r/AskBarcelona

I’m seriously considering moving to Barcelona and buying an apartment in the city center for myself.

But my situation is a bit special. I probably would only stay in Barcelona around half of the year. The other half, I may live in Thailand.

So the apartment could stay empty for months at a time.

The important thing is:

I do NOT want to rent it out.

No long-term tenants.

No Airbnb.

No short-term rental.

I just want to keep it empty for myself.

What really worries me is the Okupas / illegal occupation issue in Barcelona. I keep seeing stories online about people getting their apartments occupied and then having huge legal problems removing them.

I know there are security companies that can check the property every few days, and of course I can install alarms, cameras, reinforced doors, etc. But honestly, none of that feels truly “100% safe”.

For example:

* cameras can be disconnected

* electricity can be cut

* doors can still be forced open

* if nobody notices quickly enough, things may become legally complicated

So I wanted to ask people here honestly:

Is there ANY real “almost foolproof” solution for this kind of situation?

Hello guys , Hope that you are doing well.

I am new here In barcelona , and I would like to get insights and recommendations about places that are cozy and calm, where I can bring my laptop, book, have a good coffee and read/ work ?

Do you have any recommendation , and It would be wonderful if it is open in the weekend.

Or can I go and study / work in the univeristy library ? Public library ? I would love to get to know such places.

Thank you very much in advance !

We’ve found an apartment in Eixample esquerra that needs a bit of love but otherwise fits all of our requirements, except 3 of 4 bedrooms are facing the patio de luces and it is a first floor so it is dark!

We don’t live here yet so I’m wondering if we won’t mind as you spend so much time outside, and it will keep the place cool in the summer, or will we regret having so little natural light. This rooms will be a guest room, study and a room for our daughter :/

Does anyone here have a similar place? Is it super depressing or are you making it work?

We love the living area and front of the unit, as it’s big and has a little terrace. Also the neighbourhood is great…

Thanks so much!

bona tarda!

mis amigos y yo nos mudamos a barcelona en septiembre para estudiar un máster y trabajar allí. llevamos ya un mes buscando piso y está siendo bastante imposible 😭 entre estafas, anuncios que desaparecen a los 5 minutos en idealista y agencias rarísimas, estamos un poco desesperados.

¿tenéis algún consejo para encontrar piso o páginas/grupos que funcionen mejor?

pd: estamos aprendiendo catalán los tres y también agradeceríamos cualquier consejo para mudarnos de la forma más respetuosa posible 🫶 no queremos contribuir más a la gentrificación ni ir con actitud de expat pesado jajaja

merci!!

Hi!

I am considering going to UPF’s grad school near the Provença station in Eixample in September. I have 3 cats that I will be bringing with me. I need to find student/ affordable housing that allows cats and would greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer!! I tried to find pet friendly apartments back in November when I moved to Spain and really struggled, so my cats are with a friend right now. But I can’t go back to grad school without them, I miss them every day.

I’m from America and this is my first time ever traveling outside of the country so I have some questions. First, is the public transport easy to figure out in barcelona? Do I need to buy physical tickets or do they have tap to pay? Should I have cash on me or is it better to use my card for everything? And what are some basic phrases I should know? Do a lot of people speak English or will I have a hard time getting around? I’m very anxious to be in a new place and I just need some info to help ease my mind.

Me and my gf booked a trip to Barcelona for the first time but we didnt check the hotel prices at all before booking.
What would be a good affordable in the vicinity place where we can just take the train everyday into the city but also worth the visit itself?
We will be staying 03-09.06.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

I've been living here for about three years already on a short term contract. With the new rental laws, the landlord can't renew my contract so I'm currently contacting the sindicat de llogateres and considering if it's possible to force a long-term contract. In the meantime, I've spent the last four months trying to find a new apartment.

I make 2500 euro a month, but I've been rejected from renting easily 5 times already because I can't prove my solvency for the seguro de impago. I've gotten bank statements to show that I have more than 30000 euro in savings, a reference from my current landlord showing that I rented from him for 3 years without issue paying 1450 euro in rent (really stupid decision looking back honestly) and I include his phone number and email so they can confirm. I have no way of showing that I make any more or less than I do. My salary is just my salary and it has been enough to rent at an exhorbitant rate for the last 3 years, but it's still not good enough.

How do people get around this? I have more or less an average salary and I'm typically looking at apartments in the 800-1000 euro range, basically as low as I can find them, but no matter what documents I show, even if I offer to take out seguro de impago in my own name, pay six months in advance, double my deposit... nothing. Nobody gives a shit. I'm basically dirt to them as soon as I don't cross the line.

I'm really hoping I can force my current landlord into a long-term contract because I'm genuinely not sure I'll find anything at this point. This solvency requirement has been the main blocker with getting an apartment.

My two main questions are:

1. Has anyone had any luck offering special agreements to landlords, like getting your own insurance, paying a bigger deposit or paying rent in advance?

2. Beyond just living with a roommate, is there any other way around these solvency requirements?

Hi! My partner and I are considering opening an açai shop in Barcelona, and I’d love to get some honest feedback. We're both from the city and 25 years old. We've been living in Australia for more than a year, and I've been working in an açaí shop that's been so busy.

The concept would be a bit different from what we usually have in the city, we are thinking of a “swirl” açai soft serve texture, that's what my shop sold the most.

We’d also include simple coffee and matcha drinks with cold foam (maybe with collagen) and smoothies.

My question is whether you think there is still room for a concept like this in Barcelona, or if the açai / brunch market is already too saturated.

Any honest opinions or insights would be really appreciated 🙏

Hi! I’m looking for places where the menú del día tends to include more fish/seafood options than meat.

Budget is ideally €15 or less if possible.

Preferably somewhere not too far from the city center.

Any recommendations?

Thank you!!

Whilst the weathers getting warmer in Barcelona, what would you all say the best thing is to be wearing as a tourist, I want to look cute but also comfort is key given how much I will be on my feet! I have some dresses but I’m unsure whether they are more ‘beach holiday’ like Greece or Italy etc. obviously it really doesn’t matter but I would like an idea as packing is feeling impossible!

¡Hola a todos!

Mi marido y yo nos mudamos próximamente a Barcelona debido a una oferta de trabajo y estamos buscando recomendaciones sobre dónde encontrar un piso de alquiler.

Somos una pareja de profesionales en nuestros casi 40, sin hijos, y buscamos un piso de un dormitorio. Nos gustaría que estuviera cerca o tuviera muy buena combinación de transporte público con la zona de Marina.

Agradecemos muchísimo cualquier consejo, contacto de particulares o recomendación de agencias de confianza que nos podáis dar 🙏

Hello! For my last night in Barcelona I will be solo and looking for an affordable luxury relaxing beach and spa day but then a nice little farewell dinner & cocktails at night in a more social atmosphere where I won't feel bored and lonely. Any reccs? The W seems to check all the boxes, but also wondering if it's overrated and a little too sceney for this 35 year old gal with an old soul...

Thank you in advance for your advice!! 😄

Hi! We have a week long trip and just saw that leaving the car in the T2 is pretty cheap. I guess it does flying from a different terminal makes no difference and we are not going to have any issue leaving the car there, right? what do you think?

Has anyone has left his car for a few days over there? it is safe?

I have been in barcelona already for 3 days and I am wondering what else is there to do? I saw the sagrada familia, waking around the city, beach.... but what else is there to do? I know few like famous buildings that I forgot the name in the city, but I dont see other things. I think its lovely for people living here but for tourism idk. Am j wrong? I know many hate tourism

Hello -

My spouse (non-EU) and I (EU dual citizen) are having an insane time trying to register her and need some help from this sub-reddit.

She is the non-EU spouse of me as an EU citizen, and we're visiting the continent for an extended period (although not staying in Spain all this time and not becoming Spanish residents.) The rules say she has the right to stay for more than 90 days if accompanying me, but she must still register her presence or apply for a residence card with the local authorities within 3 months of arrival.

We spent all day yesterday trying to register her presence, but we got nowhere. We asked about registering for a "padrón sin domicilio", which we had been told could be done, but we were turned away at each location we went to. We also asked about applying for a "Residence Card for a Family Member of a Union Citizen", which we were told we could request at a Foreigner's Office (Oficina de Extranjeros) or local police station, but everyone turned us away. We just want to make sure she doesn't get into immigration trouble, but no one could help us. Each location we went to, we were turned away and told to go somewhere else! The places we tried in person were, in order:

1) Oficina d'Atenció Ciutadana d'Horta - Guinardó / Citizen Help and Information Office (OAC) Horta-Guinardó, at Carrer de Lepant 387. They said to try going to a local police station and/or an Oficina D'Estrangeria.

2) The local police station / Zona de la Guàrdia Civil a Catalunya, at Travessera de Gràcia, 291-293. They said to go to a National Police office.

3) The Oficina D'Estrangeria at Pg. de St. Joan, 189. They also said to go to the National Police office, specifically the one at Mallorca 213.

4 and 5) The Policia Nacional, first the one at Mallora 213, then the one at Carrer de Balmes, 192, (because that second one has a DNI office attached and seemed likely). Both of them said to go to the Oficina de Tramitació del DNI i del Passaport at Carrer de Guipúscoa, 74, which is what we'll now try for tomorrow.

And if that doesn't work, we passed a Gestoria Extrangeria pay/private service called TuExtranjeria at Pg. de St. Joan, 197, which would be our next-next step, if left to our own devices.

Does anyone have any tips or specific information? We're getting slammed by the Spanish bureaucracy pretty bad over here. Note: the citapreviadnie.es website fails to allow us to register for a cita every time we do so online, so we're out of luck there as well.

Thank you all so much -- any help you can offer un us actually getting padrones sin domicilio, or just registered so that my spouse isn't flagged for not registering as a long-term visitor to the EU would be VERY appreciated!

Hello to the community! First, I'd like to state that while I can fairly easily read both catalan and castillan (you can reply using them), my writing abilities in these languages are limited to simple, short texts.

So around 2002-2005, while I was a young teenager, my parents and I went South of Barcelona for our summer holiays, probably around Tarragona or Valencia. Back then, they wouldn't pay to drive on the AP-7 so we drove on N-II, and perhaps A-2 as well.

I have some faint, fragmented memories of our attempt to get through Barcelona. Since then, I made several attempts at tracing back our itinerary through the city. I had no knowledge of Google Maps or anything alike back then, I'm not even sure whether we even had Internet at home, and I could not try to trace our route back before my memories got really bad.

From what I remember, as I mentioned, we got Southwards on the N-II until we could get onto the free section of AP-7. I think I remember (but I may mistake with another part more North) that we had to take a ticket at the entrance toll booth, and a few kilometers later when we encountered the main toll gate, we gave the ticket back and had nothing to pay. Then we reached the point where everything got bad. The point where the altapista divided with "Barcelona" on left and "Barcelona" on right. We didn't know which one was the correct one not to get into the city center, but we chose wrong. I think it can easily be identified as the AP-7 x C33 bifurcation Montmeló but in my memories, the road was wider then. I wonder whether the C31 x B20 bifurcation wouldn't match more my memories.

After an uneventful drive that left me with no memories, I remember quite precisely an encounter with a weird location. I can picture the expressway going slightly right, then doing a 360 degrees turn. There were high (brown? dark grey?) sound-proof walls at least on the right side. I don't remember the road being covered at any point. Perhaps some bridges were present over the road. There was at least one, but probably not more exits. We did not use this exit because none of the directions were known from us. Perhaps my memory serves me wrong and this wasn't a total U-turn but it was at least a 270° turn left. My closest guess would be Trinitat Vella interchange but it doesn't quite match my mental picture. Also, I don't think we took an exit to get there, in my memories it really was the end of the expressway.

Seeing that we were really getting lost, we exited the expressway and got ourselves in the city. We drove straight through one or two traffic lights regulated intersections before getting into a small traffic jam. Almost every car ahead of us was headed to the underground parking of a Carrefour hypermarket, which entrance was in front of us. I don't remember whether we turned right or kept straight parallel to the entrance of the car park. I don't think it would be the Carrefour in Badalona, the mall seemed to get out from nowhere in the built-up area (not a retail zone) and the streets were perpendicular. The one in la Maquinista might fit more, but with no certainty, I wonder whether there was a median strip even before the car park.

We kept driving and got into an area which I could qualify as looking like the center of a traditional Spanish village. There could have been a large square, old pines, traditional cafés... We asked our way, then miraculously and, in my memories, surprisingly quickly got ourselves on the B-20. I remember very well the outer lanes being covered by the surface streets. We entered it from perhaps Plaça de Jesús Carrasco or another similar ramp. Aside from this drive on Ronda de Dalt, I don't remember us going through any tunnel.

Next thing I know is after a long drive on B-20, we got to another interchange where we finally found our way, which could be have been "Tarragona", possibly the B-23. I remember that back then, the pavement was in a terrible condition, there was no vegetation, barely any traffic, and the expressway was higher than street level.

After that, we left the expressway, perhaps due to it being tolled afterward, and we ended on a mountainous road. I remember that we went through several villages with a speed controlled traffic light at their entrance.

That's quite everything I can remember about this trip. Solving this riddle would help me a lot for my peace of mind and any information that could help me to trace our way back would be really appreciated. To all of you who read until here, thank you in advance!

Dear Barcelonians,

At the beginning of June I'm traveling to Barcelona for some days (weekend too) with my base in Sitges. Sitges is picked because of my plans for Reus, Montserrat, and some travels in-between by public transport (any will do). It cuts time a little bit. I'm flying into Barcelona first and then want to use public transport for the rest of my journey until my flight back.

Navigating routes is easy but comparing prices I do have a problem with. I have gotten lost in all the regulations.

I'm only staying 9 days and I'm trying to find out the most budget friendly way to travel between these cities. Example: Multi-day passes like a Hola BCN card end at Zone 1. Is it a smart move to then buy tickets for the remaining zones or to just stick to T-Casual (does that cover trams, trains, buses etc.?).

Sorry if this feels like a repeat post. Kind regards.