Barcelona beyond the obvious

Gracia, the village inside the city

Gracia was an independent town until 1897 and still feels like one: a grid of narrow streets opening into a series of small squares, each with terraces, and a strong neighbourhood identity.

Placa de la Vila de Gracia, Placa del Sol, and Placa de la Virreina are the main ones, and the correct way to use Gracia is to sit in one for two hours.

The Festa Major de Gracia in mid-August is one of the best street festivals in Europe: residents spend months building elaborate decorations for their streets and compete for the best one.

Sant Pau, the modernisme nobody visits

The Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau is a former hospital complex built between 1902 and 1930 by Lluis Domenech i Montaner, a contemporary of Gaudi, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is a set of twelve pavilions in gardens, decorated with mosaic, stained glass, and sculpture, connected by underground tunnels. It is arguably more beautiful than several of the Gaudi buildings people queue for, and it has a fraction of the visitors.

It is a ten minute walk from the Sagrada Familia, straight up Avinguda Gaudi, which means most people walk past the end of the avenue without knowing it is there.

Poblenou and the beach that is not Barceloneta

Poblenou was the industrial district and is now a mix of converted factories, design studios, and a genuinely local neighbourhood. The Rambla del Poblenou is a tree-lined street with terraces and no tourists.

The beaches north of Barceloneta, Bogatell, Mar Bella, and Nova Icaria, are cleaner, quieter, and used by people who live in the city. Barceloneta beach is the crowded one.

The Cementiri de Poblenou, with its wall of niches and the famous Kiss of Death sculpture, is worth thirty minutes and is almost always empty.

• Rambla del Poblenou for terraces without tourists
• Bogatell and Mar Bella beaches instead of Barceloneta
• Converted factory spaces and design studios
• Poblenou cemetery, quiet and strange

The hillside

The Carretera de les Aigues is a flat gravel path running along the Collserola hillside above the city for around 10km, originally built to service a water pipeline. It has an uninterrupted view over Barcelona to the sea, it is flat, and it is used almost entirely by local runners and cyclists.

Reach it via the Funicular de Vallvidrera from Peu del Funicular station. It is one of the best free things to do in the city and almost no visitors know it exists.

Above it, Tibidabo has the church, the old amusement park, and the highest viewpoint. The park itself is genuinely old-fashioned and charming rather than a modern theme park.

The bunkers, with a caveat

The Bunkers del Carmel are the remains of Spanish Civil War anti-aircraft positions on the Turo de la Rovira, with a 360 degree view over the whole city. The view is the best in Barcelona.

They have become extremely popular, and they sit at the top of a residential neighbourhood where people live. There have been genuine problems with noise, litter, and drinking late at night, and the city has restricted access in the evenings at times.

Go in the morning or at sunset, take your rubbish, do not bring speakers, and be quiet walking through the streets below. This is somebody neighbourhood.

Other things worth the detour

Horta and the Parc del Laberint, an eighteenth-century garden with a cypress hedge maze, far from the centre and almost empty.

The Mercat de Sant Antoni, a restored iron market hall used by residents rather than tourists, with a Sunday book and collectors market.

El Raval for the MACBA, the Filmoteca, and one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the city, with the caveat that petty theft is more common here and normal city awareness applies.

Montjuic for the Fundacio Joan Miro, the botanical garden, and the walk down through the gardens rather than taking the cable car both ways.

The overtourism point

Barcelona receives around 30 million visitors a year against a population of 1.6 million, and the pressure on housing and daily life is a live political issue rather than an abstraction.

The practical response for a visitor is straightforward and makes for a better trip anyway: stay and eat in the neighbourhoods rather than on the tourist arteries, use the metro rather than tour buses, keep noise down in residential streets at night, and do not treat the city as a backdrop.