Notes from someone who lived there. A week is enough to do all of this without rushing. Everything below has a map link — tap it and it opens in Maps.
Sort this out and the rest is easy.
Skip the taxi queue. The train from the airport is very comfortable and it drops you at Passeig de Gràcia, which is city centre — you walk out of the station into the middle of everything.
Line R2 Nord from Aeroport station. The station is attached to Terminal 2; from Terminal 1 take the free shuttle bus, about ten minutes. Roughly half an hour to Passeig de Gràcia.
Open in MapsTen journeys on one card, and far cheaper than buying singles. It works on the metro, the buses, the tram and the local Rodalies trains. It cannot be shared between two people travelling together, so buy one each.
Any metro machine sells them. Trips further out, Sitges especially, may need extra zones — enter the destination and the machine works it out. Fares change, so treat any price you read online as a guess.
The city is best on foot. This is where to point yourself.
One of my favourite walks in the city and nobody ever tells you to do it. You start with the Modernista buildings at the top of Passeig de Gràcia, then it becomes ordinary Eixample — the grid, the cut-off corners, people getting on with their lives — and you come out at Sants.
About 3.5 km, three quarters of an hour at a wander. Route yourself along Carrer del Consell de Cent, which has been pedestrianised into a green axis with trees and benches for much of the way.
Open in MapsGo up and walk around it. Gardens, the castle at the top, the view back down over the port. It is a whole afternoon if you let it be one.
Read the cable car entry in Skip it before you decide how to get up there.
Open in MapsThe way up that nobody queues for. It runs from inside Paral·lel metro station, takes about two minutes, and your normal metro ticket covers it — no separate fare, no waiting.
Follow the Funicular de Montjuïc signs from the Paral·lel platforms.
Open in MapsWorth walking. The old fishermen’s quarter behind the beach is tight and tangled — completely unlike the Eixample grid you have just come from — and the seafront is a good long stroll. Do not swim here.
From Barceloneta up to Port Olímpic along the front is about 2 km.
Open in MapsThe best views of the city, no argument. You are looking down over the whole thing with the sea behind it. There is a church at the top and an old funfair, but the view is the reason to go.
FGC line L7 from Plaça Catalunya to Avinguda Tibidabo, then the funicular the rest of the way up. Allow half a day, and check the funicular is running before you set off.
Open in MapsThe view without the half-day trip. Old anti-aircraft positions on a hilltop, 360 degrees over the city, and free. Sunset is the moment — everyone else knows that too, but it is big enough to absorb them.
Bus V17, or a twenty-minute uphill walk from Alfons X metro. Bring water; there is nothing up there.
Open in MapsThe neighbourhood to spend an evening in. It was a separate town until the 1890s and it still behaves like one — small squares with bars spilling into them, no traffic worth mentioning, almost no tour groups.
Start at Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia and wander outwards. Fontana or Joanic metro.
Open in MapsGo to the market. It is the best one in the city and it is right off La Rambla.
Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays, and best in the morning. The stalls by the entrance are priced for tourists — walk further in and eat standing at one of the counter bars at the back.
Open in MapsHave dinner here. It is four restaurants and a few bars under one restored roof just off Passeig de Gràcia, so you each pick a counter — it solves a group that cannot agree on anything.
Passeig de Gràcia 24 bis. Book ahead.
Open in MapsIf you like Boqueria, Santa Caterina and Sant Antoni are where people do their real shopping. Same idea, a fraction of the crowd, better prices.
Santa Caterina is in El Born under the wavy coloured roof. Sant Antoni is a restored iron market hall; the Sunday book and collectors’ market around it is worth timing a visit for.
Open in MapsLate Sunday morning, before lunch: a vermut over ice with an olive and a slice of orange, and something salty next to it. It is the most pleasant hour of the Barcelona week and it costs almost nothing.
Do not turn up hungry at seven. Kitchens broadly shut between about four and eight, lunch is the big meal and starts around two, and dinner gets going at nine and fills up by ten. Anywhere serving dinner at half six is fishing for tourists.
There is a right beach and a wrong beach.
This is where you go to swim. Wide sandy beach, room to breathe, and actually clean: everything Barceloneta is not. Make a day of it.
Rodalies train from Passeig de Gràcia or Sants, about half an hour. Get off at Castelldefels-Platja, not Castelldefels — the town station is a long walk from the water.
Open in MapsA week gives you room for both of these.
Just over the hill from the city and almost no visitors go. The monastery has a Romanesque cloister that is genuinely one of the best things in Catalonia, and the town around it is an unhurried place to spend a few hours.
FGC S1 or S2 from Plaça Catalunya, about 25 minutes through the tunnel under Collserola.
Open in MapsTake the train down for a day. Whitewashed old town on the sea, a church sitting on a rock above the water, good beaches, and a completely different pace to the city.
Rodalies R2 Sud from Passeig de Gràcia or Sants, about forty minutes. The stretch of track along the coast is part of the fun.
Open in MapsThings you will be told to do. Do not do them.
Not worth it. The view from it is limited and the queues are very long. There is a better way up in Walks & views.
Walk it, do not swim it. It is the most crowded beach in the city, the water is not what you want it to be, and it is the easiest place in Barcelona to lose your things while you are in the sea. Castelldefels is half an hour away.
They are real, and they are specific rather than everywhere: La Rambla, the metro at rush hour, the beach, and anyone who starts a conversation you did not ask for. Nothing in a back pocket, nothing left on a towel. Violent crime is rare here; slick theft is not.