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Oct
03
The Gracia neighbourhood is just one stop up from the top of Passeig de Gracia but it’s a completely different barrio. The area is popular with artists and sports a generally bohemian crowd, it also has a high ex-pat population and the highest concentration of foreign restaurants in Barcelona. Placa de Sol is the best known location. Lined with bars, this is where people convene to drink and be merry. Gracia is also well-known for its festival, which is held over five long, blurry days in August and sees the locals competing in street decoration. The results are spectacular, and at night the festival comes alive with drinks stalls and stages of live music of every variety. Fontana is the metro stop that takes you to the heart of Gracia. The FGC also has a Gracia stop which is well worth using. This place has great bars, cosy cafes, a real Mediterranean lifestyle. You might find some of the bohemian population a bit intimidating (there are a lot of piercing, dreadlocks and tattoos around!) but the area is quite safe. Gracia is perfect for those who have been to Barcelona before and want a different, perhaps more authentic experience. It may seem a bit out of the way on the map, but it’s is easily accessible from central Barcelona making it suitable for everyone to reach. One of the best features of Gracia is that there are not too many tourists so you feel like you’ve discovered something a bit new and diverse. Shopping is also good in Gracia, where new, arty boutiques stand next to traditional Spanish stores.
Apr
20
This area is difficult to summarise because it has so many features. Parts of it are enchanting, whilst others are down right ‘dodgy’! Bar wise however, I have to be forgiven for comparing it to its ‘sister’ neighbourhood the Raval. The Gothic quarter is charming if you like old Roman and Medieval buildings and of course many of the bars are located in parts of these. Similarly to the Born neighbourhood, there are fair few bars with terraces and many to be found by snaking the thin yet often incredibly tall streets. Unfortunately this can make parts very seem dark, dank and feel a little chilly but nevertheless this area will provide all your drinking and eating needs and a little extra for dessert!
Apr
20
The Raval has a reputation for being not the most salubrious part of the city. It is however a fantastic area to go drinking and it has a plethora of bars, many of them very unique. Sporting a very large immigrant community and a veritable maze of nooks and crannies, it’s a neighbourhood that oozes charm and character. Unfortunately (especially for tourists) it’s charm lies in it’s suitablility for pickpockets, street crimes and prostitution. That said however, the crimes here are generally not violent and are normally just simple ‘opportunity grabs’ and as long as you are not alone after dark, you’re pretty much as safe as anywhere else in the city. All of this shouldn’t put you off checking out the bars and trendy eateries here and ingesting the darker side of the Barcelona force!
Apr
10
Placa Espanya is an important part of the city – historically speaking, being the square for public hangings until 1715, although the closest you’ll see to anti-social behavior now is a few revellers staggering home on a Saturday night! Bar wise, it’s not exactly the epicentre of all that is happening in Barcelona but it does have a few interesting locales and many bars that are more than adequate for your needs. Really, this is a place to visit in the day and check out the important and impressive structures and parks in this area. However if you do fancy a beer or two there are places you can go. For a really unique time here, you really need to come here for New Year’s eve or during the important local festivals, such as La Merce when you’ll see illuminated fountains and a virtual ants nest of people letting their hair down!
Fortunately (if you are Catalan) or unfortunately (if you are a lover of all that is pure Spanish), they are currently dismantling the Bull Ring here in order to build a shopping centre. This should mean that a few new local bars surface in the area. DrinkBarcelona of course will be on the scene when they do, sampling their delights and donning our critics hats purely for the benefit of your humble selves!
Apr
10
El Borne is another of Barcelona’s older zones but nevertheless it’s also one of the trendiest and happening places to drink, shop and eat. The most logical place to start your night is the main street (Passeig del Born) as here you’ll find a plethora of everything from large pubs to more outlandish and trendy cocktail bars. This area also has plenty of places to eat from quick stop pizza joints to more upmarket restaurants and plenty of cafes and bars that also serve up food.
Prices in this area, are of course quite high by local standards but if you are travelling from Britain for example, you’ll still find drinking and eating here very reasonable.
A definite bonus about this area is that there are plenty of terraces outside, although you might have to wait for a few minutes or so and stand up to the locals who don’t quite have the same decorum as us Northern Europeans when it comes to queueing up. Also you should notice that it’s a stone throw from the beach area (Barceloneta) if you happen to be still dolled up in your beachwear.
All in all then this is the kind of neighbourhood that you’ll go to spend the entire evening, pampering yourself to good food, a lively street atmosphere and many, many cocktails – I’m sure!
Apr
10
Barceloneta is one of the most popular areas to visit to chow down and imbibe a few drinks. Supporting numerous bars and restaurants its charm lies in its winding streets, old buildings and local places to make your pit stops. It is also one of the best places to start off in order to get yourself accustomed to the long and snaking beach area which is littered with a number of ‘chiringuitos’ or beach bars as we call them in our native tongue!
Built in the 18th century and even mentioned in the famous epic ‘Don Quijote’ it oozes history as well as sun, sea, sand and everything else associated with having a good time. If you’re on your hols here you must check out this neighbourly area and although many of the bars may look old and rickety, I can guarantee you’ll find nothing but charm seeping gracefully from every nook and cranny – at least until your beer goggles become too hazy!
Jan
21
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Apr
25
Avinguda Pla de Vinyet 12-13 : 
Sant Cugat : FGC
Tel. 93 674 8884
: 
Warning: this bar is not recommended for tourists! The 19th Hole is not even in Barcelona, but in the nearby town of Sant Cugat, about 20mins away by train, and while it is a very charming town and many ex-pats move there after a few years in Barcelona to escape the busy city life, it´s not exactly a classic destination for holidaymakers. However, a significant proportion of the young ex-pat population work for one of the many multinational companies located in and around Sant Cugat, and so for this reason, and in the absence of a drinkSantCugat bar blog, this pub is well worth a mention. If there was an annual contest for “Best bar in Sant Cugat”, then the 19th Hole would surely triumph year after year, if only for the total lack of competition. It´s a very big and spacious bar with chandeliers, tasty tuck and a classy ambience. In the evening and on weekdays, the pub is fairly subdued and feels more like a pub-restaurant than a balls-to-the-wall boozer. However, on Friday and Saturday night from about midnight to 3am, the local Catalan youngsters come out in force and the pub is then rammed until closing time, with a DJ playing mainstream but inoffensive dance tunes. It´s not cheap, but then of course neither is Sant Cugat. If you live or work in the area, this is an excellent, and indeed the only, place to go for after-work drinks followed by a naughty segue into late-night revellry.
Paul
Apr
23
C/Torrent de L´olla 89 : Fontana 
: Joanic 
: Gracia : FGC
: 
Gracia is alleged to have the largest number of bars per square metre than anywhere else in the world, although admittedly this allegation tends to be made by those who are in the process of drinking their own bodyweight in cairpirinhas. This bohemian barrio is light on cool places in which to dance the night away post 3am, but heavy on cosy, slightly pretentious cocktail bars. Gracia may not really have more bars for its size than anywhere else in the world, but it can surely boast Barcelona’s densest concentration of film projectors. However, amongst the cocktail bars, old man’s cafes and English pubs, there evidently remains a gap in the market for those who like to while away their Wednesday nights drinking artesanal cocktails surrounded by fantastical art while watching a local magician perform his dark art before leaving with take-away coffees. If that´s what you´re been craving in a bar, then congratulations, your niche has finally been catered for. Apart from the regular Wednesday night magic shenanigans, this is a pretty conventional bar, but it’s a certainly better than the average Gracia drinking pit. When we paid a visit recently, the music was a funky mix of indie and electroclash, which stood out from the bland fare played in many Barna bars. This is also one of the few bars in Barcelona that has got the lighting right, rejecting the horrors of strip lighting in favour of a smattering of candles and a superbly tacky mirrorball suspended above the bar. With a similar vibe to other Gracia favourites like El Otro and Cine Bar, this is a pretty good place to start your night out in Gracia, and, being on bar-heavy Torrent de L’olla, you won’t have to stagger very far to find the next bar to prop up.
Paul
