A short, opinionated Barcelona: three hotels, four tables, five bars and one long night out, all mapped.
Barcelona runs on a different clock. Vermut at noon, lunch at two, dinner at ten, the bars at midnight and the club after one thirty. Fight it and you'll eat alone in empty rooms; go with it and the city is extraordinary.
This is a short list, not a long one: the places we'd send a friend for a few days, most of them in the Eixample, where the grid makes everything a walk. For shopping, give an afternoon to the Born's small streets and another to Gràcia.
Read on for where to stay, eat, drink and go out.
Stay in the Eixample. Everything below is a short walk or a ten-minute cab from these three.
Almanac Barcelona
The grown-up choice. A five-star on the Gran Via with quiet, generous rooms, a proper cocktail bar downstairs and a rooftop with a plunge pool and the whole grid laid out below it.
It's the hotel to pick if you want to come back at 6am to calm, good sheets and a breakfast worth getting up for.
Casa Bonay
A 19th-century building on the Gran Via turned into the city's most likeable design hotel: tiled floors, Catalan craft everywhere, and a lobby that works as a neighbourhood hangout rather than a waiting room.
Less polished than Almanac and more fun for it. Have the first coffee downstairs and you'll understand the appeal.
Axel Hotel Barcelona
The gay hotel, in the middle of the Gaixample, with the Skybar and pool on the roof. Not the most refined room in town, but the most social.
Stay here if the point of the trip is the nights. Everyone else can still come up for a sunset drink (see Out, below).
Barcelona eats late: lunch at two, dinner from nine thirty. Book the last one weeks ahead; the rest you can walk into early.
Bar Mut
A small, crowded, slightly grand tapas bar near the top of Pau Claris. The menu is on a blackboard and changes with the market; order whatever the person next to you is eating and a glass of something Catalan.
Go at the start of the night, sit at the bar, and don't plan to rush.
Bar Canyí
Sant Antoni is where Barcelona goes for vermut now, and Canyí is the reason to go: a modern take on the old neighbourhood bar, with good tins, sharp small plates and the house vermut on tap.
Best around noon on a weekend, when the whole street is doing the same thing.
Bar del Pla
A Born classic at the bottom of Carrer de Montcada: Catalan cooking done properly, natural wines, and a room that's loud in the right way.
The easy answer when you're in the old town and hungry. Get there before nine or expect a wait.
Disfrutar
The one big meal. Three Michelin stars and a team that came out of elBulli, cooking a long tasting menu that's playful rather than precious.
It books up weeks out. If there's a table, take it; if not, keep it for the next trip.
Barcelona has some of the best cocktail bars in the world, and they're all within twenty minutes of each other.
Sips
The bar everyone in the industry talks about, a fixture at the top of the World's 50 Best Bars list. Drinks arrive as a short, precise menu built in the open lab behind the counter, and they live up to it.
Book. Walk-ins are a gamble, and the queue after 8:30pm is real.
Paradiso
Through the fridge door of a pastrami bar and into a curved wooden room that once topped the same list. Theatrical drinks, but the theatre is good.
There's usually a queue; it moves.
Dr. Stravinsky
A small, serious bar in the Born that makes most of its own spirits and infusions in the back. Ask the bartender what they're working on and let them choose.
Quieter than Paradiso, and the better conversation.
Boadas
The oldest cocktail bar in the city, a narrow wood-panelled room at the top of the Rambla with bartenders in white jackets. Order a daiquiri or a martini and keep it simple.
The perfect first drink, ten minutes, standing up.
Bobby's Free
Behind a barbershop front on Pau Claris, a dark, lively bar with a good gin list and a crowd that's out for the night rather than for the photo.
Easy on the way from dinner to the Gaixample.
The night runs late: drinks from midnight, the club after one thirty, home after five. Nobody serious arrives anywhere early.
Skybar at the Axel
Start on the roof of the Axel for sunset: a pool, a bar and the Gaixample crowd getting ready for the night. Best from spring to early autumn.
Check the hours before you go; the roof keeps shorter hours out of season.
La Chapelle
A narrow gay bar on Muntaner done up like a chapel, packed shoulder to shoulder by midnight. This is where the night properly starts.
Get there early. When it's full the door closes.
Moeem
Further down Muntaner, a sleeker bar with a good-looking crowd, music loud enough to matter and a short walk to everything else.
Do one drink here and one at La Chapelle, then move on.
Safari Disco Club
Where the young, fit crowd ends up on a Friday (Bananas) and a Saturday (YASS!): two rooms, pop in one and house in the other, open until about six.
Let's be honest: it's not a beautiful room and the music is commercial. But it's where the crowd is. Call ahead (+34 934 87 83 42) to check the party is on.