Tell me the Barcelona must-dos! (Please)

[Yerwotnow]

Just what the title says really! We are a family with 2 kids .. aged 16 and 9. So far, we know we want to see the Sagrada Familia and the Picasso museum. We are staying close to Las Ramblas and will be there for two full days in June. Anyone got any other must dos for us please?

Definitely mount tibidabo! Amazing views and funfair. I love Barcelona! Can't wait to take my kids when they're a bit bigger. I don't overly rate parc guell- cable cars are good!

La Boqueria market - a huge indoor market accessed from La Ramblas. Fruit, fish, meat, and all manner of goodies - you can eat at some of the stalls.

Mount Tibidabo, amazing views and the funfair.
magic fountains, far better than the Bellagio fountains in Vegas.
hire bikes and ride up the prom, can get about 4km

In theory. In practise it is busy beyond belief with tourists and no fun at all.

My favourite things are Casa Mila ( people still live in the block, it s brilliant and the most interesting/ most to see imo ) . Walking round the twisty old town, going up to Montjuic ( cable car is fun if expensive) and having a beer in the cafe overlooking the whole of the city. I love the Sagrada Familar especially the towers ( no health and safety here) but preferred it 10 years ago less finished.

Get an apartment or hotel with a view and a pool. My choice would be something around the old town cathedral to La Ramblas. This is bit that requires walking as it’s largely pedestrianised so makes sense to base yourself there.

You’ll need tickets for most things. You’ll be sharing the city with at least 5,000 cruise passengers as well as normal tourists so do everything before 10am when they arrive or after 5pm when they make their way back.

If you stay at the lovely H10 Casa Mimosa and get a terrace room you get a view of the famous roof of Casa Mila for free, Also it’s the same block so a two minute walk to the entrance. The pools ( it has two) are a bit shallow but it’s a nice hotel.

We visited the Nou Camp (not sure I've spelt that correctly). But we stayed in an Aparthotel near Avenue Diagonal so it wasn't far but also a short metro to the city centre. We also ate near the hotel so not tourist traps. It was all by accident rather than design but worked out okay.

We may have stayed in the same place, there was a department store opposite with a supermarket in the basement - lovely place to stay. Cafes down the road if you want to get breakfast out, mostly we had a bit of breakfast in the apartment.

I'd recommend the gothic cathedral and some time on Barceloneta beach if it's warm enough. DD enjoyed the science museum (recommended on here and it would suit your 8 year old) and the aquarium.

The indoor market is fab and we loved the guell house. The Picasso museum and the bill ring were interesting

Definitely this

We loved the stadium.
But yes the pick pocketing is rife . Take a bum bag / cross body bag to keep belongings safe. I had a number of locals stop me to tell me to put my phone away be careful .

Placemarking as my dd and I are going for a long weekend in May.

I really loved the old cathedral, you could go up on the roof and the views were good and there were geese inside a little courtyard. Just bimbling about the shops in the gothic quarter was great.

was over 20 years ago we went, Parc Guell was very quiet, definitely no need to book or queue. That’s sad.

i much preferred Casa Batllo to Casa Milo

And for anyone going for longer the train trip to Montserrat and then the cable car up the monastery was great. We did a little walk in the hills/mountains surrounding it as well which was nice.

When I went 5 years ago you could go up the Christopher Columbus tower at the bottom of Las Ramblas - great views from the top! It was only a few Euros each.

We could see the sign for Les Ingles (?) department store from our hotel.

Yep, that's the one! With the Harley Davidson place next door - we really liked it there.