Barcelona is a city of barrios, sadly most visitors only get to know the famous ones. Because like most hugely popular cities, Barcelona’s become very good at corralling its tourists and keeping them in check. It’s not that it isn’t welcoming, it’s just a lot easier to enjoy life in the lesser known (and often lovelier) barrios when the crowds are elsewhere. The city’s hotels are totally complicit, of course. Selling themselves hard on proximity to major attractions, they’ve a tendency to cluster and room rates grow faster than a mid-July queue for the Sagrada Familia the closer you get to anything even vaguely Gaudi.
But seasoned travellers know the true spirit of Barcelona lives in its mountains and by the sea, tucked away in charming little squares and hidden on side streets, taking tapas in local bars and buying dinner in markets that aren’t Boqueria. They’re the families renting apartments in quaint, intriguing and elegant barrios and not even considering overpriced hotels as an option. And it makes complete sense, as Barcelona’s other great design masterpiece is its transport system so even the most exclusive barrios like Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, high up in Tibidabo, are within easy reach of the city centre.
Another Barcelona highlight in renting an apartment is the city’s sense of style. Not so evident in most standard hotels it’s almost a given in local homes where design is second only to legendary Catalan hospitality. Welcoming guests into your home is a huge tradition here and hosts with companies like Housetrip are renowned for their generosity and love of sharing local knowledge. And, as most of the city’s barrios still consider themselves ‘independent’, renting an apartment naturally involves you in all those idiosyncratic moments that really make a holiday.
Hotel or apartment? In Barcelona it’s not even a choice. Stay in a tourist hotel and be a tourist. Or rent an entire apartment for the cost of a hotel room, live like a local in one of the wonderful barrios and – if you can tear yourself away – catch a train, bus, funicular or even cable car and join the rest of the city whenever you want.
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