Travel Guide: Eight Days in Barcelona, the Perfect City

In March 2023, I traveled to Barcelona for the first time to attend a conference hosted by my law firm in the city.

I polled my fellow food and wine lovers on Instagram for their Barcelona recommendations, and so many people told me that Barcelona is their favorite city in the world. Given the number of truly outstanding travel destinations that are out there, that seemed like a bold statement to make, but after one week in Barcelona, I could understand the sentiment.

To me, Barcelona is the perfect city and encapsulates all of the unique features of major metropolitan cities in one location. Like New York and Paris, it has stunning art and architecture wherever you turn. It has a world-class food, wine and cocktail scene that can stand up to any foodie destination like Tokyo or Los Angeles. It has a gorgeous beachfront like Miami, and the easy public transportation options and bike-friendly streets make it so easy to explore this wonderful city.

Here is a look at my one-week trip to Barcelona, with some additional recommendations from my fellow food and wine lovers that I did not get a chance to check out this time but will be saving for the next time I’m in Barcelona.

Your Home Base: Where to Stay

Below are some (but not all) of the major neighborhoods in central Barcelona:

1. La Barceloneta - Closest to the beachfront and the location of the W Hotel Barcelona, a landmark of the neighborhood

The gorgeous lobby of the W Hotel Barcelona, my home base for the law conference

I did not mind having to work with this set-up and the views!

Excellent breakfast buffet spread at the W Hotel Barcelona

2. El Born - Best for a mix of old architecture and outstanding cocktail bars and wine bars and proximity to major points of interest. My home base for the weekends before and after the law conference.

3. Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) - Best for old architecture, cobblestone alleys with shops and restaurants and one end of La Rambla

4. El Raval - Also known for old architecture and a thriving restaurant and bar scene, this is the location of Barcelona’s most famous outdoor market, La Boqueria near La Rambla

5. L’Eixample - Best for luxury hotels and high-end shops (i.e., think Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci) and and an upscale restaurant and nightlife scene

6. Gracia - Best for a more local vibe, while still being fairly accessible to the center of the Barcelona; the location of Park Güell

My personal thoughts:

My favorite neighborhood was, by far, El Born. Most of the wine bars, cocktail bars, bakeries and restaurants that were recommended to me were only five to ten minutes’ walking distance from my hotel, and I loved the proximity to the Barceloneta Beach for exercising every morning. The neighborhood is gorgeous, and it has retained much of its historic character.

In El Born, I stayed at the Park Hotel for the first part of my trip to Barcelona, and I stayed at Hotel Oasis for my final part. Although neither are luxurious or particularly exceptional, I thought they were comfortable, in excellent locations and offered decent value for their prices. It also helped that Park Hotel was only two blocks away from my favorite cocktail bar in Barcelona, Paradiso! (See more below)

Look Up: Art, Architecture and Things to See

Barcelona is a major art capital of the world with more than 70 museums, architectural sights and churches, and there is so much to see both indoors and outdoors!

Gaudi Architecture

The architecture of Antoni Gaudi is one of the major draws of Barcelona that makes the city so unique. Some of his major works that I visited were:

La Pedrera - Casa Milà
Casa Batlló
La Sagrada Familia
Park Güell
Casa Calvet

I had only one full non-working day in Barcelona before my law conference started, so I did a seven-mile run around Barcelona to hit the first four sights on one day. La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell absolutely deserve a couple of hours of your time, so try to come early in the day to be able to enjoy these incredible works amid a smaller crowd.

Spot the fruit motifs on the towers of La Sagrada Familia!

Park Güell!
It can definitely get crowded, but the fact that Gaudi drew so much inspiration from nature made the outdoor park feel like a more special experience to me than seeing his other buildings in the middle of the city streets.
Beware, however, for the birds! Partway through admiring the sights while I was minding my own business, a bird took a rogue crap on my face. I didn’t believe that it is a sign of good luck, but considering that I managed to be second in line for Paradiso later that day, I would say that I did receive some good luck! (See below)

Pablo Picasso Museum

There is also no shortage of museums in Barcelona. There are classical museums, such as the Picasso Museum, the Moco Museum for modern and contemporary art and even a chocolate museum, the Museu de la Xocolata - Barcelona.

During my stay, I visited the Picasso Museum situated in the El Born neighborhood, and I was blown away by the experience. The Picasso Museum features Picasso’s works of art from his early teenage years when he was a traditional portrait artist through the years when he began the Cubism movement and thereafter continued to innovate and transform the movement. He was an incredibly talented artist at age 13, and you can see from his early works that he mastered his craft before he turned it completely upside down. My visit to the museum was both thought-provoking and inspiring.

Barcelona Cable Car to Montjuïc Mountain

Another great way to see Barcelona is via the Barcelona Cable Car up to the Montjuïc Castle, an old military fortress dating back to 1600s. The base station is located in the western corridor of Barcelona near the the Telefèric station and is approximately 10 minutes’ walking distance from the 1992 Olympic Stadium. I went with a group from my law conference during a short break, and we did not have enough time to explore the full Montjuïc Castle at the top or the Olympic Stadium, but the views from the cable car were stunning.

Food and Drinks

When I travel, I usually try to cover a few different types of gastronomic experiences:

Traditional cuisine and drinks
Street food or open market food
A wine bar and/or cocktail bar
One fine dining meal

First Night Out: Paella & Corpinnat in El Born

The best piece of travel advice a friend once gave me was, “Never let anyone tell you that you can’t order paella for one.”

I had been to Spain a few times before I visited Barcelona (Madrid, Lanzarote, San Sebastian and La Rioja), and paella is one of my favorite dishes, but I had never had it in Spain before because I spent a lot of my travel time in Spain traveling solo.

Determined not to make this mistake again in Barcelona, I booked a dinner reservation at 7 Portes in El Born for my first night in Barcelona. One of the oldest restaurants in Barcelona since its inception in 1836, 7 Portes delivers excellent paella, tapas and Catalan wine with old-school vibes. Paella is indeed a lot of food for one person, but the leftovers made a pretty good afternoon snack after an hour of paddleboarding. (See below)

Paella washed down by 2019 Recaredo Terres Brut Nature Corpinnat

Outdoor Food Market: La Boqueria

A trip to Barcelona is not complete without a visit to La Boqueria. Located near La Rambla, the major shopping street in the El Raval neighborhood, it was Barcelona’s first local market, and today, it offers an exciting array of all kinds of local food products to try, with something for everyone. You can buy local spices, produce, fish and fresh meat to prepare at home or in your Airbnb. The market is also known for its numerous stalls of tantalizing snacks, like empanadas, bocadillos and paper cups of jamon roses. If you feel like you are craving something refreshing after indulging in too much fried or heavy food during your trip, the fresh-squeezed juices and cups of cut fruit are excellent, healthy snacks to nibble on while you walk through the market.

Entrance to La Boqueria! Buzzing with energy!

The only bouquets I would like to receive, thank you very much

Wine Bar: Bar Brutal

Every single wine lover who gave me recommendations for Barcelona on Instagram recommended that I visit Bar Brutal, a natural wine bar located in El Born. Having spending two nights at Bar Brutal during my one-week trip to Barcelona, I can confirm that Bar Brutal is one of the best wine bars I have ever visited.

First, Bar Brutal has an extensive selection of natural wines, ranging from well-known low-intervention producers that many would not readily put into the “natural wine” category to the rare, small-production producers not easily found on most wine lists. My sommelier at Bar Brutal knew the menu inside and out, and when I asked for a “high acid orange wine from Catalonia that I probably never had before,” he delivered with a fantastic amber wine by Oriol Artigas from the Alella region in Catalonia, a region I had never heard of before.

Aside from Bar Brutal’s fantastic selection of natural wines, what really endeared me to Bar Brutal was the vibe - wine lovers from all over the world come to Bar Brutal for the love of natural or low-intervention wines, and Bar Brutal creates a fun, inclusive and energetic atmosphere that makes meeting and sharing wine among strangers a totally regular thing during every night of the week. I met some awesome people at Bar Brutal, and I loved it so much that, in fact, I came back for my last night in Barcelona and still had an amazing time with a whole different set of strangers!

I’ll be back at Bar Brutal next time I’m in Barcelona!

La Prats by Oriol Artigas with a plate of mojama, a cured tuna delicacy of Catalonia

A random fellow lawyer visiting Barcelona from Ecuador (also WSET-certified at Level 3!) who helped me take down my bottle of La Prats!

La Perdida by Nacho Gonzalez (Galicia, Spain)

Always fun when you hear, “You’re still in Barcelona?” a week later!

Cocktail Bar: Paradiso

Paradiso in El Born is the #1 cocktail bar on the World’s 50 Best Bars List, and having spent three hours there during an afternoon, it absolutely deserves its place on the throne, and it is probably #1 on my list as well!

Paradiso masters creativity, precision, balance, presentation and flair in cocktails, on top of creating an incredibly fun and relaxed atmosphere. The talented mixologists were all so charming and friendly and wanted to get to know everyone at the bar. The cocktails were all presented in artistic and playful formats, and the mixologists of the cocktails explained the components of the cocktails to us just like a master sushi chef at a high-end omakase restaurant.

When I visited in March 2023, Paradiso opened at 4 P.M., and the lines were queuing up outside by 3:30 P.M. Paradiso does not take reservations, and I would highly recommend getting in line early to secure a seat in front of the main bar for a view of the action. I was #2 in line, and Customer #1, Customer #3 and I did not know each other at all when we first arrived, but the drinks and atmosphere got us all so excited and happy to be there in that moment that we weren’t strangers at the end of our visit.

Paradiso’s twist on the espresso martini

Fine Dining: Slow & Low

I received some excellent recommendations for Michelin starred or other fine dining restaurants in Barcelona, but as a solo diner, I kept running into issues with restaurants requiring a minimum booking of two diners.

One of my friends recommended Slow & Low, a one-star Michelin, open-kitchen restaurant located in the El Raval neighborhood, and I could not be happier with my choice for my night of one fine dining. I opted for the Slow & Low 15-course option with the wine pairing for 175€.

Although the food was delicious and beautifully presented and the service was top-notch, it really was the wine pairing that did it for me. The sommelier, Juan, put together some of the most interesting food and wine pairings I have had at a restaurant - Palo Cortado (Sherry) with ham-smoked sea urchin! A 100% unfortified Palomino by Raul Moreno with a surf & turf of deboned chicken and lobster! I ended my meal with a 2013 Tokaji Aszú, and I was floating around in Tokaji heaven for the rest of the night.

The open kitchen at Slow & Low with their welcome cocktail

Who doesn’t love a comparative tasting during a set course meal?

My favorite pairing of the night, Palo Cortado with smoked ham sea urchin!

Mestres, one of the oldest Cava producers!

Other dining and drinks recommendations from my fellow food & wine lovers:

Bar Canete (El Born)
Disfrutar (L’Eixample)
El Xampanyet (El Born)
Direkte (El Raval)
Cal Pep (El Born)
Sips (L’Eixample)
Cinc Sentits (L’Eixample)

A late night snack at Bormuth in El Born during my last night. Nothing fancy, just enjoying the last few hours of my time in beautiful Barcelona.

Active Travel: Work Out to Eat and Drink

I am an avid proponent of active travel - Exercising every day while traveling keeps me feeling refreshed and enthusiastic about my trip even after I go home. As you can see from the food & wine section above, I ate and drank well during my time in Barcelona, so I really needed to balance it all out with some exercise. Paella doesn’t work itself off!

Barcelona is a runner’s paradise, and running is one of the best ways to see the city. As I mentioned above, on my first full day in Barcelona, I ran seven miles around the city to see the Gaudi sights, which helped me enormously in getting comfortable with the various neighborhoods. In addition, Barceloneta Beach is an incredibly gorgeous stretch of beachfront property to run on. During March, the weather was sunny, dry and breezy. I never really considered myself to be a runner, but I ran almost every day I was in Barcelona.

Morning run by Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona!

Ran by Plaça de Catalunya, saw all the birds and got the hell out of there before I became a victim of an unwanted bird bomb

If running is not for you, I would also suggest paddleboarding at Barceloneta Beach. I had originally booked a surf lesson with Manihi Surf School in Barcelona, but the Mediterranean Sea in March turned out to be very flat.

Rather than float around on my surfboard like a sitting duck for an hour while waiting for one tiny wave to come by, I decided to try paddleboarding for the first time. Because the conditions were so flat, paddleboarding in front of the sunny shores of Barceloneta Beach turned out to be an excellent outdoor activity to take in the sights of beautiful Barcelona.

Venturing Out of the City to Penedès

Catalonia is home to a number of wine regions, with the most recognizable being Penedès and Priorat. The two regions produce vastly different types of wine, with Penedès producing sparkling Cava or Corpinnat wines made from Macabeo (the same as Viura in Rioja), Xarel-lo, Parellada, Chardonnay and other local varieties, and Priorat making full-bodied, high alcohol red wines mostly of red Garnacha and Carignan.

I only had one full day to visit a wine region while I was in Barcelona, and as a major fan of Cava and Corpinnat, I chose to visit Sant Sadurní d'Anoia in Penedès, the heart of Cava and Corpinnat production.

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is approximately one hour by train from the Barcelona-Sants train station, and many producers are accessible by a short walk from the train station.

So many wine-themed icons around Sant Sadurní d'Anoia!

Agustí Torelló Mata

The first visit I booked was a reservation at Agustí Torelló Mata, the producer of Kripta, the most awarded Cava in the region and my all-time favorite Cava. Kripta is a premium Cava made during only exceptional years from 70-year old vines and aged for 8 years on the lees. They have thorough guided tours in English and other languages, which take you through the winery, provide thorough descriptions of the Cava production process and end with a tasting session (unfortunately, no Kripta included).

A Kripta fountain at Agustí Torelló Mata!

Historical wine artifacts preserved at the estate

The iconic egg bottle shape of the Kripta!

Meeting Señor Agustí Torelló Mata while he was walking around the grounds! Magical!

Solà Raventós

Solà Raventós is the smallest Cava producer in Penedès with a literal two-man father-son operation and a history of making Cava that dates back to 1925. While Gran Reserva is usually a small percentage of a Cava producer’s production range, Solà Raventós specializes in the long-aged Gran Reserva cateogry, with 80% of its production size in the Gran Reserva category. They only make 20,000 bottles a year and sell most of their wines through direct sales, so these are wines you will not be able to get a your local supermarket or even most wine shops!

A tasting of the Cava de la Gafa Brut Nature Gran Reserva with local snacks

I was able to sit down with Guifré Aragonès Tena, one-half of the Sola Raventós team, to talk about their production and recent changes to regulations in Cava D.O. and learned so much!

Other Cava or Corpinnat producers to visit:

Freixenet (Cava): One of the largest Cava producers with an expansive menu of tasting and tour experiences. Freixenet is so iconic that the release of its annual “Felices Fiestas” holiday ad campaign is practically the Superbowl half-time show of the holiday season in Spain. The Freixenet tour grounds are located conveniently by the train station.
Gramona (Corpinnat): Next door to Sola Raventós and one of the top-quality Corpinnat producers.
Recaredo (Corpinnat): One of the founding members of Corpinnat in 2019. Recaredo’s CEO is the president of Corpinnat, and this producer specializes in long-aged, brut nature sparkling traditional method wines. Recaredo was the first sparkling wine producer in Penedès to be certified biodynamic by Demeter.

Have you been to Barcelona? Are there any other suggestions or tips for traveling to Barcelona that you would add? Comment below!