Is Barcelona enough?

I am sure there is plenty to see to fill 5 days if you really enjoy a city experience.... I saw enough to make me happy in 2 days and on the 3rd day went on a day trip to Montserrat and loved it. I can only take so much of a crowded city before I need to take a break. Just wandering around in the city and shopping and stopping for tapas was a fun evening.

You have two great sources of information at your service:Rick Steves book, and Enric who posts copious information about Barcelona right here. If you search for his posts, you'll be well served. If you find one of his posts, just click on his name and choose to read all posts he has done. There is a ton of info.

As for RS, he has 150 pages in his Spain book for you to read and decide. I got a copy from the library when I was preparing for a Barcelona trip.

If your interested in a day trip I would recommend taking the train south to Terragona and spending the day seeing the Roman Ruins and enjoying the restaurants in the town. It is a relaxing small town with great ambience!

@Bets, you made me blush! :)) I just like to share info about my hometown with anyone planning a visit.

@Laura, there's no direct answer, it all boils down to your preferences and travel style. Some country mouses find the city -any city for that matter- too 'busy' so with 3-4 days have more than enough, while city dwellers thrive in the variety of things one can do in Barcelona. After all it's been around since 215 BC so lot of things have happened that have left impression in the city. There are over +150 sites/landmarks/attractions worth visiting plus all the other activities, festivals, concerts, exhibitions, etc happening in the city along the year. So you could literally be in Barcelona a whole month doing different things morning, afternoon and evening and you probably wouldn't get to see 'everything' (depending on your likes of course!). Yet most visitors (mouses and dwellers alike, LOL!) come to realize there's always more than they can chew. Anyhow, my advise is to make a list of your likes and then search for info on those 'areas', I'm sure you'll find plenty to make an itinerary as long or as short as you prefer.

To start... http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/ | http://www.infocatalonia.eu | http://www.timeout.com/barcelona | http://lameva.barcelona.cat/en | http://www.catalunya.com/?language=en

Also, I'm always in favour to add some visits to other parts of Catalonia, be other cities, towns and villages, natural parks... when visiting its capital city Barcelona, so one can discover what we Catalans are all about. So adding a visit say to Tarragona, Girona, Besalú, Sitges, Cadaqués, etc. can add a nice touch and will allow you to see and experience different 'stuff'. If you're lucky enough to visit when there's a folk festival, heritage celebration, etc you then get to experience things the 'big tourist guidebooks' talk little about -sorry RS! :))

PS. No guys, I don't work in the Tourism Office although sometimes my 'posts' might seem to come from there, hahaha!

Barcelona is one of the world's great cities, but as fans of modern art and Salvador Dali's works, we used information in Rick's guidebook to make a trip to the Dali museum north of Girona, and on to the artist's house in Port Llegat. We rented a car in Girona to make the trip, and strayed overnight in the town of Roses, before returning to Barcelona. We had less than 5 days in the area, and there was a lot of Barcelona that we didn't experience on that trip, but our sojourn north was a priority.

Girona was also a worthwhile visit, just an hour north of Barcelona by car or train. Rick's guidebook didn't have much on Girona, but the Lonely Planet or other guidebooks can give you lots of info.

Five days is perfect because you really need 4 days within the city to completely immerse yourself, and do justice to all the important sights. Then you have a 5th day to make a trip out of town to one of the places mentioned by Enric above.

This is how I advise to get the most out of BARCELONA IN FOUR DAYS ...

DAY 1 Ramblas & Bari Gotico
Metro to Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona’s main square
Explore the Ramblas from top to bottom taking side diversions
On the right C. d’Elisabets to the museums MACBA and CCCB (check for current exhibits)
Further down to La Boqueria markets
Left side thru the Gothic Quarter via Placa del Pi & Placa de Sant Felip Neri to the Cathedral
Placa del Rei and the wide Placa Sant Jaume flanked by official buildings of the city and state
Head down the shopping street C. De Ferran returning to the Ramblas at the Liceu opera house
Further along and left to Placa Reial, harmonious enclosed square with palms trees & Gaudi lanterns
And then Palau Guell (Gaudi) off on the right
Finally the port and the column with Christopher Columbus gesturing towards the new world
Metro Drassanes is close by

DAY 2 Gaudi & Modernism
Metro to Sagrada Familia for Gaudi’s masterpiece, still under construction – PREBOOK TICKETS !!
Walk down the Av de Gaudi to Europe’s largest Art Nouveau site, the hospital complex of Sant Pau
Metro across town to Diagonal and on to the Passeig de Gracia for Casa Mila (Gaudi)
Walk down Barcelona’s majestic boulevard to crazy colourful Casa Batllo (Gaudi)
Casa Amatller is next door and the Loewe store on the corner is in Casa Lleo i Morera
Finish at Gran Via – Metro Passeig de Gracia is closeby

DAY 3 El Born & Barceloneta
Metro to Arc de Triomf
10 min walk to Palau de la Musica Catalana – PREBOOK TICKETS !!
Through the revitalised area of El Born to the Picasso Museum – PREBOOK TICKETS !!
On to Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar and then into the Parc de la Ciutedella for a relaxing circuit
Past the historic railway station, Estacio de Franca to the old fisherman’s village, Barceloneta
The ‘D’ shaped W Hotel stands at the port entrance
Walk the other way along the beachfront towards Frank Gehry’s glimmering ‘Fish’ sculpture
Finish at the Hotel Arts and Port Olimpic – Metro Ciutedella / Vila Olimpica is close by

DAY 4 Park Guell & Montjuic
Start your day at Gaudi’s fantasy like Park Guell – PREBOOK TICKETS !!
After Park Guell, take the metro to Placa d’Espanya
Les Arenes, once the bullring, now housing shops & restaurants (fighting is banned in BCN)
2 large towers opposite and the Av de la Reina Marina Cristina towards the Palau Nacional
This area of exhibition space was the site of a Universal Expo in 1929
(Barcelona had Olympic visions way back then but the Spanish Civil War put them on hold)
Caixa Forum and Mies van der Rohe Pavilion are both worth a look
Escalators to the Palau and the MNAC museum, well worthy of a visit
The Anella Olimpica (Stadium, Palau St Jordi, Communications Tower) is laid out behind
Now back down the hill to the excellent Miro Museum (Fundacio Miro)
Piscina Municipal, the spectacular venue for Olympic diving is close by
Along Av. Miramar to the teleferic up to Montjuic Castle, or the funicular down to Metro at Parallel

@Keith I'm afraid that's one of those "miss in translation" things... yet foreign guidebooks keep insisting on them.

Les Rambles is a key landmark in the city since the 12th century, and for those interested in history, it has certainly fascinating stories. Since the late 1700s it was one important site for Barcelonians to socialize, and to see and be seen. The El Liceu Opera House, the Cafe de la Òpera bar frequented by aristocracy and upper classes as well as writers and artists, the art exhibitions at the Virreina Palace or at Santa Mònica Arts Centre, some of the most curious -and especialized- shops in the city (ie. Casa Beethoven, any music script you wish it's there!), the famous Boqueria market, which started as a weekly meat market in 1217 AD, etc and many more things can be found in Les Rambles. And Les Rambles was also about the people that used to frequent this boulevard: the shoeshine boys -much likes Chaplin's- and the clerks that at the turn of the 20th century for a few cents used to read and write letters on behalf of those that weren't literate, and characters like the endearing Ms. Moños or Pedro Sanpablo, the "man of the pigeons". Les Rambles also hosted the first private modern bank in Spain, the Bank of Barcelona (1844) and has seen many unlikely incidents like a plane crash in 1934. One will notice however the crowds have always been there ;)

But since the 1960s it gradually lost its importance along its charm and many of the businesses that gave it a very unique ambiance, like the florists (today's few stalls are just a small sample of what it once was) have just disappeared; these days is merely, as you point out, a medium length boulevard full of awful and expensive tourist traps selling bad tapas and sangria at outrageous prices, tacky souvenir shops (much like downtown in many major cities) and pickpockets. It's also true that it also has some worth visiting landmarks (La Boqueria market, Palau de la Virreina, El Liceu Opera House, etc) and it's so central that it's a 'door' to go either to the Old Port, El Raval or El Gòtic. The Human Statues are also in the last stretch of Les Rambles, near the Columbus Statue.

In short, one must walk along Les Rambles to understand the spirit of Barcelona, but have no expectations...