Barcelona Travel Guide

Barcelona, quite simply, will delight your senses. During summer, the glorious sun bronzes the skin of the tourists who’ve come to lounge about the city’s beaches. The culinary flavours found in the local restaurants will keep you asking for more. The Modernistic architectural marvels lining the streets of L’Eixample are something to behold indeed, and a tour of Gaudí’s yet-to-be-finished La Sagrada Familia will leave you breathless. Barcelona, the Catalonian capital, is a repository of culture, metropolitan sensibilities and forward thinking. It’s a place where hard work can get you ahead, but there’s still plenty of time leftover to partake in life’s celebrations. We hope you will find Portugal-live’s travel guide a useful resource.

With a rich and varied history ranging from a mere Carthaginian and then Roman town, to a rich and powerful mercantile state, the inhabitants of Barcelona, and the Catalans in general, have seen their fair share of glory and misery. After the ravages of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent repression of Catalan culture and language, Barcelona has finally been allowed to spread its wings and flourish (after the death of Francisco Franco) with the establishment of The Autonomous Community of Catalonia in 1979. The Catalans have been going strong ever since.

As far as the sights are concerned, Barcelona doesn’t disappoint. From the cramped corners and narrow lanes of Barceloneta’s old fishing district to the quirky and varicoloured sculptures of Gaudí’s Park Güell, to the treasures contained within the Ciutat Vella (Old City), you’ll find plenty in this seaside city to astonish. Stroll around the Gothic Quarter for a sampling of churches and vibrant squares and then work your way up and down the pedestrian walkway of La Rambla for the open air flower and pet markets mixed in with a hodgepodge of street performers decked out in flamboyant costumes and glittering body paint. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Barcelona is brimming over with places to explore, from the cool cafés in El Born and the vastly original buildings in L’Eixample, to the fountains, galleries, gardens and Olympic structures in Montjuïc, not to mention the fun to be had in Port Vell. There’s not a moment to rest if you want to see it all. But if you do grow weary trekking about this ancient conglomeration of culture, people and style, there are plenty of bars, lounges and restaurants willing to take in worn out travellers, offering an oasis of calm in a bustling metropolis.