How to Travel Barcelona (the City of 2024)
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00:00Everyone keeps talking about Barcelona. It's easily one of the trendiest
00:04destinations on the planet and I'm starting to see why. It's a place where
00:08you can go from coastal living to mountains in just minutes. It's a place
00:12where you can explore charming European alleys by day, catch a live concert by
00:16night, and the city will never sleep if you keep up with it. If you want to know
00:20how to travel Barcelona, let me show you what's layered between these perfectly
00:24shaped grids. I can definitely say I understand the hype. And you're gonna
00:28want to watch all the way to the end to get a real Barcelona hidden gem.
00:44All right, it is time to start our trip in Barcelona with a little hidden gem.
00:50Not many people know about this place. We're gonna keep it between you and I,
00:53all right? Don't go leaking this one out. This is Sagrada Familia. There's not
01:00another building in this planet that looks anything like it. Something I've
01:04seen online for a decade now and I stand before it. There's so much detail, so much
01:10unique intricacy. So a little context, this is the brainchild, the masterpiece
01:16of Gaudi. And Gaudi is one of the people that shaped Barcelona into the city that
01:20it is today. He's got several of these incredible pieces around the city. This
01:25is the most grand and biggest of them. I just can't get over all the detail.
01:29Everywhere you look, it's like a different detail. And I will say, she
01:35birdied, but my goodness. This has been a construction site now for over a century.
01:40Literally, if you go online, they have never officially completed this place,
01:43and they're back to work again. Cranes, supports and stilts, horribly ugly
01:49canopies. This is the crazy part. It's May 5th today. It's not even busy season
01:53yet here, and it's booked out all the way until the 14th of May. I'm telling you, if
01:59you want to see these things, book them before you get here. Or go to Sunday
02:03service and then you can attend for free.
02:10Barcelona just has something about it that you don't get in every European
02:14city. First of all, tons of greenery, but also a lot of style. There's got a bit of
02:19a gothic kind of grungy touch to the city. Where we're gonna take you next,
02:22you'll get a bit more of the grungy Barcelona.
02:27This is one of the places designed by Gaudi. There's a few of them in Barcelona.
02:32This park bench was designed by Gaudi, and he designed this place. But this one,
02:42we're actually gonna go inside. So I'm not the museum type, but I'm so glad I
02:51entered here, because this is so for me right now. Currently I'm building my
02:55villa in Bali, and so I'm geeking out on architecture. Casa Batllo was designed
03:01by Gaudi. Every square inch of this home is a statement, not a single straight
03:06line. I mean just look at this oak door behind me, the way it's so
03:10three-dimensional and unique, one-of-a-kind. No details have been
03:14spared. I mean even the tiles get darker as you go up. Gaudi even designed this
03:18home so that as you get higher up, closer to the skylight, your windows shrink in
03:22size, so that the lighting inside each room was the exact same. The home is
03:26inspired by nature, with everything from roof shaped like conches, seashells. The
03:31banisters for the staircases are curving like tentacles. This guy was not playing
03:35by the books, and I love it. All right, we're starving, and I've got a place
03:40right next door. Think food court, but make it fabulous.
03:45Yeah, this place is a vibe. This place is El Nacional. I've only taken one bite, but
03:53it definitely got a 10 out of 10 on my first bite test. Wow, unreal. The city of
04:00Barcelona is at the foot of a few beautiful mountains, and on top of one of
04:04them is Tibidabo, which is this beautiful cathedral overlooking the entire city. It
04:09is one of the tallest surrounding mountains, and it gets you well above the
04:14beauty of Barcelona. Also, it's low-key a theme park, so now if you're not big on
04:18hiking, you can use the local airlines to get here. Here comes Tibidabo Airlines.
04:21They've got one of the shoddiest track records in the area, but hey, they got
04:25decent legroom.
04:28I got that on video, the moment of terror and panic. Next is a spot I really wanted
04:47to see, but it wasn't meant to be. Park GĂĽell is a series of these gingerbread
04:52like homes. I mean, is it just me? They look like a gingerbread house. Now, what's
04:56inside the gate is a total mystery, but those who managed to book tickets say it
05:00looks like this, like this, and this. We're gonna have to take their word for it,
05:04because we are yet again empty-handed. We are not getting in here today. This place
05:09is booked out for the next five days. Every single day. Booked, booked, booked.
05:16This is why you watch travel guides. Let others make the mistakes for you. If you
05:20show up to Barcelona unprepared, just know that you won't get into some of
05:23these places. But the good news is, there's so much more to Barcelona than
05:27just the highlights. At least I'm telling myself that now. Wait a second. There's
05:31hope. The man working security said we might just be able to get a ticket for
05:36in two days from now. Come on, fingers crossed. He says the ticket office is up
05:39here, but I'm not sure if he's just messing with me. But at this point I'm
05:42willing to find out.
05:46We're going on Tuesday.
05:58Because food is such a big part of your experience in Barcelona, I wanted to put
06:03together the best of the best. Just the other night we had a phenomenal but very
06:08upscale dinner. It was almost $100 and we split a burger and a steak. It was so
06:12worth it. Fissmuller is this very amazing experimental restaurant that, frankly, I
06:18can't even compare it to anywhere else I've been. The food quality was
06:20phenomenal and the cheesecake was supposed to be the best, but then we
06:24found the best. Now I'm gonna show you the best value meal of all of Barcelona
06:28and I'll let you in on the best cheesecake. But tonight is Italian.
06:34Oh my gosh, so creamy. That pecorino cheese, perfect.
06:44So one thing I will warn you guys about is that Barcelona's food scene, amazing.
06:50But lower your expectations in service. No matter where we've been, high-end,
06:54casual everyday restaurants, people look like they don't want to be there. When you
06:58ask for something, they don't want to serve you. It's truly like we're
07:02inconveniencing them at every step of the process. Yeah. Everybody's like, ugh.
07:05And then they're like, you need to leave, we have reservations. The place is empty.
07:10I would tell you to stay. Thank you. Yeah, I'm upset with you Harry's. The food was
07:16good though. Yeah. I'd come back. Barcelona has a lot to offer, but you wouldn't be
07:21getting the full picture if you only stayed here. But luckily our friends
07:24Kaspar and Alina have been living here and they invited us on a day trip just
07:28outside the city and it was pretty shocking. Just 45 minutes later, you're
07:33driving in these stunning windy forest roads. It was extra cool that I got to be
07:37passenger princess in this beautiful Ferrari. And we left Barcelona. We are in
07:43Montserrat, which is this beautiful escape. It's about an hour away by car
07:48and it takes us through the most stunning mountains. But it brings us here
07:52to a place that Ruby can so eloquently tell us about.
07:58I don't even know. Montserrat? Montserrat? That's all I know. It's a monastery. The monks used to live here. It no longer is. I don't know. That's not a fact. I don't know. I don't know.
08:09Look, this isn't the History Channel, but I can tell you it's gorgeous. These tiny
08:14little finger looking mountains with an incredible monastery that monks might
08:17have lived in. We don't know, but it's worth the visit. It is so beautiful in
08:21here. It's so grand. It feels like you're on top of the world. We heard that there's
08:25actually a lot of nice hikes in this area, so visiting could be more than
08:29just sightseeing. Now, easily the most incredible hidden gem in Barcelona is
08:33where I'm about to take you next. So, I got out my phone for directions, but I
08:38had no data. So, like a salmon swimming upstream, I trusted my intuition. I don't
08:43think this is it. This doesn't look like it. I guess you could say we're lost.
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09:27Looks like we're connected and back on track.
09:34Wow, look at this. Straight from the mountains to the countryside. This is so dreamy. We were
09:41just saying that this looks like little baby Tuscany. You're right. Outside of Barcelona.
09:45Cheers guys.
09:52Penedes is more than just wine country. They also produce Cava. This is nice.
09:57So Cava is a competitor to Champagne, but it's produced in this region just
10:03outside of Barcelona. Nice. Am I team Cava? Am I team Champagne? I'll never tell.
10:15Alright, next stop of the day.
10:20And no trip is complete without a paella. So we just came out here to the outskirts
10:25and Barcelona is part of Catalonia. Catalonia actually speaks Catalan, which is a
10:30totally different language than Spanish. So when we came here, not only was the
10:35menu not in English or in Spanish, it was in Catalan. The servers don't speak
10:40English or Spanish for that matter and so it was very funny trying to order
10:45food. But in the end the food was good, paella was good, and I'm stuffed. Nice trip out to
10:50wine country, nice trip out of Barcelona, and back into the city we go. Getting
10:55around Barcelona is super easy. You got a couple of options. You got this, this, or
11:00that. That man is on a Yego. Using an app you can rent these pastel colored Vespas
11:06basically all over the city. The downfall is you need an international driver's
11:10license or a European driver's license. And you'd probably think to yourself
11:15Christian you're an international traveler, you're a man that's seen the
11:18world, you must have an international driver's license, but you'd be mistaken.
11:22And so we resort to these. For a major city it's actually pretty hard to get a
11:28taxi here. There's very few. The ones that are coming by, they're all full and they
11:33don't have Uber here. Basically Uber is an app you can use to book the metered
11:37taxi, but even still nobody's confirming my ride. Oh yeah, and there's this
11:42subterranean bus.
11:46Okay, another day in Barcelona. So I started my morning with an epic coffee.
11:50For any coffee connoisseurs out there, you gotta check out this place. The
11:54flavors, the staff, and the experience, 10 out of 10. Later we tried its top-rated
11:58brunch called Billy Brunch, and my meal tasted like it was an amazing meal 24
12:03hours ago. It was stale and I was super disappointed. Not great. But redemption
12:08time hit hard. This is classic Barcelona. Somebody took an old parking garage and
12:13turned it into something beautiful. This is parking pizza and it is booming. The
12:17food is fantastic, the pizza is phenomenal, and the tiramisu is so good
12:22we're still talking about it today. Here we are, it is just about sunset and it's
12:29a beautiful opportunity to get out solo. I'm listening to an audiobook right now
12:33called Fight Right, amazing book by the way if you're in a relationship or ever
12:37want to be in one, which I do recommend. And here we are, this is the gothic
12:42quarter of Barcelona. Look at that, that's Catedral Barcelona. And she is beautiful,
12:49looks a lot like the Notre Dame Basilica in Paris. Just a little bit, a lot
12:54smaller, and a lot pointier. So beautiful, live music, people out enjoying the
13:00summer. This is definitely what Barcelona is all about. Just behind the church is
13:03an area known as the Gothic Quarter and this is the old, old part of this very
13:08old city. So as we go through the Gothic Quarters you're seeing a lot of massive
13:12stone walls basically blocking out the daylight. It's a very different feeling
13:16from the rest of Barcelona, from the upscale Las Ramblas. But I've taken you
13:21guys somewhere that Picasso used to frequent. You see that right there? That
13:25ain't just another grungy Barcelona piece. That right there is the former
13:30marker of a p***. Now because I don't want this video get demonetized, basically what
13:34happened inside of here is what we're gonna call expensive hugs. It's where
13:37people used to come, gather around, hug each other very intimately, and then make
13:43money off that. And our boy Picasso used to come here, at least that's what they
13:47think. Because this painting right here was actually said to have been inspired
13:51from inside these walls. Inside here, Care Carabassa. I think I said that right?
13:55Man, if these walls could talk, there'd be some stories. Anyways, if you want to see it
13:59that's a way to find it. And no, that's not the reason I left Ruby, okay? She
14:03needed acupuncture.
14:09Just the other night we went and saw the great, the one and only, Andrea Bocelli.
14:14We had the most incredible night. Seriously guys, oh it was an amazing
14:19venue, but most of all an amazing concert. You had violinists, you had dancers, singers.
14:25What more could you ask for? That's one of the beauties of being in big cities in
14:28Europe. You get that extra oomph of culture, of music, and I mean just look at
14:32that. How beautiful.
14:35Look, I don't know where to put this, but I gotta let you in on this.
14:38When I travel, I love to find hole-in-the-wall spots, and I think we
14:42just found one.
14:45Everyone claims their grandma makes the best cookies. Well, mine didn't. She made
14:49salmon. But if she did, I imagine it would have tasted something like this. We got a
14:53little hooked, and came back the next day.
14:56Later that night, we went to a flamenco show, which is not from Barcelona, but is
15:00a rich part of Spanish culture. We went here, to Palau de la Musica, and this is
15:05one of the most amazing venues. Lots of tapping, a lot of vocals that are frankly
15:11quite unusual, and overall, a greater understanding of Spain.
15:16So, if you watch pretty much any travel guide to Barcelona, they're gonna tell you
15:19to go to La Boqueria, and that is the traditional market. Basically, picture
15:24old-school European building with tons of different stalls full of food, but it's
15:29not that you shouldn't go, it's just that we're just kind of wanting food. We want
15:33to cut down our costs while here in Barcelona this next week, and when every
15:37single meal is averaging around 50 euros for the two of us, it'd definitely be
15:41nice to eat at home. So, we've come to what locals will tell you is the better
15:45option, finding your, hey, finding your local market, because there's a few major
15:51ones in Barcelona. So today, we're here at a bit of a no-name market to find some
15:56very delicious food. This is where the local Barcelonian, I don't know if that's
15:59how you would say it, local Barcelonian would shop. I'll try the cherry.
16:11All right, we're gonna be eating good.
16:16Now, this is a little hidden gem, but it's my personal favorite chef and
16:20restaurant in all of Barcelona. It's rubies!
16:26And today, we took a little road trip, a little outing to get outside of
16:30Barcelona and into the beautiful beach town of Garaf. This area is where a lot
16:36of the famous footballers live, up in the mountains, in their hideaways, their
16:40villas, and it's a much more chilled pace here. Tiny little beachfront
16:44restaurants and beaches.
16:56Now, while this guide sets you up for just about everything you can know as a
16:59traveler, the missing piece here is gonna be nightlife, and right now, I'm actually
17:03standing right in front of Barceloneta. Those venues right there, those are some
17:07of the biggest nightclubs in the world, right behind me there, and Barcelona
17:12comes to life at night. It's not something we're gonna be able to get
17:15into in this one, but if that's what you're after, you're in the right city.
17:18There's a lot to do, and this city doesn't sleep. Listen, when you travel as
17:22a couple, you make compromises. The thing I compromise is, I end up standing in
17:27lines for desserts with Ruby, but that's a line. This is a no hidden gem, but we're
17:32on a tear here to see who has the best cheesecake in all of the land, and we've
17:37had a lot of great cheesecakes, so we got one last rival, and then I can conclude
17:40the best cheesecake in Barcelona.
17:46Look, when I have to wait 40 minutes for a piece of cheesecake, and there's no
17:51seating, you better believe the expectations are up here. This better be
17:55the best cheesecake, otherwise I'm about to wreck John Cake's life.
18:05I think the other cheesecakes we've had are way better. Sometimes the Instagram
18:08trends lead you astray, but you know who would never lead me down the dark, dark
18:13road of disappointment? He said this was the best on the menu. We got pork cheek
18:17with carrot. He wasn't lying either. That is so tender. This is why you come.
18:23Taste buds were exploding. Ruby's eyebrows were dancing. This was a 10 out
18:28of 10 meal, and the best value meal we had of all of our stops, except maybe
18:32this one. After having tiramisu and cheesecake in all of the different
18:35restaurants, the best tiramisu goes to parking pizza, and the best cheesecake?
18:40Boca Grande. 33 euros each is absurdly good value on that meal right there.
18:45Get a rezo at SOMA.
18:49So you remember two days ago when we were rejected entry into the gates of
18:52Park GĂĽell? Well, never give up kids. Look where we're standing. We made it on the
18:57other side of the gate. Hey look, I got the golden tickets to Willy Wonka's
19:00chocolate factory here. These things, hard to come by. Let's see if it's worth the
19:04wait. So I think you're starting to see a bit of a pattern here. This is, yet again,
19:09another one of Gaudi's works. This is Brainchild. You can see these very
19:13creative structures, and we're just a few feet into the park.
19:22Alright, pro tip. Whenever you want to make things just a hundred percent more
19:27magical, throw in an air pod. Just one. Open up your music platform of choice,
19:32and play Andrea Bocelli.
19:45Everything is crooked and poorly finished. I'm starting to think this is
19:49just a cover-up. It was built by Spanish people.
19:57It's a pretty park, and it only cost 10 euros to come in, but I will say it's not
20:02a must in Barcelona, at least in my books. If you're somebody that needs to check
20:06off all of the highlights of one different city to feel like you've truly
20:10been there, you'll want to come. Let's go to the beach.
20:14And in my opinion, the thing that makes the city truly incredible is having
20:19access to a beach. And this is Barceloneta, the long beautiful beach that
20:24goes basically across the city, and it's actually really pretty. I feel like it's
20:29the cherry on top to what makes Barcelona so amazing. You've got
20:33mountains, you've got beach, you've got tons of food, amazing European city
20:38living, but there's one thing I need to show you before we leave this amazing
20:42city and go to Paris. Let's go.
20:46So 30 minutes from the beach, up into the mountains, we're taking you somewhere
20:51really special. A local told me about this spot, so get ready.
20:55We're almost there. And we brought friends. We're with our Bali friends in Barcelona.
21:07So these are the Barcelona bunkers. Wow, this is epic.
21:16Don't get me wrong, I love traveling cities, but sometimes they miss that grit,
21:27that extra little fun adventure. And when you've got a jumper fence, it kind of
21:32makes it a bit more adventurous. So, enjoy Barcelona. Let's get lost again in the next one.