from a fellow berserker:

Barcelona - tour guides? - and trip summary - Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum - WineBerserkers

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For restaurants, Cal Pep is incredible. No reservations and you need to get there about an hour before open, but it’s totally worth it.

Barcelona has an incredible dining scene. It’s honestly hard to go wrong. Get some gin and tonics too, venture beyond wine :slight_smile:

For sightseeing, La Sagrada Familia is a must see. Its breathtaking.

For wine…Penedes is only about 30 minutes outside the city. Codorniu has an awesome cave tour and tasting. Raventos would be another top pick.

Priorat is about 90 minutes outside Barcelona. It’s up in the mountains and it’s beautiful. Wines are great, albeit big and high alcohol, but very well made.

One of my favorite hotels of all time is Trossos del Priorat in Gratallops. About 5 rooms total, overlooking the mountains. Inexpensive too. They open their kitchen and wine cellar to the guests. Can’t recommend that place enough.

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Not sure if you are set on staying in the city, but I spent a couple of days in the Penedes area just outside of Barcelona in September last year, and had an awesome e-bike tour and went to some very good sparkling (and still) wine producers. Some of the people on our bike tour had taken the train in from Barcelona.

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I absolutely loved Barcelona…as far as sight seeing…anything Gaudi is a must, including Parc Guell. An overlooked gem is the Palau du Musica (their opera house).

Others can cover the food/restaurant scene better, but we absolutely love Bar Mut.

Also, eat as much Iberico, tinned fish, seafood and steak as possible. Try all sorts of Vermouths.

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Is this your first time in Barça? What specifically are you looking for? Wine preferences?

No matter what you’ll do, I am very VERY confident that you’ll have a great time

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On our recent trip, we stayed in two locations in Barcelona, one in the Eixample, the other in the Barri Gotic, both times using Airbnb. We greatly preferred the Eixample. The Barri Gotic is picturesque but preposterously touristy.

But you could stay just about anywhere as public transit in Barcelona is excellent and comprehensive and you can get around easily by metro or bus. The cabs are cheap and plentiful, too. Neighborhoods where I would consider staying on future trips include El Born (touristy but much less crass than the Barri Gotic) and Gracia.

Also, a day trip to Girona is well worth considering. You can take a high-speed train from Barcelona that gets you there in about 45 minutes, and it’s a quick taxi ride to the center of the old city.

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Apologies for not being online to reap the benefits of your wisdom this week, but work has been crazy. Hence the need for a vacation! Thank you all. I’m sorting through all this now and will eventually throw out some follow-up itinerary thoughts for additional input if you don’t mind.

Any additional specific hotel recommendations in or around Barcelona?

Is San Sebastián worth traveling to for two days?

Drew

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Thanks!

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Blockquote

Is this your first time in Barça? What specifically are you looking for? Wine preferences?

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Yes - first visit!

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I think since it’ll be 5 days max, that you should just focus on Barça itself. Especially with this being your first go.

I would highly recommend heading up to Tibidabo to get a view of Barça that can’t be beat. The Parc del Labrint is a great place to get away just a slight bit. For obvious reasons, do as much Gaudi as you feel comfortable with, but I wouldn’t recommend cramming it all in if you aren’t feeling it.

For restaurants, it’s really hard to go wrong. I would highly recommend:

My Fucking Restaurant

Bar Mut

Bar Canete

Cal Pep

As classic places that really knock it out of the park for value and deliciousness.

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My last stay was at Cotton House which was lovely. Walking distance to gothic quarter.

I would ask hotels about taxi access. my first time there I booked off La Rambla and taxis couldn’t get near the hotels and had to schlep luggage further than you’d like. YMMV.

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The views from Montjuïc aren’t bad, either. It’s an easy trip up the hill via the funicular that departs from Diagonal. We went to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya – nice museum – and were among the only people in the galleries. We didn’t go to the Fundació Joan Miró but should have.

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I highly recommend Compartir, COMPARTIR BARCELONA, a newish concept from the owners of Disfrutar, the current #2 restaurant in the world (according to San Pellegrino). We enjoyed several delicious, shared dishes, following great advice from our server as to what and how much to order. I’m completely unfamiliar with Spanish wines but the somm’s suggestion of a local Albariño was a great match for our food, and very reasonably priced.

Near the other end of the dining spectrum, we had great pizzas at Parking Pizza, Parking Pizza.

We stayed at the Alexandra Barcelona Hotel, a Hilton property, mainly because I needed to earn a few more points for a Hilton stay next summer. It was well-located, just a few blocks from 2 of Gaudi’s houses and maybe a 15-20 minute walk to Sagrada Familia and La Rambla. The property was fine and would recommend it based on its location. (Edited a previous comment about possible overcharging … they did make a mistake when charging a deposit but everything was OK when I could see all my charges in Euros, which my credit card issuer made difficult.)

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We had reservations at Compartir in Cadaqués that we made in advance, but after driving from where we were staying in Roses toward Cadaqués we decided to cancel - I did not relish the 35m drive back on the very windy road after a long, wine-filled dinner, in the dark.

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shame you cancelled compartir in cadaques. we went for the day from begur and drove home in the dark. its not so bad a ride since its in the dark and you just focus on the road.

as for barcelona, bar canete (bar seats only), bar mut (plus club mutis), besta and drinks at bar brutal are musts the next time we’re there.

highly recommend grand hotel central on Via Laietana. perfect location, comfortable rooms, great service.

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I had booked our stay at Grand Hotel Central but read some recent reviews about ongoing construction and accompanying noise in the immediate area. I canceled our reservation and was really glad we did when we walked past the property. Significant work is being done on Via Laietana (and several other streets in the Gothic quarter). Access to the property is limited and it was quite loud, at least in the middle of the day.

I’m sure it’s a great property but suggest checking if the construction is still underway if you’re considering a stay.

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Yeah there was a lot of construction happening on Via Laietana when we were there in August, too. I imagine it would be a very good place to be situated, right on the divide of El Born and the Barri Gotic.

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Seems short term. I loved the place. High rise, comfortable hotel just across the street from the more touristy areas.

I always wanted to find a central, solid Barcelona hotel option and really liked this place.

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