u/Electrical-Ideal-677

My sister and I are visiting Barcelona for the first time. We arrive on August 25 and leave on the morning of August 30 for Madrid, so we’ll have 5 full days in Barcelona.

We already have tickets for Park Güell and Sagrada Família on the same day — Park Güell first thing in the morning, and Sagrada Família later in the evening. We’re also planning to visit Casa Vicens.

I’m trying to figure out the rest of our itinerary and would really appreciate some advice.

1. Would you do a day trip with 5 full days?
We’re considering Girona or Montserrat, but we’re not sure if it’s better to use all 5 days for Barcelona itself. Is Girona worth a full day? Is Montserrat a must-do, or more of a nice extra?

For context, we’ll also visit Madrid afterwards and plan to do a day trip to Toledo from there.

2. Beach day — where should we go?
We’d like to have one beach/swimming day. My sister wears modest swimwear, similar to a burkini, so I wanted to ask about this from a practical point of view.

Is this generally fine on beaches around Barcelona? I know there have been issues/bans in some places in France, so I don’t want to assume. Are there beaches where it might attract unwanted attention, or is it something people generally don’t care about?

For the beach itself, we’d prefer somewhere relaxed and family-friendly, not a party beach, but also not a tiny isolated cove. We won’t have a car, so it needs to be reachable by train or bus. So far we’ve looked at Ocata/El Masnou, Castelldefels, Sitges and Tossa de Mar.

3. Casa Batlló or La Pedrera?
Since we’re already doing Sagrada Família, Park Güell and Casa Vicens, would you still recommend going inside Casa Batlló or La Pedrera? If yes, which one would you choose?

4. Any other tips?
If you had 5 days for a first visit, what would you recommend? Neighbourhoods, food spots, practical tips, places that are overrated/underrated, anything you wish you’d known before your first trip, I’d love to hear it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 🙏