Anyone been to Barcelona? Nice/Southern France?

[gina73]

My DH and I are headed to Europe in a month. We're spending 5 days in Barcelona, and then flying to Nice, renting a car, and staying in an apartment in Cannes for 5 days.

While DH speaks enough French to get by (and I don't remember a lick of my high school language course!), neither one of us speaks any Spanish. Are we going to encounter some problems in Barcelona? Does anyone have an recommendations for sights to see there?

And what about Nice or the French Riviera? We'll have a rental car, so we'd like to do some day trips too, but not sure where. Any wineries or anything to suggest?

I appreciate it!

[Belm]

What great timing! I'm also looking for things to do in Barcelona. We will be there in November and would love to get some feedback.

We will only be there for 2-3 days, though.

[wander_woman]

I think you'll be fine in Barcelona without much (or any) Spanish. If you have time, I would suggest trying to learn some basic phrases and vocabulary as it will make things easier. Plenty of people speak English, but everyone appreciates when you make an effort to speak their language. I did find that booking internal travel in Spain (e.g. train tickets from Madrid to Barcelona) was difficult without good Spanish. I actually speak some Spanish, but it's not great and I had a complicated itinerary so it took me a while to communicate that in Spanish. That was the only time I remember that I couldn't find an English speaker to help me out. I tried to speak Spanish in restaurants and hotels but I'm sure you could get by with English as long as you stick to the more touristy areas. If you want to get off the tourist path, though, you might have more problems.

As for stuff to do, I highly recommend all the Gaudi architecture, especially Park Guell and Sagrada Familia. Here's a website about it: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/gaudi/barcelona-gaudi.html Have fun! Barcelona is a fantastic city!

[Daisy]

I was just in Barcelona and the French Riviera in June - loved it. :D

In Barcelona we bought a two day tour bus pass (most tours start in front of the Hard Rock - it's a double decker bus and you can buy your ticket as you board, plus they have headphones so you can listen to info about what you're driving by). This was money well spent and the best way to see everything. The bus makes a complete loop around Barcelona and hits just about all the must see places (all the main Gaudi stuff, plus the Olympic area, etc.). You can get off and on at any stop and the buses come by each stop every 15-20 minutes all day. So great.

I bought the Lonely Planet Barcelona guide and it was fabulous. I love their books. We didn't ride the subway system, but we heard to watch out for pickpockets.

We stayed right on La Rambla, which was a good, central place for us (at the Hotel Continental Palacete). One street over was good clothes shopping. And we were in walking distance to the Gothic Quarter and the beach. I also recommend eating at El Quatro Gates (4 Cats) - good food, walking distance from La Rambla and Picasso designed the menu. Finally, I recommend the Picasso museum, very worth it and interesting.

I would learn a little Spanish (hello, thank you, etc.), but I'm sure you'll get by fine. Just have the places you want to go to written down in case the taxi driver doesn't speak English. Many of the restaurants we ate at had English menus too.

In French Riviera we visited Monaco, Nice, St. Paul, Eze and Villefranche. I don't have a ton of recs here because my visit was apart of a cruise. But it was beautiful and the people were very friendly. Neither of us speak a lick of French and we did pretty well getting by. :D I spent an hour or so at a flea market in Nice (it was so great!) and a nice passerby helped me buy some dishes since the seller didn't speak any English and we didn't know any French. We'll definitely go back!

Have tons of fun!

[Mrs. M.]

I would highly recommend seeing St. Paul de Vence while in southern France. Is it easy to see in a day and it is one of the most romantic little towns I have ever been to.

[Amuse Bouche]

Go to Antibes! Antibes is my favorite town on the Riviera! It's a cute little medieval walled town right on the water. And there is a great flea market there on weekends! I'd also recommend Eze-Village for a day trip -- it's perched on a cliff over the sea and it's worth it just to go and have lunch and enjoy the view!

[Cilantro]

Stay near Las Ramblas in Barcelona. I did, and it was wonderful! This is the 'main drag' of Barcelona, and it has tons of bars, restaurants, people watching, exhibits, etc. Try out the nearby food stall and wander around, buy cheese, wine, fruit. You can walk to everything you need in the city and there are lots of things to see and do nearby. The beach is at the end of Las Ramblas, too. Definitely hit Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia church (I climbed to the top of the spires!). It is such a fun and funky city, you are going to have a great time. And remember, in Barcelona they speak Catalan, which is different than Catillian Spanish. ;)

[amew]

Are you willing to travel a little to explore some towns in Provence? Avignon and Arles are pretty easy to access from Nice, and, IMO, they have a lot more charm than some of the big, crowded destinations on the Rivera (like Nice). It would be really fun to go into one of the towns in Provence on the big market day (I think all the towns have different market days, but you can look them up online or in a guidebook). I would hate to be in southern France and miss out on Provence -- I adore it! As far as towns on the Rivera, I love Villefranche-sur-Mer. It's small and friendly with a quaint old village built into the cliffs and beautiful beaches. I haven't been to Antibes, but it sounds wonderful as well.

[Belm]

Any good resturants in Barcelona that you all can recommend?

Thanks!

[gina73]

WOW! Thank you all so much for posting such wonderful suggestions. It's really helping my DH and I map out our trip a little better, now that we only have about a month left before we leave.

wander_woman
That website was perfect! I was able to check out some hotels we were looking at to narrow down our choices a bit. I also compared their ratings/summaries to one's I found at Frommer's. Sagrada Familia - definitely on the list!

Daisy
Thanks for reminding me about the bus tours! We usually do that in each new city we go to - gives us a great idea of the layout of the city and what we want to return to look at.

Mrs.M
St. Paul de Vence - must go look that up, as it sounds adorable. Thanks!

Amuse Bouche
Antibes - isn't that where the Picasso museum is?

Cilantro
Yep - our hotel is supposed to be pretty close to Las Ramblas, so I think we'll be right in the heart of things. Our travel agent felt compelled to warn us about pick-pocketers. Did you have any trouble? I can't imagine that we would, but I guess you can never be too careful.

amew
Depending on how much time we have (and whether the terrace in our apartment in Cannes sucks us in and keeps us from leaving), we'd really like to get out and do a couple of day trips around the area. So I'll definitely have to check out some of the towns you mentioned.

Question for the Barcelona travelers - do they seista there? My brother mentioned that they don't even usually start dinner until about 10pm or so. While my DH and I enjoy the occassional late night out, we're not that interested in partying the entire time we're in Barcelona (I actually want to be somewhat useful during the day instead of nursing a hangover). What is your experience with this - a town for partiers? Or can the old married couple still enjoy themselves?

[Cilantro]

No, I didn't have any trouble with pickpocketers. I did wear my backpack in the front though, across my chest, as you will see most people do near Las Ramblas. And do NOT leave your bag/purse sitting behind you or strapped over a chair when you dine out at one of the many outdoor cafes. If possible, wear a across-the-chest type bag (Le Sak, etc.) or at least hold on tight and hold it in your lap. I was traveling solo and was out late many nights (usually tipsy on sangria!) and never had any trouble. One night I had two old men try to convince me to follow them into an alley (duh!) but if you have basic street smarts (and are with a man as well) you will be just fine. :)

[LuluGirl]

I was in Barcelona last summer and I didn't have any trouble with pickpockets. The only weird thing that happened was that as I was waiting with my luggage, some guy on a bike came by and grabbed up my skirt, touching my butt. It was more funny than anything. So no short skirts!

I was pretty scared to be there, but once I was there for a day, I relaxed and didn't worry too much about things. Definitely see a Flamenco show while you're there and there's a ton of good bars off of La Rambla to go to in the evenings.

They definitely siesta there. I don't remember the exact times but one afternoon I went shopping around 4pm or 5 and all of the stores were closed. But then everything was back open around 8.

Have a great time there!

[kd 9.21.02]

Just stopping by to recommend this fabulous (and NON-touristy) tapas restaurant. This was probably the best meal (or at least one of them) of our month trip in Europe this summer.

http://www.comerc24.com/

Enjoy!

[Quartercentury]

Question for the Barcelona travelers - do they seista there? My brother mentioned that they don't even usually start dinner until about 10pm or so. While my DH and I enjoy the occassional late night out, we're not that interested in partying the entire time we're in Barcelona (I actually want to be somewhat useful during the day instead of nursing a hangover). What is your experience with this - a town for partiers? Or can the old married couple still enjoy themselves?
We were there last summer, in an apartment right near the Boqueria market, off Las Ramblas. Excellent.

And it's true that dinner doesn't get going until quite late. We slept late to make up for it, had breakfast, did culture-y things in the morning, had lunch, did beachy or lazy things in the afternoon, napped or had drinks in the early evening, and went out for dinner at 10 or even later.

I think you will find yourself getting used to the schedule, even if you're not into partying. We never went clubbing or anything, but we did have several very late nights in bars or finishing a bottle of wine in a restaurant.

[ambam]

One night while in Barcelona, we went to an outdoor cafe and ordered drinks. I ordered a margarita. While everyone got their drinks, I got a pizza. I was so confused. We sent the pizza back and I just got a rum and coke. It wasn't for months later that I learned of a margherita(sp?) pizza. It still makes me laugh :D