A week in Barcelona

First, I don't think a week is a short time in Barcelona. You should have time to see the sites and also do a couple of day trips. For that period of time I would suggest an apartment rental. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment last September near Sagrada Famila for 95€ per night. Cheaper than most small hotel rooms. Having a kitchen can be a real money saver. We would have breakfast and plot out our day before leaving in the morning. If you are on a really tight budget you could make sandwiches and picnic for lunch. If you are interested in the apartment info let me know.

The best thrifty travel advice is to spend the time in Barcelona, and not try to see all the other places in Spain and France that some well-meaning people will tell you are "must sees while you are nearby." Reducing the amount of moving around will reduce your cost. Yes, you can got to Madrid for a few days, and it's only 3 hours each way on the high speed trains. But these will not be cheap unless you can snag an advance purchase discount. If "7 days" includes your days flying to and from the US, you really only have 5 days - all the more reason to just stay in Barcelona. Day trips from Barcelona include Sitges, Montserrat, Figueres, Tarragona, and Girona. This will fill any time you feel you need to get out of Barcelona. Barcelona itself takes a few days to see, even if you're just "checking off" the major sites. Of course, if you want to relax, there's no need to take any day trips at all. Be sure to look at Rick Steves Snapshot: Barcelona guide for more info, including money-saving tips and day trip advice.

Good advice from Harold above. I'd only add to be brutally honest with yourself about how much real, usable time you will have in Europe. If "7 days" is how much time you have for your trip, you have at most maybe 5 days in Europe - count the number of full days in Europe, not counting your arrival day (no matter how early in the morning that is) or your departure day. You should also keep in mind that on your first full day there you will be jetlagged and not at 100%. Personally, I've decided that it's not worth it to me to go to Europe unless I have two weeks there, not counting travel days - tempting though it is to just zoom off for a week in Italy, the hassles of travel, the physical and mental disruptions it causes just isn't worth it to me unless I have at least 14 days there before heading back (my rule is 3 weeks for Asia due to the longer flights and greater time difference). Of course everyone has their own standards - those are just mine. One last thing to keep in mind: I assume you're flying from the US west coast. Hope you have a non-stop flight from LA to Barcelona - if not, figure extra travel time, and more time to recover. This can contribute to even more jet-lag/adjustment compared to those flying from the US east coast (by comparison, a nonstop flight from Boston to Paris is a cakewalk - one or two stops from LA with layovers is going to take a lot more out of you). In any case, have fun and enjoy the time you have there.

Don't let David discourage you. I also fly from the west coast and went to Ireland once for only a week. That was 7 actual nights there. Usually my trips are from 2-4 weeks in length, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fly round trip from Sacramento to Dublin for $427 each. My hubby was only able to get off work for a week, so we made do with what we had.

Sorry to get off topic, but Andrea, where in the heck did you find R/T flights from the West Coast to Europe for $400?!? I'd go for a 90-minute visit if I could find flights that good! Have fun in BCN Cat :-)

@Josh - I was a frequent flier with Continental and I received an email from them in early March 2009 that they had special Spring flights from California to five different European destinations. We had just returned from a New Years trip to Europe, but when I saw the $427 price we had to jump on it. Dublin was the cheapest RT from Sacramento, and we wanted to go to Ireland anyway. Score!!! We spent the last week of April there and enjoyed off season pricing for lodging too. Our splurge was renting a car with automatic, as it was my first time driving on the 'other' side of the road.