Barcelona Budget: Where to Save & Where to Splurge

In February, Colin and I joined my siblings, Jade and Lee, for eight days in Spain. We kicked it off in Barcelona so I’m kicking off the blog coverage with all the tips you need to build your perfect Barcelona budget.

The best part of our February travels was having the chance to spend time with my family from Toronto during their first trip to Europe. It was so special to have this time with them. And I’m so grateful that we got to travel through Spain together in February. It was the perfect time – great weather and low crowds. I would highly recommend hitting up Spain in the winter!

And, of course, if you’re heading to Spain, you have to visit Barcelona. Barcelona is home to city beaches, cool neighbourhoods, delicious food and a ton of Gaudi architecture. It’s a popular place for visitors with lots to see and do, so it can be tough to decide where to save and where to splurge.

Check out my tips below for putting together your perfect Barcelona budget! 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support! 

Save: Parc Guell

2024 update: Sadly, no part of Parc Guell is free anymore due to the increase in visitors. You must buy a ticket and reserve an entrance time in advance, unless you’re a local resident or visiting on one of their rare free days.

You can buy your regular admission tickets here or skip-the-line tickets here.

Parc Guell is a large urban park in Barcelona that is filled not only with regular park greenery but also architectural elements. The park was designed by Barcelona’s home-grown hero, Antoni Gaudi, and constructed in the early 1900’s.

When we visited in Feb 2020 (back when most of the park was free to enter), a large part of the paid area was under construction, with hideous tarps and scaffolding all over. Another paid part was closed, due to trees falling down.

The part that was open was incredibly crowded. The famous iguana statue was swarmed with people and a museum had over an hour’s wait to get in. And this was in February!

The worst part, however, was that the paid part wasn’t even that spectacular. There wasn’t a lot to see, likely due to the constructions and closures, and what was available wasn’t that mind-blowing. Of course, the crowds didn’t help. But after exiting the paid area (with disappointed looks on our faces), we continued exploring the rest of Parc Guell. And we loved it!

We wandered through caves and archways, down sloping paths, through gardens, and up to a beautiful viewpoint. These other parts of the park were much less crowded and, honestly, much more impressive. I enjoyed the free part so much more!

So save some money and forgo the paid part of Parc Guell. Your Barcelona budget will thank you!

But still head to the park and enjoy wandering around the free zones. Don’t forget to bring water, or buy some from the many vendors inside the park, on a warm day. You might also want to pack a picnic and spend even more time in this very cool park.

Splurge: Casa Batllo

Casa Batllo is another Gaudi creation that was designed in the early 1900s. This large home, belonging to the Batllo family, is often called the House of Bones, because of the bone-like structure on the front facade.

This was my favourite Gaudi site that we visited in Barcelona and I highly recommend you splurge on the entrance fee. At the time of writing, regular tickets purchased online are 25€ per person. You can pay more for access to a special area, a night tour or skip the line privileges, but we were more than happy with our regular access tickets.

 

Upon arrival, you are given a SmartGuide which is part audio guide and part virtual reality. You tour through the house listening to descriptions of the rooms through your headset and using your SmartGuide screen to see what the rooms looked like 100 years ago. In addition to showing 100 year old version of the rooms, the screen also had fun elements like turtles swimming by or augmented versions of the items in front of you. And it moved when you did! I feel like I’m doing a horrible job of describing this, but just imagine you have a VR headset on the whole time.

The SmartGuide was super cool and totally justified the 25€ entrance fee. But on top of that, the house itself was really interesting. There were lots of rooms to discover, very funky architecture, a backyard terrace and a beautiful roof. The staircase and ceilings were really gorgeous too. My only complaint is that it was a little cramped – I’d hate to experience it during the busy tourist season!

Save: Gothic Quarter

A great way to save on your Barcelona budget is with an independent walk through the Gothic Quarter. Before our trip, I had watched this video all about Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter (and then about every other video by James Blick because he’s the best and I’m obsessed). When we got to Barcelona, we decided that instead of joining a paid tour, we would simply show ourselves around, loosely following the stops James suggests in his video.

The Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is made up of medieval buildings, winding alleyways and really cool history. You can see old Roman walls and courtyards from Barcelona’s past. The best way to experience this part of Barcelona is to simply get lost. Wander around, pop into churches and courtyards, and soak it all in.

If you need a bit more guidance, check out James’ video above for some must-see stops, including a courtyard that was bombed during the Spanish civil war (you can still see the shrapnel marks) and a beautiful bridge with a dark secret.

Splurge: Mercado de La Boqueria

You don’t have to blow your whole Barcelona budget at Mercado de La Boqueria but you should loosen the purse strings just a little bit. Mercado de La Boqueria is an institution in Barcelona, amongst both locals and tourists. I first visited this market in 2012 and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Bright, fresh juices and hanging ham everywhere you look! Eight years later, and not much has changed.

Come hungry and enjoy wandering around the market and picking out anything that looks good. Grab a fresh juice, made of almost any fruit you can think of, for €1.50. Enjoy a cup of Iberian ham and cheese, order some fried seafood, and indulge in the candy section. This market is endless and it’s so fun to explore. The coolest part to me is that while it is touristy, it’s also a local market. Right next to the tourists being overcharged for calamari (note: we were those tourists) you’ll find a local abuela arguing over the price of fish or putting produce into her trolley.

Save: Public transit

Barcelona is a big city and the best way to get around is via public transit. There’s a great system of subways and buses that easily connect the whole city. And, best of all, they’re very Barcelona budget friendly!

We bought passes that gave us ten rides for about €12. According to an info sheet our hotel gave us, these passes can be shared. So we could have bought just two between the four of us. But according to the ticket machine at the subway station, they were individual passes. So we dutifully bought four. But when mine stopped working on our last day, I borrowed my sister’s and there didn’t seem to be any issue.

So yes, you can definitely save money by using public transit. But maybe do a little bit more research on which pass to buy and hope yours doesn’t stop working like mine did!

One warning: If you’re connecting at a subway station, be prepared to walk. I made the “What, are we walking all the way there?” joke way too many times when we had to transfer from one line to the other at what was, supposedly, the same station.

Splurge: La Paradeta

Not only is La Paradeta a delicious dinner stop – it’s also a lot of fun! La Paradeta is a chain of seafood restaurants in Barcelona. But any diner (or foodie blog post) will tell you this isn’t a regular chain restaurant. La Paradeta is good quality!

When you enter the restaurant, you’re met with trays and trays of raw seafood, as if you were buying your catch from the local fishermen. Instead of fishermen, you inform staff which types of seafood and how much you’d like. They weigh everything and send it off to the kitchen for you. Next, you order drinks and pay for your meal at the cash register.

Drinks in hand, it’s time to head to your table and wait for your number to be called. We were number 17, diecisiete in Spanish, and listened hard for the kitchen crew to call out our number. Every time we heard it, Colin and Lee bounded up to bring back a new plate of fresh, mouth-watering seafood. We had amazing mussels, calamari, tuna and prawns.

While I strongly believe you should splurge and include La Paradeta in your Barcelona budget, it’s actually not that expensive. It’s not fast food cheap, but it’s pretty affordable considering it’s incredibly fresh, cooked to order seafood!

Save: Accommodation

The best line item on our Barcelona Budget was our accommodation. We stayed at Bicycle Apartments and it was awesome! The apartment was super cute with exposed brick, a rainfall shower head, cute decor and a chalkboard wall (on which they had written a personalized welcome message for us). It had everything we needed – clean and modern bathroom, three beds, a full kitchen where we made breakfast each morning, laundry and a cool rooftop. The location was pretty good too; there was a grocery store across the street and lots of restaurants and transit options within a five minute walk.

And it was affordable! Our apartment cost us $125 CAD per night. That’s four people on three beds in two bedrooms with a full bathroom, kitchen and living room. If we had gone the hotel route, we would’ve paid way more for way less space (and way less cuteness!).

Save or Splurge: La Sagrada Familia

Basílica de la Sagrada Família is another Gaudi masterpiece. It’s most famously known as the church that isn’t complete. If you come to Barcelona to see La Sagrada Familia, don’t be surprised to see cranes, scaffolding and construction workers!

Construction began on La Sagrada Familia in 1882. Almost 150 years later and it’s still not close to being done. In fact, when Gaudi died, the church was not even 1/4 finished. According to signage we read inside, the four main spires are set to be completed by 2022, and eight of the shorter spires are already completed. So after that, they’ll only have six spires (and like half the building) to go!

I couldn’t decide whether La Sagrada Familia should be a splurge or a save for your Barcelona budget. We paid €17 for tickets to enter inside the basilica. Since I had seen the outside previously in 2012, I was curious to see the inside. And it was cool! The stained glass windows and the domes in the ceiling are very impressive. But, the showstopper is without a doubt the outside of this sandcastle church.

Our €17 ticket didn’t include the audio guide, guided tour or access to climb up any of the towers. All of that would have cost extra and we didn’t think it was worth it. But maybe we should have splurged a bit more to make the experience even better?

My two cents: Unless you’re a huge fan of churches, architecture or Gaudi, skip the ticket and simply admire Sagrada Familia from the outside for free. But if you are a big Gaudi geek, consider splurging on the ticket with the guide.

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Those are my tips on where to splurge and where to save on your Barcelona budget. What do you think? If you’ve been to Barcelona, where did you save money or what did you think was worth spending on?

 

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