What to see in Barcelona?

Depends what you are interested in. I enjoyed wandering the streets and seeing some of Gaudi's other buildings, Park Guell now requires tickets, so not as much a walk by. The Picasso museum I found interesting, but if you do not know or appreciate Picasso, then it would be quite dull. There is a nice Naval/Maritime museum, but again, if you like that.

Aside from that, food interested me, so the main market, restaurants, and Tapas bars attracted me. Of course beaches and then some day trips also offer some options.

Rick's Barcelona Guidebook has a good list of what to see.
Also a list on the Explore Europe part of this website.

How long are you there? What do you like?

Highlights of my last trip there:
--evening tour and concert on the roof at Casa Battlo
-- street art tour of the wonderful street art throughout the city

Nice suggestions. We have 2 days to enjoy the city. Beaches? Are they just down at the water front?

We have been to Barcelona three times.

Had a wonderful day tour with Barcelona Day Tours. We visited the Gaudi sites, Cathedral, etc.
Not a Picasso fan, so we skipped that museum. There are a couple of great museums in the city besides the Picasso.

Monserrat is a great day trip. Take the train on your own (go early from the Plaza Espana).

Don't waste you time at the beach, enjoy the history, art and culture of Spain. You can find way better beaches in Florida or the Caribbean.

Don't waste you time at the beach, enjoy the history, art and culture of Spain. You can find way better beaches in Florida or the Caribbean.

It depends on what you interpret as a "better beach". If you're a sand afficianado then some of the Floridian or Caribbean ones might interest you but to me a beach is more than just sand and water. Nice for example has some pretty crap beaches but what the beaches back onto is far better than any beach in Florida that I've been to and who says that you can't experience the culture on a European beach? If anything it's where you'll find the locals, something that evidently has an appeal for most people on this forum. You won't find many locals wandering up and down Las Ramblas or touring Sagrada Familia.

Flea Market. It's either Fri. or Sat.
2 hr. evening walking tour called The Dark side of Barcelona
Chocolate Museum was interesting.

I divided it into one day for the Gothic Quarter/history (including the Ramblas), one day for the beach/coast and one day for Moderniste architecture (including Sagrada Familia). I was there the first week of April; Mont Juic wasn't open, so that wasn't an option.

I don't think the beaches in town are special. They were man made when Barcelona hosted the Olympics and look more like dirt than sand. The best beaches/beach towns would be by train along the coast north of Barcelona.

I stopped at Montserrat on the way out of town. If you want to do it as a day trip, ask at the information booth at any bus station. They run lots of day trips like that.

I’d strongly advise getting your tickets for Sagrada Familia early in the day. Our visit (on a very hot day) was so much better at the start with less crowds than when we decided we were done with the crowds about 1.5 hours later. We had a good tour from LSF.

Same advice for La Bouqueria - visiting early in the day or at the end of the day was highly preferable to the midday throngs.

We only had two days, so the rest of our time was spent wandering and exploring and people watching. Our family of five also enjoyed a lunch in El Cortes Inglès, the cafe at the top of the big department store. Nice view of Plaça de Catalunya while we enjoyed a lot of good foods and sangria on tap...plus air conditioning!

I wish we’d seen the Magic Fountains...next time, I guess!

Enjoy!
Laurie