Barcelona over New Year's?

Since no one's chimed in yet, I'll throw in my 2 cents, and hopefully you'll get others who can provide specific Barcelona info. We weren't in Barcelona between Christmas and Epiphany, but were in the Sorrento/Naples area of Italy. Some people there might have taken time off from work, but for tourist sights, things were open. Even the archaeological ruins at Pompeii, which by many indications were supposed to be closed on New Year's Day, were open, albeit for shorter hours than usual.

Some restaurants were open some days and nights but not others, but that seemed to be their normal schedule and not affected by the holiday season.

Barcelonans may approach things differently than the Sorrentini, but for those holiday-stretching "bridge" days, the French have it down to an art.

Enric is a native of Barcelona. He usually sees and replies to most posts about Barcelona. Hopefully he will see this and give more detailed information.

Hi Claudia. Unfortunately Rick Steves sometimes generalises too much :) That's by no means a rule and in fact I'd rather say it's an exception. The official holiday calendar is published every year by the government (the Catalan government in this case) and 'sometimes' -but only sometimes- if that happens (falling on Tue or Thu) many take a day off of one's yearly holidays in exchange for that particular in-between day. But since it's a personal choice and not a stated rule, unless you're working on a very small company/shop/own restaurant, the business will remain open even if you take that day off.
The official holiday is 1st and 6th. Full stop. Then, some small owners "might" take the 2nd OR the 5th, but I doubt that both, off. But again, the rest of the mortals will be working. In short, for you as a visitor, you might still have stuff to do as only on the 1st everything will be closed (museums, etc) --a few convenience stores and small bars/restaurants might be open-- but not necessarily on the 6th. The 6th is likely to be like any Sunday.

(We're talking about Barcelona that is... elsewhere things might be slightly different, especially in rural areas, but for sure no one is holidaying from the 1st to the 6th! --except for school children ;))

See Claudia. I told you Enric would give you good advice. Thanks always Enric for your valuable information about not just Barcelona but Catalunya as a whole. I will be pm'ing you more as my trip approaches!! :)

Thank you Cyn, Steve and Enric! We really appreciate your help and are looking forward to an adventure in Barcelona.

Thank you Cyn, Steve and Enric! We really appreciate your help and are looking forward to an adventure in Barcelona.

Happy I could point you in the right direction >>>> Enric. Enjoy your trip :)