Travel to Barcelona tips?

[SunshineMom]

We are heading to Barcelona in two weeks for seven days and an additional day in Amsterdam.  Anyone have some travel tips? Must see places?  My dd14 has planned out our trip but there are two days which are flexible.  Some ideas....train to Madrid or Southern France.  Ideas?

[Lanny]

PLEASE REGISTER with the ACS (American Citizens Services unit) in the U.S. Embassy of each country you will be visiting. PLEASE READ the  Travel Warnings on their web sites and follow their advice. You can register online.  Probably things in Barcelona are back to normal after the recent attacks there by the radical Islamic terrorists,  and in another city in Spain. 

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Brenda in FL]

You may want to keep the flexible days as just open. Barcelona is a beautiful city and you can just fill those days with museums and shopping. However, some side trip ideas by train:

 

Montserrat (mountainside monastery)

Girona. (Ancient roman city to the North)

Sitges (Seaside town to the south)

 

Madrid would likely be to far for a day trip.

[CAJinBE]

I was just in Spain for two weeks. We only had a day and a half in Barcelona but we packed a lot in. The aquarium was very nice and a good break from the usual tourist things. La Sagrada Familia is a must see. Buy your tickets online now for a specific time slot. We did 3:00 and the lighting was perfect coming in through the stained glass windows. We did the audio guides and felt it was just right. Park Guell is also very nice, but we didn't go into the part you have to pay for. There was a lot of construction going on. 

 

Las Ramblas where the attack occurred is back to normal except for the huge memorial displays. You have to be very alert for pickpockets there. The metro was very easy to use. We would buy a 10-pack ticket and just use it for all of us until it ran out. One person goes through and hands it back to the next person. 

 

We spent most of our two weeks on the Costa Blanca near Denia. Beautiful sandy beaches. I would not try to get to Madrid. There are nice museums there, but otherwise has a big city atmosphere. Barcelona is much more fun.

 

 

[Penguin]

In addition to what has already been mentioned, here are some things we enjoyed:

 

Magic Fountain night display. FREE!

http://irbarcelona.org/barcelona-tourist-attractions/magic-fountain-montjuic/

 

We went to the Joan Miró museum, which is on the high elevation end of the city. After that, we rode the cable car down to the lower end.

 

https://www.fmirobcn.org/en/

 

It was already mentioned, but our daytrip to Montserrrat was one of our favorite daytrips EVER. I highly recommend it.

 

You will absolutely want advance tickets for Gaudi Park or Sagrada Familia.

[SunshineMom]

Thank you Ladies!  Yes, on your suggestion, I registered our family with ACS.  

 

A day trip to Girona would be lovely.  We rented an apartment, we can see La Sagrada Familia from the outdoor patio. 

 

Did anyone do the bike tours? Tapa tours? Any tour?  Are the tours worth the cost?

 

Should we get BarcelonaCard transportation passes? Not sure how we can reserve museum tickets using that card.

 

We plan on staying one day/night in Amersterdam.  I would like to go to the Van Gogh museum, take a canal ride and maybe see Ann Frank's home.  Any tips/suggestions about Amersterdam?