Happy Monday y’all! Kicking off the week with a very detailed recap of my recent seven-day trip to Spain at the beginning of October! This was a trip that my friend, Nikki, and I booked a while back as a vacation trip to look forward to. Neither of us had been to Spain before, and I had never even been to Europe, so needless to say it took quite a bit of asking advice/recommendations from different friends and tons of googling. We decided to do our first two days in Madrid knowing that it was more of a city vibe, and then the weekend and remainder of our trip in Barcelona. I’ve broken everything out by day, so let’s get started!
We arrived in Madrid after a long red eye of a flight (we flew Delta Airlines because it automatically booked us on Air France for a return flight). We arrived around noon and were so exhausted, but we knew we had to push through the jet lag and keep going. Neither Nikki or I slept very well during the red eye, so I definitely recommend investing in some ZZZQuil for the flight if you decide on a red eye. We took a thirty minute cab to our Air BNB, got freshened up and then left to explore. Full transparency: Madrid wasn’t our favorite. It’s very much like a busy hub city, which we deal with on a daily basis. That’s not to say it wasn’t a gorgeous city, we were just a little lost on what to do and where to go. My favorite parts were more of the touristy parts. Which brings me to my next point…
Where to stay:
As I mentioned, Nikki and I stayed in a cute little Air BNB right behind the main hub of Madrid, a more central area with shops like you would see in the US. We were about a 12 minute walk from different touristy attractions like Plaza Mayor and the market. Our Air BNB was called Gran Via Centro Puerta Sol, assuming because it was right by Puerta Sol. Overall the Air BNB was great! We had a one bedroom apartment, but the couch pulled into a sleeper sofa so we didn’t have to cuddle for our first two nights. The only downsides were that it was on a third story walk up and call me a brat, but I’m not used to that every day ha. Another downside was that the hot water would get used up super fast. I went to take a shower after Nikki did and legit had to get out with shampoo still in my hair it was so cold! Other than that, we enjoyed it. The renter was super nice and helpful, and the are was quaint but conveniently located next to a market and drugstore.When I asked most people what they did when they would go to Spain, Air BNB was definitely the most common answer so it’s pretty trustworthy/normal.
What to do:
Let’s be real, there is so much to get done in Madrid in such a short period of time! We essentially only had one solid day and one half day to get everything done and I like to think we did the most of it!
Plaza Mayor: A pretty central square, this area is home to a famous statue in the middle of it and surrounds a ton of restaurants. We walked throughout the quaint streets to get to the plaza. It’s also right off of the market we adored.
Royal Palace of Madrid: The palace is one of the most central spots in Madrid and it’s gorgeous to pop by and see. They have some sort of tour that seem interesting if you’re more into history, we just passed by.
Buen Retiro Park: Probably our best decision, Buen Retiro is a gorgeous park with different places to visit throughout. It’s comparable to Central Park in size. I liked the pond and crystal palace best.
Palacio de Cristal: An exhibit in the middle of the park, it’s essentially a greenhouse without the greenery in it! It’s a gorgeous exhibit and definitely worth the walk through.
Jardines de Sabatini: A park right next to the palace that reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, they have benches throughout where you can just chill. We walked through right as the sun was setting.
Mercado de San Miguel: One of our favorite spots, this market has so many different places you can try all at once. They have high tables in the middle that are difficult to grab a seat, but you can find everything from tapas, sangria, martinis, aperol spritz’s, chocolate, seafood, paella, you name it!
Where to eat:
Rosi La Loca Taberna: A friend recommended this restaurant to us and it definitely did not disappoint! We split a ton of tapas and they have super fun drinks, too. The decor is so fun, and our waiter ended up giving us free entry wristbands to this club crawl that we did for the remainder of the evening.
Emma Cocina: A quaint little restaurant located outside of Mercado de San Miguel, we stopped here to have a late lunch and we both got delicious homemade pastas and bruschetta.
Where to go out:
Keep in mind we were only here for a day and a half so we didn’t do as much partying as we’d counted on. Below are a few places we went to and enjoyed!
Commo
Discoteca el Son
Joy Eslava
Baton Rouge (a relaxed bar)
My absolute favorite city I think I’ve been to to date, Barcelona was definitely the highlight of the trip. From super late nights out, to eating all of the tapas and burrata our stomachs could handle, I like to think we really soaked up all that we could do in Barca. Funny story, we took a 7AM flight to Barcelona from Madrid, and we couldn’t check into our hotel until 2:00PM or so… Needless to say, we were cranky AF that day. The whole morning we were sort of forced to cross off a ton of touristy things, which turned out to be nice in the end because we had more time to do day excursions. The hotel also held our luggage for the time being, which again was nice.
Where to stay:
We stayed at Hotel Oasis right by Barceloneta Beach and the college. It’s nice because it’s a hotel with a boutique feel that’s close to the beach, but not super far away from La Rambla and those sorts of areas. By the end of the trip we knew our path to get to the central area by heart, and that a petty cab home from Opium could be talked down to $10. Hotel Oasis has a restaurant and rooftop bar by the pool, so that was super convenient. We also got free breakfast everyday, which we only took advantage of once but still nice nonetheless. We also learned quickly that it was more feasible to buy a bottle of wine and bring to our room once we got ready, and whoever was working the front desk was always more than happy to uncork for us since we didn’t want to buy one!
Hotel Oasis is right next to a bar called Mr. Robinson that was always jam packed whenever we’d be going out. We spent our last night there chatting with the bar tenders and hanging out. The room itself was pretty small. Nikki and I both had our own twin bed, but they were pushed together to make a larger queen size bed, but again without having to cuddle. We had one small window, so the room did get super dark and the walls are paper thin so when our neighbors would go in or out we’d wake up to the door slamming. The bathroom was spacious, though, and the shower was really nice. All in all, we didn’t;’t have many complaints with the hotel and I would definitely stay there again!
What to do:
La Rambla: This is where we headed when we first got into Barca and had time to kill. There’s tons of shops and restaurants, and we ended up getting tricked into eating at one of the (very average) spots. A must-do site to see, nonetheless!
Platja de Barceloneta Beach: We stayed about two blocks from the beach, so we went quite often to walk along their version of the boardwalk, eat or lay out. Fun fact: their restaurants along the beach are all the exact same but named something different. They’re great for happy hour.
Flea Market (Jardins del Bosquet dels Encants): The largest flea market in Spain, this place is definitely a great spot for any thrifters out there. We snagged a few chotchky items here, but the place in itself is huge!
Park Guell: Everyone’s opinion on Park Guell is hit or miss, I loved the view and the detailing of the park. We only stopped by for about twenty minutes because we were trying to make the sunset at the Bunkers. Definitely recommend going early in the day if you want to avoid the crowds, but overall everyone realizes everyone is trying to take the same picture and is nice about it.
Bunkers el Carmel: Easily my favorite part of the trip and the best way to kick off our Barcelona weekend. The Bunkers are a bit of a hike but the view is SO worth it. You hike up this crazy winding mountain and all of a sudden you pop out to the bunkers from one of the wars (again, not a huge history buff here). We sat on top of one and watched the sunset, and everyone brought wine or beer to enjoy. There was someone playing live music and it was just so peaceful. We ended up hopping on a bus to take us back to the city since it was dark and a little sketchy to walk back down.
Take a day trip: We used Trip Advisor and took a day trip to Girona, Pals and Costa Brava and this was the best decision we could’ve made. Not only was it a great way to see different places that I would ideally like to visit again, we got to learn more about the culture and history of places than we would have on our own.
Girona: A gorgeous town that’s known for it’s iconic colorful houses on a river, this small town is home to a Game of Thrones tour where the cathedral was actually used for part of it. We hiked up to the very top of this castle like area and got gelato after. They also have a bridge that was made by the same artist that built the Eiffel Tower.
Pals: Pals was a super small city that we did a quick 30 minute walk through. It had a ton of charm and apparently is really hard to find a spot to stay there since it’s such a local spot.
Costa Brava: The highlight of our day trip, this is easily the most gorgeous spot I’ve ever seen. It’s a small town on the water, and all of the beaches are small rock beaches which I had never seen before. We finally got our paella here and laid on the beach a bit. Nikki actually got in the water, but I thought it was absolutely freezing! I think my family would love this place, it looked like it was straight out of a postcard.
Vineyard tour (Montserrat/Catalonia): We did a Catalonia wine tour on our last day and went to two different vineyards. One included a lunch wine tasting and one was more of a champagne/cava tasting. We met quite a few younger people on this tour and got some cute photo opps at the castles/vineyards.
Mercat de la Boqueria: A market similar to the one in Madrid, this was more of a market you would go to shop at for the week and everything is super fresh. Nikki was freaked out by the dead fish with eyeballs so we just did a quick walk through.
Catedral de Almeria: A gorgeous cathedral in the plaza if you don’t have time to go to Sagrada Familia (which is also under construction for the next few years). They offer tours, as well, and they had a big market in the middle of the plaza when we walked by.
Where to eat:
Costa Pacifico: I was surprised that there wasn’t more ceviche in Barca, and by the end I was craving it! A quick google search brought up this super cute ceviche joint. I got the tuna tostadas and octopus ceviche and it was amazing!
Tapas Street: Instead of hitting the club our first night, we went to tapas street and bopped around a bit. It’s basically blocks of tapas restaurants blocked off and they serve buffet style, at the end you count your toothpicks from your tapas and that’s how you get charged! They have so many fun tapas, and it’s a great way to go do something without having to get crazy or stay out late.
Chulapio crepes: After tapas, we went to this cute crepe bar for a chocolate crepe and wine. It was so funny because Nikki assumed we were splitting and I just looked at her like absolutely not haha. I just got a Nutella crepe that was perfect with red wine!
Bo Kapp Beach Club: One of the restaurants on the beach that we first ate at. They had great burrata, tacos and nachos! Not to mention they had a ton of fun cocktails. A super casual joint, we went back to these restaurants multiple times because they were convenient and we knew it was something lite.
The Restaurant on top of the Hotel Catedral de Almeria: Where we ate our last meal, this was more of a splurge. It’s a third story rooftop restaurant with a stunning view of the cathedral and plaza. We had burrata and pasta and enjoyed the nice weather.
Any and every gelato place you come by: We definitely ate our weight in gelato no matter what time of day it was. Anytime we’d walk past a place we’d be like “ok let’s do it.” You can never go wrong with gelato!!
AVOID eating on La Rambla. It’s pricey and very average. Definitely go see it but I wouldn’t recommend eating there.
Where to go out:
We went out a lot in Barcelona, but only clubbed for two nights. We had so much fun at Opium on Friday night that we ended up just going back!
Opium
Pacha
Razzmatazz
Shoko
Things to know about Spain:
The time difference is nearly 6-7 hours, so you definitely need to take into consideration when you’re flying. If you aren’t a plane sleeper, I don’t suggest doing a red eye or else you’ll be miserably tired on day one.
Allow for time to go through customs if you have a flight connection. International airports are trickier to navigate since they aren’t necessarily designed for us to maneuver easily.
Tipping isn’t customary in Spain! if you’re feeling generous, it’s only suggested to leave a dollar or so.
Exchange your currency at banks only, or else you’ll get ripped off. Nearly $300 comes out to be about 185-ish euro.
The sun doesn’t even rise until about 8:15 in the morning, so it’s bizarre for anyone to be out and about before noon. On the other end, places don’t close until 6:00AM or so.
Uber works like normal uber in America, but it’s harder to maneuver the streets of Madrid. Ask your Air BNB host if they’re able to call cabs for airports ahead of time.
Although we didn’t have any issues with pick pocketers, keep your belongings close to you as it’s the pick pocketing capital.
It’s cheaper to get a glass of wine with a meal than a bottle of water, so drink up! Just kidding, but in reality bring a water bottle with you.
What to pack:
Since we went at the beginning of October, the weather was definitely a bit of a toss up. When we got to Madrid, it was a little on the rainy side, so it was definitely chillier than we had expected. I packed a denim jacket as my only jacket, but we debated popping into Zara or H&M to pick up a sweater or a coat. Luckily we powered through because the second we got to Barcelona it was sunny and gorgeous. Rain will always make it feel cooler than it actually is, but overall I’d say it’s a fairly mild climate.
Packing List:
A lightweight jacket:
Comfortable shoes to do a ton of walking in:
Fun accessories:
A good go-to bag to hold everything:
Comfy, travel-style clothes for traveling:
Going out clothes for a night on the town: