Barcelona and Madrid...maybe, maybe not??

The wildfires near Madrid are west of the city. The airport is east of the city. Other than maybe air quality depending on the wind, the fires shouldn’t impact anything. Most importantly, nobody can say what the wildfire situation will be like in mid and late September.

Don’t let the minor, yet often publicized, sentiment in Barcelona dissuade you from going there.

I wouldn't be concerned and Jaime is very knowledgeable. Plan to spend more time in Barcelona than Madrid. You could easily spend the whole week in Barcelona and not run out of things to see and do. If you can find accommodations, there are several central neighborhoods in Barcelona that would be great.

I think a couple of things may be getting a bit exaggerated, or at least distorted, from afar.

The idea of a "growing anti-tourist sentiment" needs a bit of context. Barcelona still welcomes well over 14 million visitors every year, around seven times its resident population. It's not a resort town either, tourism is simply one of the city's diverse economic sectors. Tourists aren't being chased away or treated badly, despite the occasional headline, like the water-pistol incident involving a few fools looking for attention. If anything, most tourists leave the city wetter from the beach than from the locals. 🙂

The debate isn't about not wanting visitors, it's about the city having reached a point where it simply can't absorb unlimited growth and all the side effects that come with it. Most people support measures to manage tourism better, not necessarily to eliminate it.

The same goes for your concern about "adding to the strain" in Madrid. Much like Barcelona, London or New York, Madrid is a large, well-resourced city that's perfectly capable of handling visitors under all kinds of circumstances. Day-to-day life continues as normal. The wildfires are far from the city itself, so there isn't any kind of emergency or disruption that should make you rethink your plans. Unless your itinerary includes "go looking for a wildfire," you'll be absolutely fine.

I only mention this because it's easy for international news and social media to turn isolated events into the impression that the whole country has changed overnight. On the ground, you'll almost certainly find things much more ordinary, in the best possible sense. If Barcelona interests you, I wouldn't let either of those concerns put you off.

One last thing about the wildfires. As serious as this year's fires have been, they're unfortunately not unusual for this part of the world. The Mediterranean climate and landscape mean wildfires are a recurring reality, so the emergency services have a great deal of experience dealing with them. They will almost certainly have this one under control within days. The real challenge isn't knowing how to fight a wildfire; it's when several wildfires break out at the same time and stretch available resources. That's when things become much more complicated.

On the other hand, from what I've picked up from our nightly weather and climate report here in France, is that what's unusual about the wildfires (or maybe not so unusual after all) is that the successive heatwaves and dry brush creating conditions for the fires are stemming from a hot air system sitting over Africa that is blowing dry, hot winds north. And what's causing this system not to move? An ocean current that's stuck. And what is causing this current to be stuck? Hmmm?

I was in Barcelona ten days ago. Once off the Ramblas and adjoining neighborhoods, it's much calmer.