Barcelona in a little less than three days..... need advice!

You might like to check off my top ten sights in Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia
Passeig de Gracia - Casa Mila & Casa Batllo
Ramblas
La Boqueria Markets
Bari Gotico - Cathedral
Palau de la Musica Catalana
MNAC
Miro Foundation
Picasso Museum
Park Guell

Your itinerary is quite a "gallop", a pace I distain, BUT I am striving to learn from folks who enjoy this velocity so I have some questions:

From prior travel experiences do you take pleasure in being able to say "Yes, I have been there." In contrast to "I greatly enjoyed spending time doing that."

Do you feel pressure to justify the travel expense by doing so much?

What are some of the best travel memories you retain?

My objective is to learn how to provide feedback to posters who enjoy this speed of travel. I typically advise people to "slow down", but am wondering if I am doing this segment of travelers a dis-service by trying to format them into my style of travel. My goal is to be a better poster and provide beneficial guidance to all whose inquiries fall into the sweet spot of my expertise.

Thank you for your help.

Looks like a well thought out plan - busy but not too. Just be flexible and don't sweat it if you get behind and have to cut something out - we just call that a reason to return.

We loved Cuidad Condal on Rambla de Catalunya- just past Gran Via de Les Corts Catalanes from Placa Catalunya - extensive selection of tapas and friendly service. There was a nice mix of locals & tourists.

@Marbleskies - loved your approach! Fast pace is certainly not for some but for others it works well.

I ,as well, think this is quite adventurous. I am assuming you are coming from the US and have not factored in jet lag. Even traveling in business class I find that I need a minimum of 3-4 hours of sleep when I arrive. if you land at 9am, you have to get your luggage, go thru customs, find the taxi stand and get to the hotel for checkin. I would allow for an hour(if you are in business meaning front of the line-2 if you are in coach) I don't want to sound like a wet blanket but if you plan for that .. you can narrow what you would really want to see and put the priorities on that list. maybe sleep til 2- grab some lunch then do the fat tire bike tour or one of the many walking tours to get an overview of the city to best to plan your time for the following days.

you can get on trip advisor and find restaurants and google reviews and menus so then at dinner, you can sit around and talk about what to see the following day.

Just my honest advice. Have a great trip

Hi Gina,

I just returned from spending four days in Barcelona and have to say, it looks like you have quite a busy schedule to keep. Doable, but busy. We found some of our most memorable time there was sitting on a bench in a public square, away from the touristy spots, and just people watched the locals for an hour and a half after dinner one night.

There are a few things I would tell anyone heading to Barca after having just been there. Use the Metro system (by a T10 card for E9.80) it's fast, easy to navigate and will save you a ton of money compared to those who take cabs everywhere. My other suggestion would be to ignore Las Ramblas after about 10 minutes. It's packed with two things, tourists and people trying to sell you a selfie stick. There is very little charm to be found there.

Enjoy your trip!
-RF

Your Bari Gotico Walking Tour on Saturday morning revisits many places your bike tour stops at on Friday night. I would suggest a gentle stroll around Park Guell as a more agreeable way of alleviating jet lag over a strenuous bike ride.
Your hotel is centrally located, check if they have their own bikes, and set out freewheeling on your own for an hour or two on another day. Another option is Barcelona's city bike hire scheme, which has parking racks all over town.

My highlights on Montjuic are the Miro Foundation and MNAC (Catalan Art Museum). Take the teleferic to the castle at the top, taking in the sublime views over the city and port.

Are you flying into Barcelona? If you want to save a lot of money to/from the airport, take the bus. There leave every five minutes, make only a couple of stops, and end at Placa de Catalunya, and a short (10 minute), slightly downhill walk to La Boqueria. You could also take it back to the airport when you head to Granada. I hope you have as good an experience as I had in March - landed just after 10 a.m. and by noon I was in my hotel room, near the Palace of Catalan Music.

If you are flying in after a night flight, do not underestimated the affects of jetlag and sleeplessness. A 4-hour afternoon bike tour could be great, but it could also turn into the "forced march to hell." The Magic Fountain is nice, very crowded, and takes time to get to. Unless your tour includes a lot of food, aren't you going to want to have dinner and fall into bed? Can you do the bike tour on another day? Skip the RS tour, as David says, it's mostly more of the same. If you can switch it - Saturday's a little tight but doable. You'll have time to get from the end of the tour to the Palace of Catalan Music but probably not to go back to your hotel to drop a day bag and/or change clothes. Or Sunday. If you switch the bike tour from Friday, you can easily move most of the other things to Friday. That allows you the freedom to do as much as you can without commitments, even if you book the rooftop tour in advance for that day. The Picasso and History museums aren't far from there.

Sunday evening would be a much better time for the fountain, especially if you end your day at Montjuic. The fountain is just a few minutes' descent from MNAC (the art museum).

Sunday would work for the fountains Chani if the pilot of their plane did a low pass over Montjuic after departing El Prat. With a concert booked for Saturday, Friday is the only fountains option.

And don't underestimate the effects of jet lag - Chani appears to still be suffering 6 weeks later. Lol.

Your plan does sound busy but doable. Good luck!

David is right. I missed that bit. It must be the aftereffect of staying in Cordoba again. So most of my suggestions were unhelpful. Apologies.

If you don't get to the Magic Fountain, don't be too disappointed. It was far from the highlight of my trip.

Chani is right. Don't be disappointed if you don't get to the Magic Fointains. See how you feel with jet lag.