Barcelona, Spain
Finally after 4 years we managed to take our trip we planned to Barcelona before Covid shut down the travel industry. This time however it was with a 3 year old. Spain has been a destination that we have wanted to visit for a long time, but it always seemed quick and easy to get there yet we never got to booking it until Black Friday deals brought us back to considering this destination.
We spent quite some time researching Barcelona, as our previous planned trip was before we had a child, this time around our research had to include kid friendly activities. We divided our 3 days into 3 sections of the city as shown below.
We arrived around 8pm at the airport after which we took an Uber ride into the city to arrive at our hotel. We stayed in Salles Hotel in the La Plata area, which is close to parks and walking distance from public transport. It was an easy check in and the room was nice and spacious with a sleeper couch already set up for our use. The hotel offers spa access and the pool can be used from 9am till 1pm for kids. The hotel also has a nice rooftop terrace overlooking the La Sagrada Familia, but unfortunately it closes at 5pm.
Day 1
On our first day we went to the La Sagrada Familia first. We booked tickets in advance and were glad we did the early morning booking as with our daughter this made things easier as she was still happy and ready to walk along before it got too busy with tourists. Before we went in we bought some coffee and pastries at a bakery close by. We love the Spanish pastries that had not only sweet but also savory options for breakfast. We had nice and warm empanadas filled with bacon and cheese followed by croissants that were drizzled with some sweet syrup. It was surprising to us when we arrived at the church how it is divided on the outside, one side was happy and cheerful in the design while the opposite side was dark and sad. The architect Gaudi was truly magnificent in his design and we learned so much without having to do guided tours. The church is not finished yet but they aim to finish in the next couple of years. This also meant that most of our photos of the La Sagrada Familia included a huge construction crane.
From here we started walking towards the La Rambla area, walking past some of Gaudi’s must see buildings including La Pedrera, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. We stopped for a lunch at Oassis Natural Cooking which was super nice and spacious for our daughter to stretch some legs. We made our way through the Gothic area, where to be honest we did not feel very safe and compared to the rest of the city it was not as beautiful. We ended up at the harbor and strolled on the boardwalk where we spotted a boat cruise and boarded the next one. It was a nice cruise through the harbor, the crew took a photo as we boarded and gave us the option to buy a typical spanish plate with the photo on top. After this we made our way back towards the La Rambla street where we had a booking at Tablao Flamenco Cordobes Barcelona for an early tapas dinner followed by a traditional Flamenco show. What was nice about this restaurant was that there are different time slots for dinner and shows. We chose the early one to make sure our daughter could still get to bed at a reasonable time. We took a Taxi back to our hotel which was to our surprise reasonably priced.
Our first day had a lot of walking and stopping at playgrounds, we just realized again that we could not travel without using the app: Playground Buddy. This app allows us to find playgrounds at our locations. By using this app we can often stop at big touristy attractions and still make sure our daughter enjoys it by playing.
Day 2
For our next day we planned less walking and jumped on the metro towards Montjuic. We had a lot of different advice regarding the train system and to be honest standing in front of the ticket machine we still did not find it an easy task. We ended up buying a 8 ride family ticket for about EUR11, that we could use for multiple rides. We took the metro then a tram up the hill to the Teleferic de Montjuic Cable Car, where we boarded the cable car to the top of the hill exiting at Montjuic Castle. We decided against going into the castle, but we enjoyed strolling around and also really enjoyed the cable car ride as it had great views of the city. From there we strolled towards Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya walking through the parks and stopped to admire the buildings architecture. We made our way towards the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, unfortunately due to the drought the fountain had limited water and there was no water fountain show, but it was still a spectacular sight and there was a lot of space for our daughter to run around. From here we took the metro towards the beach side and strolled on the boardwalk looking for a nice place to have a small lunch while our daughter took a nap in the stroller. We had a small lunch at Barnabier on the harbor overlooking the boats. After our lunch we headed back to our hotel and enjoyed an ice cold beer on the rooftop terrace overlooking the views of Barcelona. Late afternoon we wandered around in search for a playground were we spent some time and on our way back to the hotel we stopped at a very local family spanish restaurant, Restaurant Xiscarexantar for dinner which ended up being such a nice experience. The granny was cooking in the kitchen but came by to our table to make sure our daughter had something sweet to eat, like a typical granny. The food was great and very well priced.
Day 3
On our last day we had a ticket for Parc Guell. We would recommend going as early as possible as this is a very popular tourist attraction and also taking the bus to the very top as it is a very steep walk up the hill. The park is famous for being one of architect Antoni Gaudí's greatest creations. It is a sprawling wonderland of colorful mosaics and nature-inspired architecture full of whimsical sculptures and stunning examples of Catalan modernism. We walked around and explored the surroundings and spend a lot of time at the playground inside the park, which was very entertaining to our daughter and we could relax listening to some nice spanish music being played in the park. The playground also had a picnic area for families.
After our time in the park we started our journey back to the airport. For weekend getaways we pack light and only travel with one backpack each. Therefore we could walk around with our backpacks in the morning and leave for the airport directly from the park. The Barcelona Airport is extremely kid friendly, at the security check there was a separate line for families with kids. Once through security the airport had multiple playgrounds for kids to relax before the journey.
Finally after 4 years we did our trip to Barcelona, Spain. This time with a busy toddler, but it was definitely worth it. We are very glad we did this trip in March and not in July as we can imagine that it can get very hot during the summer months. Lesson that we learned on this trip, don’t hesitate, book the trip to the destination you want to, you might just be surprised.