Barcelona vacation......tips? - Page 2

 

The food mostly sucks if you don't know where to go, so don't get your hopes up on that end.  Barcelona has more to see than Madrid, in my opinion, and you can definitely spend a whole week just sightseeing/taking photos there.  Also pretty good city to party, though if you're there alone it might be weird if you don't speak the language.

Hi,

I'm also visiting Barcelona (in August) and all of the tips in this post have been helpful.

I'm deciding on how to pack and I wanted to ask if formal shoes are truly necessary? The most I plan on doing is maybe a little fine dining and ocasionally going to the bars/clubs. I was already planning on bringing some jack purcell leather sneakers and a pair of leather sperry boat shoes. I'm asking because I'm trying to pack light and my dress shoes are fairly heavy/bulky.

Thanks!

 

Boat shoes are fugly anyway so just ditch those :) but yes, many of the clubs require formal shoes, at least on paper.  Some care more than others.  If you tell me where in particular you're trying to go maybe I can help out.

I guess it depends on the age group, but I had no issues partying in Barcelona because there were so many exchange students, and they all used english as the middle ground language. Don't try to speak Spanish there because you'll offend a lot of the locals. That said, I couldn't spend more than 3 days in Barcelona without getting antsy for another part of Spain.

Madrid has Barcelona beat to hell for a longer vacation.

 

Yeah, it depends where you go, there's certain clubs (the ones on the beach in particular) that are like entirely exchange students.  You're not going to offend the locals, they're usually really cool with bad Spanish.  I like BCN a lot more than Madrid, personally.

I was treated very well whenever I spoke bad spanish in Barcelona.  

I thought that it was fairly casual. The jack purcells should be good enough as long as they're clean. I never did huge clubs (most of them are actually out of town a little bit). I used my Oak Street oxfords every night, they were great actually.

If you're solo, I did www.barcrawlbarcelona.com and would recommend it....we did it like every night. Lots of hot chicks, pretty easy to hook up with them too....lots of drinking, and you get fast into several bars and clubs in a night. everyone speaks english. its an easy "in".

 

No they won't let you into certain clubs with sneakers, no excuses.  Some enforce this, others you have to luck out w/ the bouncer, and most others (with the notable exception of razzmatazz which just doesn't care at all) say that they have a dress code but actually don't.  I'd say it's split evenly between the three categories, but the touristy clubs are mostly in the "you have to luck out" group.

Haha fugly might be right but it's hard to find a more universal shoe (you can wear them on the beach and to dinner). I wish I could tell you where we're going but I still don't know either lol. We don't even have a place to crash yet (looking into an apt). Just trying to do as much and see as much of BCN as possible.


I have a feeling this is going to be priceless information. I'll be sure to try that. You had me at "lots of hot chicks" and "pretty easy to hook up with them" lol. I was looking a the website. Do I pretty much just show up at the meet up spot and pay 15 euro and follow the party? Thanks!

Yeah. We usually showed up right at the beginning, they have good drink specials at the first bar, then you get shots at the other bars...the first bar has the best deals, so show up early, make connections with people in the group before it gets crowded and drink it up. I thought it was a good deal for the ease of meeting people, club entrance and bars you go to (otherwise we would be lost without knowing people or spanish).

oh yeah, if your on La Rambla at night watch out the hookers are very agressive, start grabbing your crotch and try to pickpocket you. they work in groups too in order to get it done.

And make sure you make it a point to mention in your conversations you are from California. Europeans all want to go to California and they are all impressed by it. at least the 21 year old swedish/czech/etc women (lots of australians).

If you're there the end of august I can't stress enough you should hit up La Tomatina in Valencia. I met a bunch of people in Barcelona (and Madrid) then met them all randomly in Valencia as well.

this is a thread I had last year about "spain in august". most pics are towards the end but there are good tips all around:

http://www.styleforum.net/t/223357/spain-in-august