Looking for suggestions for neighborhoods/areas in Barcelona to stay

Michael,

I strongly recommend the Gothic Quarter. It's the oldest part of Barcelona and has incredible medieval flavor. It's packed with historic sites, has great eateries and is fully pedestrianized and thus is quiet.

Thank you, Craig.

That sounds fantastic, but when I filter for neighborhoods on Airbnb, that is not a choice. Does have an alternate name?

in spanish it is barri gotic

As Chani noted, it's the Barri Gotic. Enjoy Barcelona.

Sorry guys, that's wrong... hence the reason why Michael doesn't find it... the official name of the neighbourhood is EL GÒTIC (which is in Catalan btw, the local language, not in Spanish). This is a map of the 10 districts of the city and this another one of the 76 neighbourhoods in which is divided.

Although the name Barri Gòtic is widely used among Barcelonians (barri is Catalan for neighbourhood) the word neighbourhood is not part of the official name of any neighbourhood -if you catch my drift.

Yet in this case it was fairly easy to deduct that Barri Gòtic and El Gòtic could potentially be the same, right?

I like to take the opportunity to mention once more that out there there are blogs and sites about Barcelona, especially from some ex-pats living in the city and running tourism businesses, that misguide readers by using names that do not correspond with the official nomenclature of the city hence when looking either at an official website (ie. City Hall's) or a serious website from a professional operator (ie. Airbnb.com or Timeout.cat) those readers can't find the things they're looking for.

It's something that really unnerves me because it's very easy to do things right so why some should choose not to? Be for laziness, ignorance or sometimes an unethical manipulation for self-interest, some sites keep listing for example El Born as a neighbourhood -that has never been so, it's a short and narrow 300 yards boulevard located in the Ribera neighbourhood in the Ciutat Vella district. And yes, we Barcelonians often generically refer as well to the area (few streets) around that boulevard as El Born, but we'd never use that for classifying say apartments in a database, simply because the neighbourhood has another name. Period. Some of these unscrupulous sites use El Born because it's more catchy among visitors as it was one of the key areas of the low medieval Barcelona.

Just so you know :))

Btw, even AirBnb hasn't gotten it quite right... I can see their website (under More Filters) they mix the names of some districts (Eixample, Ciutat Vella and Sants-Montjuïc) under the label "neighbourhoods"! Also note they're not listing the whole 76 neighbourhoods, just a bunch of them. Want a piece of advice??... check out first the maps I've posted earlier so you understand what's what when looking at any other website.

Michael, as per where to stay, that's indeed very personal and each visitor has its own preferences and expectations... having said that, both for comfort as well as convenience, I tend to recommend one of these areas which are very different one from the other so you can adapt to your preferences and expectations...

For a visual response to your question: http://oi44.tinypic.com/20r5nd3.jpg Note that the red zones don't mean "no stay", they just mean (to me) that are not convenient for a short stay in the city, either too far or too rowdy or a bit seedy, but by all means one has to visit them as all have their own charm. Keep in mind though that this is a very personal response, other members will surely recommend different things and probably equally good (or better!)

Just for info I include links to three videos showing the areas of l'Eixample, Gràcia and El Born -as per the above map- so you can have a glimpse on what they look like:

L'EIXAMPLE, EL BORN in La Ribera neighbourhood and GRÀCIA

• L'Eixample is classy and elegant, a large district with wide streets and avenues full of Modernist buildings
• El Born is a historical area with little streets and alleys, may get a bit rowdy at times
• Gràcia is like a homy little town within the city with a life of its own, slightly farther (15' by metro) but worth considering.

Interesting and helpful... Thanks everyone!