Barcelona for 3 Nights

In 2015 we stayed at HOSTERIA GRAU. I found it in RS Spain. Location was great. Inexpensive. I'm not a big tour person but we took the Fat Tire Tour and had one of those times you get a great guide and a fun group. It was a good way to see the city highlights and get the lay of the land.

Monseraatt, easy train ride from Barcelona, was a highlight for me.

I stayed in the Eixample with my husband in 2013. We are taking the kids there this June and staying in that area again. Safe and close to all the major attractions.

Muchas gracias, Rene! I was looking at a possible day trip excursion, and will definitely look into that.

Muchas gracias, Nicole!

In any case, as you say it's your first time in the city...

Here a few sites to get you started:

http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/
http://www.infocatalonia.eu/
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona
http://lameva.barcelona.cat/en

Once you have a rough itinerary, it's far easier to advise and provide tips.

As per which area to stay, that's very personal of course and it depends a lot on one's interests and expectations, but as a rule of thumb this is my advice: http://bit.ly/BCNwhicharea

Enjoy! :)))

@ajoneshope24
It was certainly not my intent to offend you much less being condescending. Sometimes it's difficult to read between the lines when one doesn't know the other party, and I can see (now) that my earlier comment wasn't probably as "useful" as intended, therefore I have proceeded to delete it. Apologies.

I appreciate both, your apology and your desire to help immensely :)

As a Barcelona native, any insight regarding things to do and see, local culture and activities - would be greatly appreciated!

I plan on visiting Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, Gaudi Museum so far, but I don't really have anything else planned. I am looking to stay in the El Clot area. I am interested in historical tours regarding the history of religion, architecture, and more. If anyone knows of any local tour guides that were excellent (especially on toursbylocals.com, please let me know.

Thank you all! :)

Where exactly in El Clot if I may ask?... it's an area not particularly brilliant -so to speak- for a temporary visitor, just a regular neighbourhood. That's why I was asking :)....

and in which dates?... there might be events that could be of interest that I perhaps could suggest.

Near Parc del Clot.

June 22-25th (This summer) :)

Ah OK, mostly locals, cosy area, especially the little streets around the fresh food market, located in Plaça del Mercat ('mercat' = Catalan, the local language, for market). Good vermouth in Cal Sopena in Carrer del Clot, 55. And if you have a sweet tooth, a visit to nearby Pastisseria La Palma is probably due.

Some ideas as per your "religious" interest:

• A day in the abbey of Montserrat (seen here half thru the video!), one of the epitomes of religious Catalonia, and listening to the children's choir is a must. Check this older post. Yet I would consider this carefully because visiting Montserrat requires at the very least half a day or more, and you're only staying in the city 3 days.
• Much closer, located in the north of the city, in the neighbourhood of Pedralbes: a visit to the monastery of Pedralbes, an icon on Catalan religious history too. Very easy to reach by bus.
• Santa Maria del Mar, a.k.a. as the Cathedral of the Sea because it was built by the fishermen of the district of La Ribera, where the church is located. The nickname became ever more famous lately due to a bestseller novel.
• The Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia, patroness of Barcelona (known simply as "the Cathedral"), especially the cloister. Unfortunately though, it's often too crowded with visitors to really appreciate how it should have been when in was built.
• Barcelona was an important Jewish centre during the Middle Ages, like Girona -the second capital of Catalonia, at 100km north of Barcelona. Unfortunately, some ill-taken decisions in the late 15th century destroyed the centuries' old coexistence with the Jewish community as well as many of the remains of this culture in our land here in Catalonia. Having said that, there are interesting remains left scattered across, and also in Barcelona, like a tiny part of the synagogue located in El Call ("call" meaning "Jewish neighbourhood" in Catalan). For a much better preserved "call", Girona is the place to go.
• Then, of course, there are literally dozens of small churches tucked away in unsuspected places that are a delight to visit, like Sant Pau del Camp or Santa Maria del Pí among others.

... you already mentioned Sagrada Família, so I shall not mention more.

Also to add that in September there's an event called "The night of the Religions" in which 24 of the religious communities in the city from several faiths (Christian, Muslim, Jews, Sikhs...) celebrate an open day (well, night!) in their temples with activities geared towards making their rites and faith closer to the general population. This follows a very successful initiative originated in Berlin in 2012 which aims to break religious prejudices.

As in many other parts of the world, the eve of the 23rd of June the solstice of summer is celebrated, with the festivity of Sant Joan (St. John in English, San Juan in Spanish) -which is actually on the 24th! Some info on that: http://www.barcelonas.com/sant-joan-in-barcelona.html If you don't like fireworks and firecrackers that's going to be a bad night for you :))

Note that the 24th is a holiday and shops are closed (not restaurants!) as well as a number of museums, etc. so do check your bucket list to make sure your sites will be open.

As per tour guides, despite tourism being just 12-15% of the city's GDP, there are literally tonnes of them! And these days you can get a specialised guide almost on any imaginable subject. Say you're an architect and you'd like a tour of the city by an architect's specialised in Modernism explaining what you see from an architect point of view? you got it. Ah, you wanted that in Japanese?, that too (honest, I know for certain!). Same goes with many other subjects: literature tours, tours thru movie sets in the city, focused in Jewish remains, focused on food.... Unfortunately, I'm not "in the loop" so if anyone asks something too "technical" regarding tours I might not be of help, sorry. The TI is a better source, lol! :)).... http://bcnshop.barcelonaturisme.com/shopv3/

Having said that, as I've pointed in other posts, a number of foreign friends that have visited and used Runner Bean Tours have been delighted. They offer open (free) tours as well as private ones. Contrary to what might seem, the free tours appear to be excellent, so why not try one?.... http://runnerbeantours.com/

Thank you sooooooo much! I'm going to copy and paste, and save this info.

Thank you for the info regarding tours! I will contact them to see their availability. I do agree, sometimes free tours (with a donation at the end) are absolutely amazing!

:) June 24th sounds like an amazing time to be in Barcelona.

I will have to make sure to check off the sites on Thursday & Friday.

... make sure you copy&paste the links (in bold) too :)... if you're saving in Word it will work, if you're doing so say in Notepad, it won't. (Been there, suffered that :))

Grau does seem to be the stand out amongst budget hotel offerings.
Others to look at ...
Constanza
Curious
Parallel

You really only have the two full days - 23rd and 24th. Hopefully you might have some extra useable time on your arrival and departure days.