4 days and 5 Nights, Thursday - Monday in Barcelona for £159. Bargain! We took our mini break on the 1st weekend of October so the weather was still 17-26C degrees but no hoards of people! Our flights were booked with RyanAir, £94 return so worked out about £47 either way, we didn't check in any luggage as hand luggage was perfect for us for a weekend, we did pay extra to sit together tho which is included in the £94, this was because we had two nervous flyers with us otherwise we would have skipped that! We found these cheap flights with the help of Skyscanner and then went directly to the RyainAir website! The flight took 2 hours from London Stansted, with an arrival time of 11.30pm in Barcelona.
Due to the time of our arrival and we were tired we opted for a taxi to our apartment which cost around £15 each return for on Monday morning. We booked in advance using Sun Transfers, I'm not sure if we had a bad experience of it or if its usually like that but we were told our driver would be waiting for us outside the terminal, we were kept waiting 45 minutes and after numerous calls to the head office he finally arrived! If we hadn't pre-paid for our taxi we would have taken the metro or ordered another! However to apologize on Monday morning Sun Transfers did send an 8 person fully air conditioned minibus, which usually costs a lot more to collect us!
Using Trip Adviser we found a lovely little apartment in the center of Barcelona in the 'El Poble Sec', about 10 minutes walk from the famous Las Ramblas. Opposite the apartment there was a gorgeous little bakery that was so cheap, fruit and vegetable shop, bars and restaurants that all closed by midnight so no noise! Our apartment had two bedrooms and a sofa bed so there was room for 5 persons, a balcony, kitchen, lounge and bathroom. With such cheap food options around and a diverse group of diets this worked out really well as we all chipped in £10 each which bought us breakfast and snacks for inside the apartment. The apartment also supplied the basic butter, oil, bread, milk, tea even little croissants, jam and biscuits!
Altogether the price for the 5 nights was £200, between 4 of us £50 each, £10 a night, this included the cleaning bill, linen and full use of facilities.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g187497-d1878704-Rustic_Downtown_Barcelona-Barcelona_Catalonia.html
On Friday we did all the touristy Las Ramblas trips! We found a beautiful little restaurant in the square of Las Ramblas called 'Rossini'. Its so amazing we returned twice that very weekend! (This partly was due to the free prosseco and shots they kept giving us, partly due to the amazing service from the waiters and waitresses and mostly down to the food! YUM!)
Most evenings we found a quite little bar and one amazing rooftop terrace! We also found a club tour were we paid 7 euros to get 3 free shots, VIP club entry to 4 different clubs on the beach and the coach to them. Admittedly the shots were very watered down and VIP meant we didst Que up but it was a hilarious night in 'Shoko' and it meant we met some funny groups of people, including South African Sailors, a Cornish Stag do and South London 'gangsters'. Its not easy to find but If you look English, drunk and touristy enough one of the reps will approach you on Las Ramblas and take you to the bar were you sign up.
http://shoko.biz/ - 'Shoko' Bar/Club
We felt a little delicate the next day and decided a walk up to Montjuic would somehow cure this? By all accounts Montjuic is usually extra busy but due to our time of year it was lovely and quite! At the top of the steps there is an outdoor cafe with great views of the city but very strong cocktails (I promise we didn't just drink the whole weekend!)
The visit wasn't too well planned as it was free museum weekend, which sounds amazing but there was so many people trying to get in each museum ( were did they all come from?) we gave them a miss which was annoying as I'd love to visit one of the famous art galleries.
so essentially our weekend was spent getting lost, and then finding a tapas bar and sat in the sun drinking a few cocktails! Wasn't the most cultured but lovely anyhow and cheap! I'm definitely planning on returning to Barcelona (Rossini's especially!) while backpacking Europe!
Due to the time of our arrival and we were tired we opted for a taxi to our apartment which cost around £15 each return for on Monday morning. We booked in advance using Sun Transfers, I'm not sure if we had a bad experience of it or if its usually like that but we were told our driver would be waiting for us outside the terminal, we were kept waiting 45 minutes and after numerous calls to the head office he finally arrived! If we hadn't pre-paid for our taxi we would have taken the metro or ordered another! However to apologize on Monday morning Sun Transfers did send an 8 person fully air conditioned minibus, which usually costs a lot more to collect us!
Using Trip Adviser we found a lovely little apartment in the center of Barcelona in the 'El Poble Sec', about 10 minutes walk from the famous Las Ramblas. Opposite the apartment there was a gorgeous little bakery that was so cheap, fruit and vegetable shop, bars and restaurants that all closed by midnight so no noise! Our apartment had two bedrooms and a sofa bed so there was room for 5 persons, a balcony, kitchen, lounge and bathroom. With such cheap food options around and a diverse group of diets this worked out really well as we all chipped in £10 each which bought us breakfast and snacks for inside the apartment. The apartment also supplied the basic butter, oil, bread, milk, tea even little croissants, jam and biscuits!
Altogether the price for the 5 nights was £200, between 4 of us £50 each, £10 a night, this included the cleaning bill, linen and full use of facilities.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g187497-d1878704-Rustic_Downtown_Barcelona-Barcelona_Catalonia.html
On Friday we did all the touristy Las Ramblas trips! We found a beautiful little restaurant in the square of Las Ramblas called 'Rossini'. Its so amazing we returned twice that very weekend! (This partly was due to the free prosseco and shots they kept giving us, partly due to the amazing service from the waiters and waitresses and mostly down to the food! YUM!)
Most evenings we found a quite little bar and one amazing rooftop terrace! We also found a club tour were we paid 7 euros to get 3 free shots, VIP club entry to 4 different clubs on the beach and the coach to them. Admittedly the shots were very watered down and VIP meant we didst Que up but it was a hilarious night in 'Shoko' and it meant we met some funny groups of people, including South African Sailors, a Cornish Stag do and South London 'gangsters'. Its not easy to find but If you look English, drunk and touristy enough one of the reps will approach you on Las Ramblas and take you to the bar were you sign up.
http://shoko.biz/ - 'Shoko' Bar/Club
We felt a little delicate the next day and decided a walk up to Montjuic would somehow cure this? By all accounts Montjuic is usually extra busy but due to our time of year it was lovely and quite! At the top of the steps there is an outdoor cafe with great views of the city but very strong cocktails (I promise we didn't just drink the whole weekend!)
The visit wasn't too well planned as it was free museum weekend, which sounds amazing but there was so many people trying to get in each museum ( were did they all come from?) we gave them a miss which was annoying as I'd love to visit one of the famous art galleries.
so essentially our weekend was spent getting lost, and then finding a tapas bar and sat in the sun drinking a few cocktails! Wasn't the most cultured but lovely anyhow and cheap! I'm definitely planning on returning to Barcelona (Rossini's especially!) while backpacking Europe!