Barcelona Guidebook

In Rick Steves Barcelona you'll find in-depth Rick-tested information on:

• Practicalities
  • Easy-to-follow maps (including color maps of greater Barcelona, Barcelona's Old City, Barcelona's Eixample, and Barcelona's transit system)
  • ​Trip planning: When to go, pre-trip checklist, festivals and holidays, books and movies
  • Getting around Barcelona by Metro, bus, and taxi
  • Advice on planning your time and avoiding lines
  • Transportation in Spain: Trains, buses, and driving
  • Detailed advice on managing money, communicating, making hotel reservations, and other helpful hints
• Recommended sights and activities
• Recommended hotels and restaurants
• Self-guided walks
  • Ramblas Ramble
  • Barri Gòtic
  • El Born
  • Eixample
• Self-guided tours
  • Barcelona Cathedral
  • Picasso Museum
  • Sagrada Família
  • Park Güell
• Day trips
  • Montserrat
  • Figueres
  • Cadaqués
  • Sitges
• And more
  • Barcelona's history, culture, and cuisine
  • Barcelona with children
  • Barcelona's shopping and nightlife
  • Handy Spanish and Catalan survival phrases

Also included: a 10¾" x 19½" full-color foldout Planning Map with a big overview of the city (with major sights), detailed close-ups of the Old City and the Montjuïc neighborhood, plus footprints of Park Güell and Sagrada Família, a full Metro map, and a zoomed-out overview showing all of Spain.

Should I get this Barcelona book in addition to either Rick's complete Spain guidebook or his Best of Spain guidebook?

Probably not. If you're only spending a few days in Barcelona, as part of a longer trip in Spain, the Barcelona chapter of either Spain guidebook is all you're likely to need.

If, however, you're spending four days or more in Barcelona, the extra information in Rick Steves Barcelona can be worthwhile. It offers more in-depth sightseeing information, several additional self-guided city walks and museum/sight tours, and more specifics on shopping and nightlife, plus suggestions for kids. Other information is generally the same, especially compared to the complete Rick Steves Spain guidebook, which includes nearly all the hotels, restaurants, and nitty-gritty practical advice for Barcelona and its day trips that you'll find in the city guidebook. (But compared to Rick Steves Best of Spain, the Barcelona guidebook does have a few more hotel and restaurant listings, as well as more comprehensive coverage of day-trip options.)

What's the difference between this Barcelona guidebook and Rick's Pocket Barcelona guide?

Rick Steves Pocket Barcelona works best for people taking a short trip, or perhaps a return trip, to Barcelona. Like our other Pocket guides, Pocket Barcelona is smaller than the complete city guidebook and in full color (but still offers our best sightseeing advice and a handful of self-guided city walks and museum tours, plus a foldout map).

For travelers who want to delve deep into Barcelona, the full-size guidebook is a better option. It offers more substantial (and more frequently updated) advice on every front: practicalities, sightseeing, self-guided tours, hotels, restaurants, nightlife, shopping, kids' activities, and the city's history and culture, plus complete chapters on the best day trips.

Latest updates: When we learn of critical changes to the information in our guidebooks on Spain, we post them. (Of course, it's still smart to reconfirm critical transportation and sightseeing details locally.) Armed with a Rick Steves guidebook and these late-breaking updates, you're set for a great trip!

Submit feedback: Once you've used this book in Europe, we'd love to hear your feedback — good or bad — about our advice on sights, hotels, restaurants, and travel tips. We're also interested in any tips or discoveries you made while in Europe. Your comments help us improve our guidebooks for future travelers.