The Best Things To Do In Barcelona If You Only Have One Day, According To Traveler Reviews

Do you want to do Barcelona in a single day? Estàs boig? That's Catalan for "Are you crazy?" because that's probably how a local would respond if you told them that plan. But for some reason, whether you're trying to jampack all the great European cities into a short vacation or just on a long layover, you only have 24 hours to see everything, from the beloved to the underrated attractions of one of the world's most intriguing, playful, exciting cities. 

We dug through traveler reviews and guidebooks to find the city's best attractions and ordered them geographically. We start in Antonin Gaudí's fantastical Park Güell, make our way through a few of his other masterpieces, explore La Rambla and the Gothic Quarter, and then ascend Montjuïc before heading back down for a night of debauchery. You may not get to everything in just 24 hours, but even a fraction of these will make for one of the best days of your life.

Barcelona is a whimsical city, so it makes perfect sense to start your day staring at an 8-foot-tall tiled salamander smiling at you from its fountain perch. The salamander lovingly guards the entrance to Park Güell, Barcelona's inimitable, surrealist mountaintop city of gleaming tiled eccentricity.

The park is the masterwork of Antoni Gaudí, a Catalan architect and sculptor from the turn of the century who lent his signature modernist style to Barcelona's most famous buildings. In 1888, local businessman and count Eusebi Güell commissioned Gaudí to create a private city for the wealthy atop an unused hilltop. The land was never sold, and only two houses out of a planned 60 were built. One of them is the Gaudí House Museum, where the architect once lived. Güell eventually decided to turn it into a park; today, it is Barcelona's most popular attraction.

Start your day with brunch and coffee at the nearby Store Café, then head up the hill to Carrer d'Olot, the main entrance to the park. Make sure you book your tickets in advance through the park website. Then, marvel at the mosaic madness, which includes a gingerbread gatehouse, fountains, reservoirs, and Market Hall, a series of fluted columns holding up an expansive terrace on top of which visitors can walk. In addition to the monument section, amble around a free park full of trails, trees, and expansive city views.

Most Barcelona visitors seem to agree that you can never get enough Gaudí. There's more than enough to go around — Barcelona counts 16 buildings in which he was involved and seven of his most famous works, which are all designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. But if we had to choose just one more, we'd go with Casa Batlló.

You'll spot the shimmering tiles, bone-like columns, and bright colors of this storybook apartment building along Passeig de Gràcia immediately. In 1903, industrialist Josep Batlló y Casanovas bought an existing building in the Eixample district and told Gaudí he could do whatever he wanted with it. Gaudí ran wild, creating an undulating façade of blue, green, and purple tiles; a rooftop emulating a dragon, and an interior inspired by marine life. There's hardly a straight line or right angle to be found — instead, there are stained-glass windows shaped like waves, a ceiling swirling like a sea around a chandelier, and an attic inspired by the bones of a whale.

A standard €31 ticket will buy you a 75-minute tour of the home, the rooftop, the attic, the redesigned basement featuring a rippling multi-floor aluminum chain curtain, and the Gaudí Cube, a 360-degree immersive deep dive into the "mind of Gaudí." A Gold ticket includes a visit to the private, furnished residence of the Batlló family and further immersive experiences into the mind and life of Gaudí.

At the southern end of Plaça de Catalunya, you'll see loads of people walking toward all the trees. Follow them.

They're strolling down La Rambla, one of the most famous boulevards in Barcelona and the world. In fact, La Rambla is so famous it's inspired a verb — "ramblejar," which is used to describe walking down the middle of the tree-lined pedestrian walkway, where cars are relegated to the far ends of the street. Speaking of verbiage, the street is also known as Las Ramblas because even though it's less than a mile long, it is divided into five different "Ramblas."

"Rambla" comes from an Arabic word for "sandy riverbed," and this area is so-named because the street used to be a stream flowing outside the walls of the Gothic Quarter. In the 19th century, it began to transform into what it is today — a Parisian-style boulevard with outdoor restaurants, elegant shops, and every variety of street performers.

La Rambla is just under a mile long, stretching from the city center to the sea, but it packs a lot in. There's the Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house, the Miró Mosaic, and the stately Palau Güell designed by — you guessed it — Antoni Gaudí. Despite, or perhaps because of, its many attractions, the street has developed a reputation as an overpriced, noisy tourist trap. Beware pickpockets, and be aware that the street's southern end turns into a seedy red-light district at night.

If you thought 800-year-old La Boqueria was old, head across La Rambla and enter the Gothic Quarter, the site of the ancient Roman walled city from which Barcelona grew. Echoes of the city's rich, 2,000-year-old history pulsate from every corner of this photogenic maze.

Many visitors are content to simply stroll through the tangle of evocative alleyways, popping into the numerous artisanal shops, bars, and restaurants that are among the best in the city. We'd recommend a two-hour walking tour to cover the history behind the sites that make this one of Barcelona's most beloved neighborhoods. You'll walk through the neighborhood's many picturesque squares, including the Plaça Reial, the Plaça Sant Jaume, and Plaça Sant Felip Neri.

You'll undoubtedly stop to admire the jaw-dropping Catedral de Barcelona, a fourth-century cathedral as famous for its architecture as it is for the 13 geese who live in its cloister. You'll then wander through the narrow lanes of El Call, the medieval Jewish quarter of the city, and perhaps venture into the Temple of Augustus, an ancient Roman temple. You'll then walk the same streets where a young Pablo Picasso once lived and studied. If you have the time, the Picasso Museum, situated in five medieval palaces, is a stunning tribute to the art once produced just a few blocks away. Whatever you do, don't miss the Portal del Bisbe, the stunning Neo-Gothic bridge across the Carrer del Bisbe that's become an unofficial symbol of the neighborhood.

Like the Gothic Quarter, you'd need at least a day to explore all the treasures atop Montjuïc, the 583-foot hill that rises from the sea and looms over the city. The mountain is a city unto itself, boasting a castle, an Olympic stadium, numerous museums and gardens, and even a model village. At this point in the day, many attractions may be closed, and you may just want to stroll through a garden of roses, watching the sunset over the city.

But since we can almost guarantee you'll return to Barcelona now that your appetite is whetted, here are some of the mountain's top attractions to keep in mind. First, there's the 2,467-foot cable car that will bring you to the top of the mountain, granting panoramic city views. The cable car stops at the imposing Montjuïc Castle, a 17th-century fortress that has served as a castle, prison, and, currently, a military museum. After a castle tour, stroll through the acres of different botanical gardens, which offer an endless array of both native and exotic plants, trees, and flowers.

Amidst the greenery and views are several fascinating museums, including the Palau Nacional Art Museum and its waterfalls, the Joan Miro Foundation, the Catalan Museum of Archaeology, the Olympic stadium and two related sports and museums, and the Poble Espanyol, an open-air model town consisting of 117 full-scale buildings with architectural styles from all over Spain.

When the sun goes down, Barcelona really lights up. The city is regularly voted among the top nightlife capitals of the world, and tired as you may be, no trip to the city is complete without exploring what puts the "bar" in Barcelona.

You won't have to travel far. Montjuïc is surrounded by the city's nightlife centers, including El Poble-sec, El Raval, and the Gothic Quarter. For around $25, you can book several bar crawls with local guides, which often cover skip-the-line entry to two bars, two welcome shots, and nightclub entry. But if you just want to see where the night takes you, head to El Raval's Carrer Joaquín Costa, one of the city's central nightlife hubs. The street boasts many exciting bars, like Bar Olimpic, Casa Almirall, or the 1950s-themed Betty Ford's — no clinic jokes until a few drinks in, please.

To party in the footsteps of Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, try Bar Marsella, the city's oldest bar. Hemingway fans might also enjoy Boadas, where the owner trained at Hemingway's Floridita Bar in Havana. Wine fans will delight in Bar Brutal, where the walls are stacked with over 300 varieties. Anyone craving margaritas and mojitos should try La Rosa del Raval. Grungeheads will enjoy Nevermind, which is named after the famous Nirvana album.

Watch the sun come up at any of the city's famous clubs, including City Hall, Moog, or Red58, setting in motion another spectacular day in Barcelona.