Barcelona Port Review
Overall- A- Interesting city with good sites. Fairly easy to get around. Great place to "do" in a day. Only negative is really difficult to walk from terminal and is not one of the four star destinations of Europe.
Ease of Travel- You should not walk from the terminal to the city center. It is possible, but involves hiking over a huge bridge and then continuing another mile. It is, however, easy to catch the blue bus to the Columbus monument and either walk to take the metro around the city. The metro is cheap and quickly gets you to all the places you can't walk.
Quality of Sites- The Sagrada Familia is one of the best churches I have ever seen, and the Gothic Quarter is one of my favorite places to just walk around, exploring in all of Europe. The Cathedral is alright (and free before noon) and the Santa Maria del Mar is an excellent example of Gothic architecture. In addition, if you like modern art and architecture, the Gaudi houses and park are available to tour and the Picasso museum is world class. The city museum of Barcelona was okay, perhaps not worth doing, but was exciting for us as it was our first Roman ruins. With Montjuic and the beaches, almost anyone can find something they want to do in Barcelona.
Safety/Comfortable- Most people in Barcelona speak some English. I constantly found myself having my poor Spanish cut off with English. It is known for pickpockets, but the only time we felt uncomfortable was after standing around like fools looking at a map in the metro. A guy came up to us asking if we spoke English, obviously trying something on us. We just said no and walked away. Oh, and don't take a flower from anyone. They want money. As long as you are as alert as you would be in New York or some other large city, you should be fine. It is a fairly clean city with modern conveniences and seats on the toilets. The metro is very nice and clean as is the airport.
Food- Do a little research or try to go places that look like local places. They eat very late here, so if you eat early, they will likely know you are a tourist. Beware of the "tourist menu". We ate somewhere for lunch that gave us an English menu, but the guy at the next table just got the "menu of the day" which was cheaper than our meals and had multiple courses. Most places have the menu of the day posted outside. This is usually the cheaper option and often comes with wine. They do have some chain restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC as well as a sandwich shop that is a chain in Spain (seemed to be owned by McDonalds Corp). It was pretty good.
My 2 cents- We really enjoyed Barcelona and look forward to going back. I would never do a shore excursion here unless I wanted to get out of the city. I loved the architecture and the history of the city. I am glad that a city as cool as this one is a main departure port in Europe.
Ease of Travel- You should not walk from the terminal to the city center. It is possible, but involves hiking over a huge bridge and then continuing another mile. It is, however, easy to catch the blue bus to the Columbus monument and either walk to take the metro around the city. The metro is cheap and quickly gets you to all the places you can't walk.
Quality of Sites- The Sagrada Familia is one of the best churches I have ever seen, and the Gothic Quarter is one of my favorite places to just walk around, exploring in all of Europe. The Cathedral is alright (and free before noon) and the Santa Maria del Mar is an excellent example of Gothic architecture. In addition, if you like modern art and architecture, the Gaudi houses and park are available to tour and the Picasso museum is world class. The city museum of Barcelona was okay, perhaps not worth doing, but was exciting for us as it was our first Roman ruins. With Montjuic and the beaches, almost anyone can find something they want to do in Barcelona.
Safety/Comfortable- Most people in Barcelona speak some English. I constantly found myself having my poor Spanish cut off with English. It is known for pickpockets, but the only time we felt uncomfortable was after standing around like fools looking at a map in the metro. A guy came up to us asking if we spoke English, obviously trying something on us. We just said no and walked away. Oh, and don't take a flower from anyone. They want money. As long as you are as alert as you would be in New York or some other large city, you should be fine. It is a fairly clean city with modern conveniences and seats on the toilets. The metro is very nice and clean as is the airport.
Food- Do a little research or try to go places that look like local places. They eat very late here, so if you eat early, they will likely know you are a tourist. Beware of the "tourist menu". We ate somewhere for lunch that gave us an English menu, but the guy at the next table just got the "menu of the day" which was cheaper than our meals and had multiple courses. Most places have the menu of the day posted outside. This is usually the cheaper option and often comes with wine. They do have some chain restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC as well as a sandwich shop that is a chain in Spain (seemed to be owned by McDonalds Corp). It was pretty good.
My 2 cents- We really enjoyed Barcelona and look forward to going back. I would never do a shore excursion here unless I wanted to get out of the city. I loved the architecture and the history of the city. I am glad that a city as cool as this one is a main departure port in Europe.
