Barcelona

Hello fellow budget hunters

This isn’t going to be the cheapest travel guide in the world but I have got some suggestions and will be doing another blog post on free things to do in Barcelona!

So in November I was lucky enough for find £20 flights to Barcelona and my grandparents live in Spain so decided to meet me in Barcelona. So we visited for 6 days which was long enough but I think you could easily do everything we did in 4 days at high speed. I made a 3 minute Youtube video of our adventures .

My grandparents were so generous in paying for our hotel and I will always be grateful! We were staying in the area called fira which had a metro stop a few metres away. We used the metro to travel around everyday and we decided the cheapest way was to use the 10 journeys for 10 euros card. Please note that if you change lines sometimes it counts as separate journeys unlike the London Underground. Also they don’t provide maps so look it up before online or be prepared to stand there for hours staring at maps.  I’m not going to write a story of every single day because otherwise this blog post will be over 1000 words and you’ll all fall asleep! We went to a lot of the sightseeing places and I really enjoyed the city.

So the places we visited were: –

• The Sagrada Famillia  As many people who want to visit Barcelona will know, it is home to a grand history of Gaudi works including his cathedral which you can see here. If you want to visit inside there is at least a 2 hour wait in low season so be prepared and buy online before. I also decided that it was expensive and although the architecture inside would be impressive, I think the best part is on the outside.
• Parc Güell – Gaudi’s famous park which features the mosaics and lizard. Another place with a 2 hour wait to get into – we were waiting when it was an hour but the sign got changed as we waited so we decided against it. Since 2013 you have to pay to visit the monumental zone but the rest of the park is still free. We decided the 20 euros for the 3 of us would be better spent on lunch so after walking around the park and seeing what we could (which was everything but the lizard) we went for lunch.
• The Picasso Museum – This was one of my favourite places, the museum houses over 4000 works by Pablo Picasso and shows his change in style from 14 to the style we know and love.  Budget hunters – If you are a student this is free or is free to everyone on sundays from 3pm.
• Arc de triomphe/parliament de catalunya/gardens – This area was a lovely place to sit and enjoy the architecture.  All free to explore the outside but think there’s a fee to go inside the Arc.  
• La rambla – no trip to Barcelona is complete without a walk down la Rambla to Christopher Colombus’ statue.
• La Boqueria – this is the indoor market halfway up la rambla and is an amazing place to visit. We were very taken with the fruit juice stands for 1 euro and tried many different flavours during our 3 visits there.
• The marina (just across from Christopher columbus) is a beautiful place to watch the world go by and the World Trade Centre along the pier is a popular place to visit.
• Barcelona Zoo – This was worth the visit for the whole day, there is a lot of animals and some very interesting conservation programmes here. They also have a big tribute to Snowflake, their late white gorilla. Worth the 12 euros per person which is reasonable compared to a lot of zoos in the UK that are much much smaller.
• We visited the Castle overlooking the Olympic park which had great views of the city and cost 2 or 3 euros per person. However my grandparents weren’t impressed by walking all the way up there and all the way back down!
• Magic Fountain of Montjuïc – This was my all time favourite place in Barcelona, the run at the current times throughout the year (when its dark basically) and is a 15-20 minute show of light, water and music. Worth visiting and very free!
  •  9 February – 31 March, Friday and Saturday: 19:00 – 20:30

    01 April – 31 May, Friday and Saturday: 21:00 – 22:30

    01 June – 30 September, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 21:30 – 23:00

    01 October – 31 October, Friday and Saturday: 21:00 – 22:30

    01 November – 05 January, Friday and Saturday Except 30 December: 19:00 – 20:30

I hope this list has been helpful if you are off to Barcelona and I will be doing a free things to do list later on this month! For now just enjoy the blog, enjoy the city and follow my adventures!