When we last visited, Luke and I spent a week in Barcelona, and another week out in El Penedes wine country. Truly, it was a blast! But not every trip can be quite so long and quite so eventful – after all, not everyone has the ability to up and travel for a couple weeks at a time. So, maybe you’re just passing through Barcelona on your way somewhere else, or you’re hoping to see as much of Spain as you can on this one trip, so you don’t have tons of time to spend here. Well, that’s the great thing about big cities like Barcelona. Yes, there’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done (heh 🦁), but that also means that with a bit of research, you can cherrypick all the best bits to pack into whatever time frame you happen to have. So if you have time for a weekend trip to Barcelona (or maybe even a long weekend trip to Barcelona, ooooo) then we’ve got all the recommendations you need for the perfect Barcelona weekend!
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But for real: is it worth going to Barcelona for a weekend? Is 2 days enough to see Barcelona?
Yes!!! It might be a little cramped, but 2 days is plenty of time to get a taste of what Barcelona has to offer. Just like any big city, Barcelona has a plethora of activities, sights, and delicious food to offer, and if you’re going to compress your visit into a couple of days, you’ll simply need to plan accordingly.
Okay, so is 3 days in Barcelona too much? Is 4 days enough to see Barcelona?
4 days is definitely enough, and we have so many thoughts around a 4 day Barcelona itinerary. But in this post, we’ll focus more on a weekend or traditional long weekend (3 days in Barcelona) time frame.
Day 1 of your (long) weekend in Barcelona: History, food, and some of the best museums in Barcelona
Stop by your nearest cafe for coffee and a light breakfast, then head to the market for breakfast items for the next day or two – some jamon, bread, and cheese should do the trick!
Picasso Museum of Barcelona
Once you’ve dropped your purchases off at your Barcelona hotel or Airbnb, it should be about 10am, which means it’s time to head out and get cultured. As long as it’s not a Monday, your first stop should be the Picasso Museum. With over 5,000 works from Picasso’s formative years as an artist, this is the definitive place to gain a deeper understanding of the man and the genius behind the brush (and many other media). This is a great, gentle way to start the first day of your weekend in Barcelona, as the museum is stately, aesthetic, and elegant, but the collection of art gives the space all the energy it needs. When booking – either online or on site – we’d recommend booking a ticket that includes an audioguide, so you can work through the museum at your own pace. And you should expect to spend between an hour and a half and two hours here.
Moco Barcelona
My biggest regret is not prioritizing a visit to Moco Barcelona. On our last trip, I only dragged Luke to a couple of museums because I know they’re not his cup of tea, and I was way more excited about seeing the Roman ruins under Barcelona at the Barcelona History Museum (below) than I was about what I thought was a typical contemporary art museum. So, please learn from my mistakes: THIS IS NOT A TYPICAL CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM 🤦🏽♀️ Do a quick search on Instagram or Tiktok to see all the beautiful, sensory-rich, immersive experiences you can have while making your way through Moco Barcelona, in addition to seeing and experiencing works by culturally-significant 20th and 21st century artists from Dali to Banksy. Expect to spend 2-3 hours here, especially if you really want to take your time and soak up the experiences.
- Moco Museum Barcelona website (find tours here)
- 10am-9pm, Sunday-Monday
How to pick a good lunch restaurant in Barcelona
- Get away from Las Ramblas. Seriously. If you’re reading through our blog for travel tips, we have to imagine you’re not rolling up to a new city just to go where the masses go and do what all the tourists do. Las Ramblas has its benefits, but authentic experiences aren’t really among them. Just about any restaurant you visit in Barcelona will have some English-speaking staff on hand, so don’t be afraid to step away from the crowds of people wearing their DSLRs like ads for pickpocketers.
- Don’t choose restaurants that have employees outside beckoning you in. If they have to cajole you to eat their food, the food isn’t that good. Don’t support this icky behavior, please.
- If there are pictures on the menu, you should probably go somewhere else. Same as above – if they have to illustrate what the food is, then it’s probably not that great. Just walk away.
- If there are more than 3 languages (specifically Spanish, Catalan, and maybe English) on the menu, it’s a tourist trap and probably not worth your money. If you just want food and don’t care too much about authenticity, quality, or pricing, then have at it at a place like this. But again, if you’re searching for more authentic experiences, a restaurant with a menu in 6 languages probably is offering less authenticity and more convenience for folks who don’t want to walk a few extra blocks away.
Barcelona Urban History Museum (or, Museu d’Història de Barcelona, MUHBA)
If you haven’t gotten your fill of museums yet, MUHBA will be your last historical stop of the day. When you go to the desk to purchase tickets, note that you’ll have a choice of two directions to go. On the right, you’ll head up to a museum that walks you through the history of Barcelona with projector installments and artifacts from each significant time period, from the Roman days through the Middle Ages and up through to modern day. We dutifully went through this entire collection and have no regrets. But if we had turned left at the desk instead of right, we would have jumped feet first into what I think is the truly cool shit.
Once you turn left, you start heading down, down, down, until you get to the level of the old Roman city that modern Barcelona is built atop. You can take your time perusing here like we did, looking at the reconstructed illustrations next to the ruins to see how the town would have looked thousands of years ago. These include fish preserving pits, laundry businesses, a baptismal pool – all fairly leftovers of essential but mundane parts of life. This part, in particular, was one of my favorite stops during our time in Barcelona, and I highly recommend it for any other history nerds out there.
- Find more information here on their website, and book tickets here.
Take a food tour in Barcelona
At this point, we’re heading into the late afternoon, and probably getting pretty hungry. Good thing we scheduled an afternoon food tour in Barcelona! The thing we love so much about food tours, and the reason we take them everywhere we go, is that they’re a fantastic way to see and learn about the past and present of whatever city you happen to be in. Plus, you get food and restaurant ideas for the rest of your visit, and also get one meal completely taken care of because you tend to eat so much delicious stuff on these tours.
On the walking food tour we took in Barcelona, we stopped at a tienda/restaurant with legs and legs of jamon iberico suspended from the ceiling so we could try some wine, cured meat, and ham while we learned about the significance of each of these things in Spanish culture and history. Then we went to local bar to try lemonade Fanta and beer (a shandy), patatas bravas, croquetas, and pan con tomate. We ended up going back to this bar several times during our week in Barcelona because everything was just SO GOOD. Then we tried some of the most unique tapas we’ve ever seen next to the Cathedral of Barcelona. They were basically tiny sandwiches or sliders with every combination of ingredients you can think of – and at this point we started getting really, really full 😅 And we never would’ve found this place if not for this food tour.
Finally, we stopped at one of the more famous neighborhood spots our guide knew of, and tried pescaditos (tiny fried anchovies), and a few other more traditional tapas. We also tried drinking out of a traditional porron – and pretty much did exactly what it sounds like: ‘poured it on’ our shirts 😂
Dr. Stravinsky or Tandem for cocktails
Our food tour guide recommended a few restaurants and bars for us to check out after the tour, so another couple from the tour came with us to check out Dr. Stravinsky, one of the best cocktail bars in the world (literally). It was already a bit crowded in this not-large bar, so we waited outside for a few minutes and chatted with the British bouncer before we were shown to a table. The vibe inside reminds me of a dark, turn-of-the-century pharmacy/chemist shop, with dark wood paneling, lots of beautiful apothecary jars with crystalline liquid in them, and wooden drawers with metal hardware – pretty much my ideal aesthetic.
You can check out the Dr. Stravinsky cocktail menu online, which we did while we waited, and you can even go through an interactive process to figure out which cocktail’s characteristics best match up with your taste. I tried the Camp Nou, and Luke got a Golden Kefir – while the Golden Kefir wasn’t exactly what he wanted at that moment, he had no problem finishing the drink, and I had a second Camp Nou because I liked it so much!
- Dr. Stravinsky’s website (including drink finder!)
- 6:30pm – 2:15am, Monday-Thursday
- 6pm – 2:45am, Friday-Saturday
- 6pm-2:15am, Sunday
If Dr. Stravinsky is too far away or too crowded, try Tandem. We showed up here early one evening while we were killing some time, and walked from bright afternoon sunlight into the kind of low light, gold hardware, and dark wood and leather seats you’d expect to see clouds of sultry cigarette or cigar smoke wafting around in maybe 1934 (there was no actual smoke, for the record). It wasn’t super crowded when we arrived, so we posted up at the bar. Tandem doesn’t have a pre-formulated menu; instead, they specialize in custom-made cocktails. The bartender, who was sharply-dressed in a pressed white collared shirt, black vest, dark dress pants, and completely un-ironic sleeve garters (that looked fantastic and like they fit the vibe perfectly) asked Luke what he was in the mood for, and he said he loves a rye Old Fashioned, but wanted to try a new liquor and was open to their recommendation. He ordered this way twice, and got something a bit different and very delicious each time.
- Tandem doesn’t have a website, but they do have an Instagram
- 12:30pm – 2am, Monday-Thursday
- 12:30pm – 2:30am, Friday
- 6pm – 2:30am, Saturday
- 6pm – 11pm, Sunday
Day 2 of your perfect Barcelona weekend
If you’ve only got two days to spend in Barcelona, skip today’s agenda and head straight to Day 3 so you get the fullest, Barcelona-est experience.
Take a cooking class in a Barcelona or a wine tour in Catalunya
If you decide to take a cooking class in Barcelona, you’ll have tons of options to choose from. Many of them have a similar format, but we loved the instructor of the one we chose to take. We started with a guided tour of La Boqueria market just off La Rambla, where our guide/instructor took us from stall to stall buying ingredients for the dishes we were about to make and teaching us about cured meats, typical local seafood, and some of the day-to-day parts of Catalonian cuisine.
Then, we went back to the kitchen, got our aprons on, and got to work making a multi-course meal of a strawberry and black pepper gazpacho, paella, Spanish tortilla, pan con tomate, and creme Catalan. She walked us through every step of each dish, and also told us some of the history behind them and what makes them so special. We had a lovely time, and once everything was prepared, we got to sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Our instructor opened the kitchen’s huge windows overlooking La Rambla, so we got to eat and chat with the other students while the sounds of the street floated in on a warm breeze. Truly an unforgettable day.
- Barcelona Cooking
If this isn’t quite your speed, that’s cool. We spent the first week of our trip to Catalunya on an amazing food and wine retreat in the Penedes, or Catalonian wine country, about an hour outside of Barcelona. The country here is steeped just as deeply in wine history as any other Western European country, and we had to good fortune to spend days walking through wineries and small towns with local winemakers to learn all about the part wine plays in Catalunya’s past, present, and future.
Luckily, you don’t have to spend a whole week to really experience the high points of Catalonian wine. There are plenty of full day or half day Catalonian wine tours that run from Barcelona out to various cities nearby, so you can do tastings at different wineries, enjoy the vineyard experience, and have lunch outside of the city in a sweet, small town. There are also a few tours we’ve seen that do wine tastings within Barcelona so you can learn and enjoy without the commute.
Head over to Bobby’s Free for a nightcap
Once you wrap up your wine experience, it should be just about time for dinner – well, at least by Spanish standards. If you want a bigger meal, check out this list of great restaurants you have to try in Barcelona. If you’d like something nice and light and local, plus a really fun experience, you have to go to Bobby’s Free.
When you walk in the front door, it looks like you’ve just popped into an old-fashioned barbershop, but then you’ll notice the guy who had been watching the door has actually just closed it behind you. One thing leads to another, and as long as you say the password (which you can find on their Instagram bio), you’ll be able to find the hidden door and be shown into Bobby’s Free, one of the best speakeasies we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.
The bartenders are all dressed for the Prohibition era, and the decor is a love-letter to the 20s and 30s and the Golden Age of Hollywood. We both started with gin and tonics, me with the Nordes and Luke with the Gin Mare, and then ordered some jamon and pan con tomate.
Day 3 of visiting Barcelona for the weekend
This particular day also makes an appearance in our 4 days in Barcelona itinerary because it’s really the most perfect day in Barcelona that we could’ve asked for.
Visit Parc Güell
Today is going to be your Gaudi day, so it makes sense to start at the furthest point and work your way in. Park Guell is one of Barcelona’s biggest tourist sites, so we recommend visiting as early as possible, but still moderating your expectations.
A few other things to keep in mind:
- It’s probably easiest to take a taxi to the park, as there aren’t any train stations that are super close.
- The majority of the park is free to enter, but if you want to get up close with Gaudi’s art, that requires a paid ticket.
- Purchase your tickets in advance to skip the ticket line and enter the park more quickly.
- The exact same kinds of hawkers that you’ll find on Las Ramblas are also lining every single walkway of this park.
- The most famous points, like the salamander fountain and the benches, will be chaotic with crowds. If you go early or late in the day, this will hopefully be less of an issue.
We’ve talked a few times since our visit about whether or not we’ll make an attempt at Parc Guell again, and we’re still not sure. What we can agree on is that the park is a truly beautiful urban oasis, and Gaudi’s fanciful and experiential architecture and art is one thousand percent worth exploring in person. And despite – or perhaps because of? – the crowds, we actually had fun trying to strategically capture shots of ourselves. We’re very glad we made this our first stop on our “Gaudi day”, and enthusiastically recommend you do, too.
Lunch at Terra Mia
If you walk down the hill from Parc Guell, you can’t miss Terra Mia. We actually stopped here for coffee and a pastry before heading into the park, and were impressed with how cute the cafe and terrance are and how nice the staff was. They specialize in Mediterranean food and seafood (duh, you’re in Barcelona) and everything else we saw come out while we were there looked delicious. It’s an extremely convenient spot to start or end your trip to Parc Guell.
Sagrada Familia
Is Sagrada Familia a tourist trap? Maybe not a trap so much as a magnet. The truth is that, yes, you will most likely spend your visit here wading through a sea of humanity. We even had a hard time keeping track of our tour guide a few times, and he was waving a red flag over his head! But there are some places in the world that are iconic and “touristy” for a reason: maybe they’re grand, or historically or culturally significant, or maybe they’re just cool as all hell. Sagrada Familia is easily all of these things, and despite the crowds, was 100% worth visiting.
The biggest cheat code we can give you for Sagrada Familia is BOOK YOUR TICKETS EARLY. I was a doofus and didn’t remember to book our tickets until about 3 days prior to when we wanted to go, which was not my brightest moment. There were still tickets available for Sagrada Familia tours, but the times were very picked over and there were none available that included one of the towers that’s open for people to go up and get a view of Barcelona from above. That said, we would definitely still recommend taking a guided tour, if only because there is symbolism, allegory, and storytelling everywhere in Sagrada Familia, and while a tour can’t cover every minute detail, a good guide will be able to tell you where to look and what you’re looking at – more than just “oo, that’s pretty.”
Our tour also started with waiting in line to go through metal detectors and a bag search before we could really approach the cathedral, so make sure you check the rules and don’t bring any contraband in your bag. It’s also worth noting that, since this is a Catholic church, it is strongly suggested by their website and most tour providers that you dress fairly modestly. No idea how or if they enforce that, and you don’t have to go nuts here, but just dress respectfully.
Casa Batlló
Due to time constraints, we had to choose between seeing La Pedrera (Casa Mila) and Casa Batlló, and Casa Batlló won by a mile (though if you don’t have time constraints, you should definitely tour both!). La Pedrera is beautiful and unique, but even though they were completed around the same time, Casa Batlló is considered by some to be the pinnacle of Antoni Gaudi’s work (minus his devotion to Sagrada Familia, of course), and a perfect example of Catalan Modernism. Casa Batlló tours are self-guided, but in a way we’ve never experienced before. After experiencing a truly gorgeous immersive art installation, you’re given a tablet and a headset. In each room, or under each notable feature, you’ll find signs with symbols on them, which match up to icons on the tablet screen. Push the icons, and you can move the tablet around the room to get an augmented reality view of how things would’ve looked when the Batlló family lived here, along with an explanation of what makes each significant feature or room extraordinary.
Perhaps the best part of our visit to Casa Batlló is the fact that we decided to attend one of their Magic Nights concerts on the roof – tickets are available on their website – combined with a regular Casa Batlló tour. This was truly one of the most memorable travel experiences we’ve ever had, and can’t recommend it more enthusiastically.
- Book Casa Batlló tours
- Look into attending Casa Batlló’s Magic Nights
You can try to get into Paradiso – or go to Mariposa Negra
Paradiso is all the rage right now, and for good reason. Their drinks are a sensory treat in every way, and their speakeasy styling surprises and delights from jump. But… Paradiso operates on a first come, first served basis, and they also close their waitlist when it gets too long (which is often). They recommend arriving right at open time or shortly thereafter, so even if you can’t get in immediately, you can still get on the list and be called within a few hours. We had terrible timing trying to get in here, so we walked around the corner and found Mariposa Negra.
This popular hole in the wall has a dark, almost Medieval-meets-metal vibe and a really delicious variety of artisan cocktails. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that all their ceramic barware is handmade and designed specifically with each cocktail in mind – and then the presentation of the cocktails actually mimics some of the cup designs. I enjoyed a couple Melancólicos (a rum, citrus, and horchata mix that I’m already missing), and Luke tried a few different drinks – all of which were so good that we’re not surprised they just won an award as the “most innovative cocktail bar in Spain.”
Truly a cool spot with really nice bartenders and a great, chill energy. To be honest, we didn’t even feel bad about missing Paradiso!
Pin now and keep this itinerary for reference!
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