We'll be in Barcelona March 16-19, 2025. Looking at an event calendar for Barcelona during our visit we discovered that the Barcelona Marathon takes place on March 16 & the Fallas bonfire festival of San José on March 15-19.
I'm assuming these events are going to attract large crowds which will impact lodging choices,restaurants, sight seeing. Any advice or recommendations for us?
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3162 posts
Not, it won't. The Marató de Barcelona in its 47th edition is an event with "just" 25,000 people, furthermore, the vast majority are local residents in Barcelona and/or Catalonia. The second event you mention I don't know what it is, sorry. This is not an event in these shores.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2556 posts
Barcelona is hugely popular and you have to expect a popular destination to have high hotel rates and even higher rates on weekends. The Marathon expects about 28,000 registered entrants. That pales in comparison to the hordes of tourists generated by a dozen cruise ships in port which can amount to 60,000 passengers and crewmembers. And the good news is that it looks like there will only be three cruise ships In port over those four days from 3/16-19. (www.Cruisemapper.com)
March also Is well before high travel season, so there won’t be a lot of folks there who take their vacations during the summertime.
As for the Fallas Bonfire Festival— it’s a festival celebrated primarily in Valencia but also throughout Spain. That, plus it being spread out over 5 days will dilute any crowd impact it might have as the participants are likely to be locals. It should add some color to your visit because it’s a cultural event you’ll be able to see going on while you’re there. It likely will make for some great Barcelona photos.
From March 16-19, It looks like Barcelona’s hotel rates are about average for this pricey market. Most visitors have sticker shock when they see rates from $200-$300 and up. Because I live in San Diego— also a big.convention and vacation destination— $250 on a weekend in a cosmopolitan beach city comes as no surprise.
Posted by
Austin, TX
2470 posts
Hello schachtbs
I was in Barcelona last October during the American Cup and shoulder season. It was very crowded but manageable. I believe that March is off season.
I would suggest that you book your hotel room asap. Try booking.com for research
I stayed at Hotel Continental Barcelona and can recommend it
Someone else on forum recommended HCC Montblanc to me but I went with the other one
EDITED to add information
here is a link to a post asking about hotels when I was researching Barcelona.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/hotel-location-in-barcelona