I am a Barcelona lover, you might have noticed that for now but I am so surprised of things I see tourists doing when going around Barcelona! I feel so sad that they do all the wrong stuff and they go along marketing strategies, what they believe is "typicals stuff". So it has been going around my mind to tell you what you shouldn't do if you are a tourist in Barcelona and here I am.
Find my top of what you shouldn't do in Barcelona:
Eat a Paella from Paellador
Rice with mushrooms and artichokes
Sadly, this is the top 1 in Barcelona. Everyone is looking forward to eat paella and when they land in Barcelona the first thing they look for is Paella signs in restaurants. Please please, listen carefully, you need to know that Paellador is brand for frozen paella. Yes, you heard it, most of the restaurants in touristy areas have Paellador photos of paella on the outside. Paella is not the most typical dish in Catalunya or Barcelona, but it is an amazing dish. If you really want to know how it tastes a frozen one might not be the best choice. I would recommend you to try typical dishes from Catalunya such as: snails a la llauna, calçots, crema catalana, escudella, bolets etc...
There are different places you can go, here I give you my recommendations:
El Nou Ramonet: I love the lobster rice, but there are more traditional paellas, see the menu.
Arrosseria Xativa: this is a restaurant that specializes in rice, they have plenty of options, they can even do individual paellas depending on the day and time, check out their menu.
La Barca del Salamanca: this restaurant is near the sea side, you will see there is a full row of restaurants that have sea food an paellas. This is one of my favorites but you also have other options
You can try black rice (with squid ink) and fideuà (spanish noodles with sea food). My favorite is arroz caldoso ( soup-like rice, it is more liquid with a sea food taste, lovely!).
Black Rice
Eat in las Ramblas
Las Ramblas is probably the most crowded place in Barcelona.If you can read in Spanish, this blog has an amazing post on a gastronomical suicide in Las Ramblas. It is not only expensive food for very low quality, of course there might be exceptions but the general rule is: not to eat in las Ramblas. I have never eaten there unless you go to a specific place nearby. I recommend you to go around and walk and if you want to eat around I have to recommendations:
La Boqueria market: great place to eat and see what the market has to offer.
El Regulador restaurant: for special ocasions, a great restaurant in the Hotel Bagués, near las Ramblas.
Buy Mexican hats in tourist areas
Mexican hats by speakinglatino.com
I am still amazed on how the hell Mexican hats are sold in Barcelona. Can someone explain that to me? So everyone is aware, mexican hats are not typical in Barcelona at all...but somehow they get sold. Actually the typical hat in Catalonia is " the barretina".
Go to the beach in Barcelona
Lovely sea side
I am from Barcelona but I normally don't go to the beach in Barcelona, we have amazing beaches in Catalonia but the ones in Barcelona are not the best ones at all. This doesn't mean that you can't go to the beach, of course.
My recommendations for beaches near Barcelona are:l Castelldefels and Sitges. The most famous area for beaches is Costa Brava, the north part of Catalonia beaches. Amazing blue water and also little small bays to discover.
Go to see Flamenco
Another one: sorry to disappoint you but Flamenco is not typical from Barcelona/Catalona at all...This doesn't mean that we don't have amazing flamenco dancers. If you want to truly go local, go to see sardanes, the typical dance from this area. On weekends, in Plaça de la Catedral they do Sardanas so you can go watch dancers for free! Check out the times and schedule in here.
Go clubbing to the Marina area
Marina area is a great place to party but teenagers go there, so as a grown up I normally would not go around that area unless I am partying at Razzmatazz. I say teenager kind of partying as it is full of bars where they have alcohol buckets and cheapy alcohol. If this is your thing this is the place to go, I am more into cocktail kind of partying.
Take taxis everywhere
Barcelona is a little city and you can go anywhere taking the underground or buses. You can take taxis but this will add up to your total daily expense. Check TBMand see all public transport possibilites you have.
No Sangria, go for Cava
Sangria de cava
Sangria is lovely, don't get me wrong, but the truth is that to get a good one is very difficult. In many touristy places they sell sangrias made with very cheap wine and the taste is not good as it should be. To have a nice Sangria the quality of the wine matters, and if you don't know a good place it is difficult to get it right.
The typical thing here is Cava, the catalan champagne. And guess what? There are cava Sangrias, so you would be tasting Sangria and also cava, 2x1.