BARCELONA - can you answer this?

[Eggybreadwithnuts]

Advice woukd be grateful for:

1. Seems there's 2 airports?
2. Want to be in the thick of it as only there for a couple of days
3. Gaudi - best time to visit with no queues. Dont mind going late

There is only one airport. Barcelona

Girona and reus are a long way away don't fly into those

Stay in gotico area but honestly it's a very easy city to get around so stay wherever
Book sagreda familia tickets weeks in advance as they sell out. The rest you can buy on the day usually.

Thank you my local airport says Reus when I looked. My hotel Im looking at is this address - not sure if its in the thick pf it all

Carrer de Girona, 158, Eixample, 08037 Barcelona

Also suggest booking Casa Mila and Casa Batllo and the Parc Guell in advance if you want a true Gaudi fest. Casa Mila is my favourite

Ryanair list Reus as Barcelona but if you look on a map it’s not that close! You want the main Barcelona airport.

The main airport is El Prat (BCN). The other airports, Girona and Reus are not very near to Barcelona.

You need to fly into Barcelona El Prat airport if you want to maximise your time there.

The area you are staying in is central, and close to Sagrada F. Take a taxi up to Guell Park (unless you like walking uphill!), and walk back via Gracia district. Explore the Gothic quarter, avoid Las Ramblas unless you want to go to the food market (Boqueria), and get down to the beach area for a bit of people watching.

Enjoy.

Eixample is right in the city, you can just walk places or use public transport.

If booking Ryanair, you always need to check where they're actually taking you to, sometimes it's an hour or two away.

What do you mean by Gaudi, there's lots of Gaudi legacy sites in the city. But early might be better than late - eg first hour before everyone else gets there.

Ryanair refer to 'Barcelona Girona' – which confused me no end when I was trying to book a flight to Girona

That's a good place to stay but anywhere is fine. The metro system is super cheap and efficient but it's also a very walkable city

I know for the Sagra Familia you need to book tickets online well in advance.

Also I really recommend doing tours of some or all of the various Gaudi things. I did the SF audio tour and it wasn’t great, but maybe there would be other options with different tour companies. I did a walking tour of Parc Guell and it was well worth it. I would have missed so much context otherwise. Definitely taxi up and walk back. Do be mindful of pickpockets and scams, especially along Las Ramblas. So many tourists just behave really silly and get themselves in trouble.

Sagra Familia looked at booking and there's various...with towers, without.
What does this mean???

Sounds pretty self explanatory to me.
Pay more and include towers or not.
Good to have the option. Some people can't manage heights or extra exertion
Or need a shorter tour.
Or need to save money...

Hope you enjoy yourself

Note of advice. I nearly got pickpocketed whilst pushing a wheelchair last week. My daughter turned around and caught him at the point he had his hand to my pocket. Be careful. They are scum bags!

Sorry to ask, but was there a reason you had valuables in your pocket and not in a crossbody bag? Maybe that's what you meant.

I add a clip like small carabiners to the zip and the handle aswell, and use a spiral extendable key chain to attach my phone to inside my bag. I can take it out and use it on the extendable wire thinggy and I'll never drop it, and it can't be just whipped out of my hand either. Nothing is fool proof but some little extra precautions help me feel a bit more secure in high pickpocket/very crowded areas.

Glad they didn't get anything from you!

@maftayi had just been using my phone as we were trying to navigate out of the gothic quarter. On hindsight it would have been better to be tucked in a bag but my pockets were deep. No one is safe though!