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Cooking classes, tastings, workshops, flamenco and behind-the-scenes visits in Barcelona: plans of one to three hours for a Saturday or a weekend.
Part of Urban experiencesClassical music and opera in Europe
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What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Visit · 1 h the basilica, 1 h 30 with the tower · €26 · Under-11s free · Timed entry, online only
Market · 45 min to 1 h · Free · Monday to Saturday, 8:00 to 20:30 · On La Rambla, Liceu metro
Visit · 1 h 30 · €18 · Ages 0 to 6 free · Barcelona residents free with the Passi Verd
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Getaways from Barcelona
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
Almost everything works all year because it happens indoors. The sailing boat and paddle surf depend on the sea: in winter the boat sails at 16:30 to catch the sunset. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable months for linking plans on foot.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
In Barcelona a car is a nuisance: parking in the centre is expensive and everything we suggest is by the metro. You arrive by train at Sants or by Aerobús at Plaça de Catalunya, sleep near a stop on L1, L2 or L3 and link the plans by neighbourhood.
Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport receives direct flights from almost every Spanish airport with a mainland or island connection. You do not need a car: the Aerobús drops you in the centre in 30 to 35 minutes, at any time of day or night.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
With children, in Barcelona a short plan with something to touch or eat works better than a long queue. Put a workshop or a boat trip in the middle of the day and leave the monuments with timed tickets for the morning.
Teenagers get hooked on whatever has a challenge or a bit of independence: an escape room, a stadium, a board on the sea. Let them choose one of the plans and negotiate the rest.
Barcelona works well for a group of friends because almost everything is done sitting at a table, with something in your hand and plenty to talk about. Here are plans for four or six, the kind you book together and end up at dinner.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Five-star Grand Luxury hotel in Domènech i Montaner's Casa Fuster, at the end of Passeig de Gràcia, with a rooftop pool and a jazz club.
Why we like it: Three-star hotel in a Modernista building in Sant Antoni, next to the market, with a local-cuisine restaurant open without a break.
Why we like it: Small Eixample hotel with its own bakery on the ground floor, between Passeig de Gràcia and Pau Claris, five minutes from Diagonal metro.
Why we like it: Design hostel on the Gran Via, next to Plaça Universitat: bunks from €25, private suites, shared kitchen and a pool in season.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: at the bar, a Barceloneta bomba, salt cod fritters and the house fried fish; if there is time, the rice of the day
What to order: some bravas and a croquette to begin, then the tripe or the rustido cannelloni, and crema catalana
What to order: to start, salt cod fritters or clams; then the seafood paella or the house soupy rice, minimum for two
What to order: the house vermouth with some crisps and a tin of anchovies or mussels
What to order: some bravas and escalivada to share, grilled butifarra or half a chicken, and grandmother María's cannelloni
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
Tips
Workshop and tasting places are few; restaurants are easier to change.
Several tastings and courses are on separate dates: Nomad's, one Friday a month; Vila Viniteca's, one or two a month.
El Born with El Born, Gràcia with Gràcia, Sant Antoni with Sant Antoni: that way you link two plans without the metro.
In November the sunset departure is at 16:30 and it gets cold quickly on the water.
Crossing the city between two workshops in the same afternoon. From the Port Olímpic to Gràcia is a good half hour by metro: choose plans in the same neighbourhood.
If you live in Barcelona or come for a weekend and have already seen the Sagrada Família, the city has another face: that of short plans you book a couple of days ahead and do in an afternoon. A paella class two streets from La Rambla, three hours at the wheel of a ceramics school in Gràcia, a tasting of six beers at the Fàbrica Moritz microbrewery, a sailing boat leaving the Port Olímpic as the sun goes down. Here are the ones we have checked one by one on each business's website, with their price, days and times.
Almost all last between one and three hours, so two fit in an afternoon and three in a long Saturday. We list them by neighbourhood so they can be linked on foot or with one metro ride.
In the centre, Barcelona Cooking gives the paella class on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 18:00 to 21:00, with dinner and wine included, and on Saturday it switches to the tapas workshop, with an optional walk through the Boqueria an hour earlier. Both cost from €85.
In El Born, the Museu de la Xocolata has two hour-and-a-half workshops: the biscuits and chocolate one, from age 6 and for €16, and the bars and rocks one, for over-16s. A few steps away, Vila Viniteca organises Corpinnat and Priorat tastings and a cheese introduction on separate dates, from 20:00 to 22:00.
Sant Antoni is the vermouth and beer neighbourhood. Las Vermudas offers a tasting where you make your own bottle from €35, and the Fàbrica Moritz shows its microbrewery and ends with six beers for €24, in Spanish on Thursdays at 18:00 and Saturdays at 17:00. For coffee, Nomad opens its Poblenou roastery one Friday a month for a one-hour specialty cupping.
At La Torratxa you spend three hours at the wheel for €65, and a few streets away Barcelona Jewelry Studio teaches how to make a ring or pendant by lost-wax casting, in bronze or silver, by appointment. These are morning or whole-afternoon plans: afterwards, Gràcia has squares and taverns to eat in without taking the metro.
The Palau de la Música Catalana is visited with a guide every morning, in 50 minutes and for €24: it is the most rewarding rainy-day plan in the centre. In Les Corts, the Spotify Camp Nou Experience shows the stadium under construction and the club museum. At night, the Tablao Cordobés, on La Rambla, serves dinner before the show in three daily sessions.
With the sea next door, two very different plans: the shared sailing boat at sunset, two hours from the Port Olímpic for €45, and the first-thing stand-up paddle lesson at Barceloneta, for €30. For a group of friends, the escape room La Cervecería by Enigmik, next to the Sagrada Família, offers 80 minutes of play.
If it is your first time, book a slot for the Sagrada Família and the monumental zone of Park Güell: both sell tickets by time slot. The Boqueria is best seen first thing, before it fills up.
By train you arrive at Sants, which has metro lines L3 and L5 in the same building. From the airport, the Aerobús drops you at Plaça Catalunya in 30 to 35 minutes, 24 hours a day. Everything on this page is next to a metro station: you don't need a car.
Questions
A tasting at the Fàbrica Moritz at 17:00 and a vermouth in Sant Antoni, or the Barcelona Cooking tapas workshop at 18:00 with a walk through the Boqueria beforehand.
The Museu de la Xocolata biscuit workshop, from age 6; the visit to the Palau de la Música; the sailing boat; and the tablao, which admits children from age 4.
The Palau de la Música, the ceramics and jewellery workshops, the tastings and the escape room are all indoors.
Yes, for almost everything. The Palau visit and the tablao are bought by time slot on their website; the workshops have limited places.
Between €16 for the biscuit workshop and €85 for the paella class with dinner. Most are between €25 and €70 per person.
No. Everything is next to a metro station, and from the airport you arrive by Aerobús.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/barcelona
