What to do in Barcelona?

What we would do here

Not a place to walk into, but something to do: our pick per area.

• A cooking class that starts at the market

  The covered markets in the old city still supply the quarter's restaurants, and a class that begins in them teaches both what to buy and why. Walking a market with someone who shops in it is what separates it from passing through

• A paella workshop
  Paella Barcelona Cooking School · 5 stars · 1124 reviews

  Paella is less Catalan than it seems, and that is exactly why it is worth learning here: what separates rice from paella, why you never stir it, and what the crust at the bottom is. Afterwards it is easy to spot a restaurant that takes it seriously

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• A trencadís mosaic workshop

  Breaking tiles and reassembling them is the technique Gaudí developed, and it is what covers half the buildings people come to see. A workshop in it is the only way to grasp how much work is in a single wall

• A flamenco evening at a tablao
  Casa Sors Flamenco · 5 stars · 3433 reviews

  Flamenco is not Catalan in origin, and Barcelona still has a serious tablao where a small company dances with a guitarist and a singer within touching distance of the audience. In a small room you hear the footwork and the breathing, which is exactly what a big show loses

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• The vermouth hour

  In Gràcia vermouth is poured from the barrel before lunch, a Catalan habit that predates cocktails and is still alive in the quarter's bars. It is what makes Gràcia a neighbourhood rather than an attraction

• Cycling the hill

  Montjuïc is high and spread out, and the distances between the gardens, the stadium and the castle are too great to walk. A bicycle turns the hill into one unit rather than three separate visits

• Climbing inside the Montjuic tunnel
  Climbat La Foixarda · 4.4 stars · 1733 reviews

  The climbing wall sits inside an old tunnel in the side of the hill, so it stays shaded and cool even in August. It has beginner routes and you can rent shoes there, so it works even if you have never climbed

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• A sailing day on the Costa Brava
  Excursions Barcelona · 5 stars · 6173 reviews

  The operator sets out from the Barcelona waterfront and sails north, so a full day on the boat covers a stretch of coast rather than a single beach. You anchor to swim in the coves along the way, and carry on from the deck by kayak and snorkel

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• A football match at the stadium
  Spotify Camp Nou · 4.6 stars · 169426 reviews

  A tour of an empty stadium and a match in it are entirely different things, and Barcelona is one of the cities where football is identity rather than entertainment. If there is a match on your dates, that is the one to take

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• Walking the Montserrat ridge

  Almost everyone who goes up to the monastery comes back down on the same cable car, and the trails that continue above it are nearly empty. The rounded rock forms the place is known for are only visible from up there

• A cava cellar in the Penedes
  Pares Balta Winery · 4.9 stars · 2402 reviews

  Cava was born in the hills south of Barcelona, and the visit goes down into cellars where the bottles lie on their side and ends with a tasting. It is also the answer to why cava is neither champagne nor prosecco

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• Road cycling in the Girona hills

  Girona is the training base for a large share of Europe's professional road cyclists, thanks to the mix of empty roads, hills and weather. There are rental shops there built around exactly that

• Kayaking the coves of the Costa Brava
  Escola de vela i caiac Sant Pol Costa Brava · 4.9 stars · 4158 reviews

  The coastline here is cut into small coves, most of them unreachable by road, and from the water they look completely different. The sea on this side is calm on most days, so it works even if you have never paddled

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