So many people want to hit as many destinations in possible while touring Europe, so they spend 2 or 3 days in a city before moving on to the next. Honestly, I do the same thing a lot of the time. Europe makes it easy with everything being so close together and amazing public transportation options being available. However, in my opinion Barcelona is different. Barcelona deserves more than just a few days, because there is really so much to see, do, and feel! I spent 2 weeks in Barcelona for my honeymoon, and still could have stayed longer to fit in other activities and do some more wandering. Here are the reasons why I believe you should visit Barcelona and give it more of your time:
- Culture: Taking a walk in Barcelona transports you to another culture. Different from the rest of Spain, Barcelona is steeped in its Catalan culture. You could say it is the Texas of Spain. The people in Barcelona are super friendly, and the streets are super walk-able. If you are lucky, you might be in Barcelona during a festival. We were pleasantly surprised to get to partake in the St. Jordi day celebrations, which is basically Barcelona's version of Valentine's day where sweethearts exchange books and roses.
- Natural Beauty: Barcelona has everything you could need in life if you are a nature lover, being literally situated smack dab between the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea and breath-taking mountains. I will get to beaches in a second, but from different high vantages in Barcelona, you can get amazing views. Also, there are plenty of day trips to the mountains, including to Monteserrat which has a really cool abbey set into a very distinctive multi-peaked mountain.
- Beaches: Not only is Barcelona a hop, skip, and jump away to beach towns along the coast, Barcelona itself has beaches. Barceloneta is a fun beach to go to with Barcelona's unique sky-scrapers in site, right in the city center! I'd also recommend taking a day trip to one of Spain's beautiful beach towns. We went to Sitges, one of the closer towns, and had a nice relaxing day soaking up the sun.
- Sports: Like other cities in Europe, Barcelona has a well known soccer team. Messi, anyone? Games are super fun to go to, as the crowds get really into it. Also for the sports fans out there, it is fun to visit the Olympic stadium where you might catch the soccer team practicing!
