A Memorable Barcelona Day Trip Itinerary: Cathedral, Boqueria & Seafood in El Born

Why are we here?

Back in April, 2025 we traveled to Europe for the first time. Hesitant as we were to travel by land, figuring out transportation and hotels, we instead booked a cruise aboard the Celebrity Apex taking us from Barcelona, Spain, through the Strait of Gibraltar stopping in Lisbon and then Porto, Portugal, with one more stop in La Coruña, Spain before ending in Southampton England. In addition to those ports, we spent two amazing days touring Barcelona before boarding, and two more whirlwind days in London after disembarking.  Everything we experienced is in our collection of Celebrity Apex Barcelona to Southampton (2025) trip reports.

Not long after we came home, a familiar itch to cruise Europe returned, and we began researching Celebrity’s 2026 itineraries. One particular sailing stood out: it departed Barcelona once again, this time sailing east with ports in Valletta (Malta), Kusadasi (Turkey), and the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini before ending in Piraeus (Athens). While we are all about the destinations, it was also incredibly cool that this cruise would be aboard Celebrity’s shiny new Edge-class ship, the Xcel, which had not yet launched when we booked. Who knew back then that the Xcel would be ready early and we’d have the opportunity to sail on her preview cruise –  certainly not us.

Well we’ve just come back from that 2026 sailing from Barcelona to Athens, and this post is our Barcelona day trip itinerary.

Getting there and the Plan

The vast majority of flights to Europe from the U.S. east coast are overnight. We always plan to arrive at least one day before a cruise embarkation in case of delays or cancellations. Whereas last year we’d planned for two days, this time we’d only have the day of our Thursday morning arrival to experience Barcelona, as the cruise was set for Friday. 

We’d packed a ton into last year’s two-day visit to Barcelona and had no plans to return to Sagrada Familia or Park Guell this trip. Wanting to be closer to the waterfront, we had booked one night at the HCC Montblanc Hotel, which is located across the street from the Gothic Quarter, near Plaça de Catalunya, La Rambla, and El Born. This would also give us easy access to Mercat de la Boqueria, to which we’d been eagerly anticipating a return visit.

The plan: sleep at some point on the flight before landing at 9 AM, then get a taxi to the hotel, drop our bags, and start walking! 

Did we execute the plan? Mostly. Except the sleeping bit. In spite of some Tylenol PM, we’d simply been unable to replicate the few hours’ sleep we’d got on last year’s flight to Barcelona.

After landing right on time at 9 AM, we took a tarmac bus to the terminal where the EU’s new Entry/Exit (EES) system lay in wait. The system, which replaces passport stamping, had just gone live in the past month or so, and passengers from non-EU countries were encountering significant delays going through immigration due to the first-time biometric registration (facial scan and digital fingerprints) and occasional technical glitches that were occurring.

The lines were incredibly long and slow moving. It took me three tries to get the automated system to process me, while it never did succeed for Rona and we had to go to a separate, but thankfully short line staffed by a human. On a positive note, by the time “Big Brother-Europe” had our vitals, our bags were already out and ready. 

Bags in tow, we followed the overhead signs in the terminal and made our way out to the taxi line. There’s loads of taxicabs, and a couple of people pointing you to the right size vehicles seemingly based on how much luggage you’ve got. The driver loaded our bags into the back of the cab and we hopped in. 

Two important things to note about taxi drivers in Barcelona. First, while English is commonly spoken in Spain’s tourist areas, taxi drivers in Barcelona are far more likely to speak only Spanish and/or Catalan with maybe a word or two of English. Knowing this, I had printed the hotel’s name and address information off their web site and handed it to the driver. 

Additionally, tipping is not expected because, as my google search had indicated, taxi drivers there make a living wage. If the driver loads your luggage, and most automatically do this, or if you feel like you got exemplary service, feel free to ask them to round up to the nearest Euro. We paid for virtually everything in Europe using Apple Pay, and by law, all official black and yellow city cabs are equipped with contactless payment terminals that support Apple and Google Pay.

Sleepless in Barcelona

When all was said and done, we rolled up to the hotel at 11 AM, and amazingly our room was ready! We brought our bags up to the room, freshened up, resisted the very strong urge to take a refreshing nap and headed back out into the wilds of Barcelona, with coffee as our first stop.

According to Google Maps, there were quite a few coffee shops on the walk from our hotel to the Boqueria, so I chose Cotti Coffee based purely on the reviews and convenience of its location. We weren’t aware at the time that this is a Chinese multinational chain of coffee shops, nor were we aware that they exist in multiple locations in New York City.

The place wasn’t particularly busy, and we were able to order relatively quickly. One challenge for us in European coffee shops is that we like cream in our coffee, which isn’t really a thing unless you are ordering something like a latte, flat white, or macchiato. While I love a flat white, Rona’s an iced-americano girl and likes just milk or cream. Our attempt at asking for milk in the iced coffee engendered much discussion between the two workers with the one in the back nodding a bunch, so we figured it was sorted out. But after an unreasonably long wait, the coffees came out, Rona’s without cream. Oh well.

After a ten minute walk through the Gothic Quarter and across La Rambla, we’d arrived at the Boqueria, a market with food stalls carrying fresh seafood, Iberian ham, cheese, fresh fruit and juices, candy, and more, and that has so many vloggers tasting and sharing its culinary wonders. We were hungry for Iberian ham and cheese, and thirsty for some fresh squeezed juice, both of which are offered at numerous stalls.

The last time we’d visited the market, it was a Friday afternoon, and it had been fairly busy both with tourists and quite possibly locals.  However, it was late morning on a Thursday so it wasn’t too crowded. 

We started with some orange juice, which we’d remembered from last year as somehow being the best OJ we’d ever had in our lives. There are colorful stalls all over the market with mixed and single-fruit juices standing in ice, ready to be bought and drunk. Those cost 2.50 euros, or around $2.90. At the stall we picked during this trip, they only sold orange juice that is freshly squeezed while you wait. That cost 3.50 euros, or about $4. There’s quite a lot of oranges involved in the process, and the juice was terrific. Honestly though, the cold OJ sitting on ice that we’d had from a different stall in 2025 was life-altering by comparison.

Next up was mission Jamon, and after critically eyeing multiple locations in the market, we eventually settled on a paper cone stuffed with Jamón Ibérico and cheese from Joan La Llar del Pernil. They really do pile this deliciously salty ham in, and for about $7, you cannot beat it, and you can’t bring it home. 

But now, we needed some form of shellfish – clams, squid, octopus, what have you, and there were many stalls that had bar seating offering this sort of food. However, there was this one place we wanted to find – El Quim – that we had seen in numerous Youtube videos. We did eventually stumble upon it and luckily there were seats available. 

It was now lunchtime, we’d had our juice, so it seemed right to get an Estrella Damm lager to go with some Patatas Bravas and their house specialty – baby squid with two fried eggs. The patatas bravas were really good and spicy, and comparable with some of the better ones we’d had last year. The house specialty is a unique experience, with a rich, briny flavor from breaking the egg yolks into the garlic sauce, and combining the caramelized baby squid and crispy-edged fried eggs. This whole meal cost 36.70 euros (we paid cash this time).

With our bellies full, we headed out of the Boqueria for a ten minute walk among road construction to the end of La Rambla to see the huge 19th century Columbus monument near the waterfront. At the top of the monument is a 24 foot bronze statue sitting atop a huge Corinthian column. It supposedly depicts Columbus pointing to the new world and marks the location where Columbus reported back to Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand V after returning from his first trip to the new continent.

After much picture taking, we crossed into Port Vell, Barcelona’s historic waterfront harbor and strode along the Moll de la Fusta, a palm-lined waterfront promenade, heading toward Barceloneta.

Much activity was afoot in the area, with the weekend-long Meat and Fire Festival getting ready to start the next day, featuring open fire cooking from top chefs. We’d be missing it.

The lack of sleep and some cranky joints were telling us to skip the local scenery in Barceloneta for now, and instead head back toward the Gothic quarter. With Airpods connected to Google Maps on my phone in my pocket, we walked toward the Cathedral of Barcelona and after listening to the street musician in front of the cathedral for a short while, we settled down for some outlandishly good Dulce de Leche gelato and a crispy Coke Zero at Forn Condal right across the way. This place also offers coffee and all sorts of baked goods, but we were happy with our $8 purchase.

While we indulged and rested our bones, I checked whether there were any tickets available to tour the Cathedral of Barcelona, which is a 14th-century Gothic masterpiece and seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona. Fortunately there was immediate availability, so I immediately bought two tickets online for about $37. Hauling ourselves to our feet, we walked across the square toward the cathedral.

Cathedral of Barcelona

The ticket included rooftop access plus an audio guide, which you access via your phone. Unfortunately, neither of us could get it to consistently work as it kept switching back to the Spanish guide before we could download it. There’s also not much cellular signal inside the cathedral. This really did not get in the way of the experience.

There are really few words to describe this solemn, vast place. It is entirely different from Sagrada Familia. Hopefully the photos here give an idea of the vastness of the space. The Nave, Altar and Choir are stunning. Beneath the altar sits a crypt housing the remains of Saint Eulalia, a 13-year-old martyred in 303 AD. 

The rooftop terraces, which you access by elevator, offer panoramic views of the entire Gothic Quarter, the bell towers and central dome.

There is also something unique seeing Sagrada Familia in the distance while standing on the roof of a 600+ year old cathedral in an entirely different section of the city.

Finally, we went into the Cloister, a quiet courtyard with pointed Gothic arches and a central garden. Two parts of this serene location surprised and delighted us. First, as soon as we walked in and just to the right in the garden sat the curious Saint George fountain, featuring L’ou com balla, or the dancing egg, which spun and bobbed up and down atop a jet of water.

Second, around the other side of the garden was a lovely view of an orange tree and a pond, but more unexpected were the 13 white geese quietly wandering about. They represented the age of Saint Eulalia when she was martyred. 

It was 3:30 PM, by which point we’d been awake for about 26 hours minus a ten minute cat nap on the flight across the Atlantic. We had specific dinner plans for no sooner than 7:30 that night, which is the earliest most restaurants open for the evening. No amount of coffee was going to help us get there without a short nap back at the hotel. Keeping the hallucinations at bay, we exited the cathedral and through the Gothic Quarter’s labyrinth of narrow, winding roads and alleys. 

With a quick stop at the Supermercat nearest the hotel for a bottle of soda for the room, we hauled ourselves up to our hotel room for some required sleep. To acclimate to the time zone and not ruin the next few days of our vacation, we made sure to set an alarm on a phone. Definitely do this, otherwise you’ll find yourself awake in the middle of the Barcelona night, and will have to stay up the next day.

Seafood in El Born

In 2025, we visited Puertocillo’s location near Sagrada Família for a late lunch. This time, we’d avail ourselves of their El Born location, which was only about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. It’s known for its market-style ordering, where you select fresh seafood and shellfish from a display counter and choose how you want it cooked (e.g., grilled, steamed). We’d really enjoyed it in 2025.

Refreshed from a short sleep, we left the hotel and crossed Via Laietana – the road on which the hotel sits – into the neighborhood of El Born. El Born features medieval streets that are slightly wider and definitely straighter than those in the Gothic Quarter. It’s a bit brighter and more artsy. It’s also less touristy and crowded, which at night left us a little unsettled on the quieter, more deserted part of the walk.

Even though it’s less touristy than the Gothic Quarter, there are still souvenir shops here and there, and we popped into one to buy some cheap Barcelona magnets for some “collectors” back home. Sensing we were tourists, the lovely shop owner goodnaturedly warned us about both pickpockets and wristwatch snatchers and told us to be careful out there.

Let’s talk seafood. We arrived at Puertocillo right when they opened at 7:30 PM, and found a few other groups already lined up. We bellied up to the counter, making it known that we were ahead of some other people who were trying to slip in ahead of us from the other side. (How rude!) 

We chose a bag of mussels, octopus, and two bundles of razor clams. We asked for the mussels with a tomato sauce, the octopus grilled, and the clams cooked a la plancha and topped with olive oil, garlic and parsley. Because we hadn’t seen a vegetable (potatoes don’t count) in more than a day, we also ordered one green salad. 

Once you pick your seafood and how you want it cooked, you walk around to a bar and order drinks and bread. We asked for one piece of bread — they charge for bread — to share for dipping and a couple of Estrella Damm’s. We paid, received a pager and itemized receipt, and took a tray and our drinks to an available table. 

The rules are, once the pager goes off, you bring your tray and receipt to the kitchen window. The person in the window puts the food that’s ready on the tray and crosses those items off on your receipt. We got paged twice to complete our order.

The plate of mussels was overwhelmingly humongous and the sauce delicious and ripe for the bread dipping.

The octopus was cooked perfectly, and served with some potatoes. The razor clams – oh I love me some razor clams – were amazing and I am sad now that I’m home writing this that I don’t have razor clams in front of me. The entire meal with drinks cost $69 (58 Euros), with the octopus accounting for a third of it. A whole lot of that kind of fresh seafood, cooked to order for that price? That’s not happening at home.

Meal consumed, we bussed our tray to another window and headed back through the streets of El Born toward the hotel. It was then we realized we probably needed dessert. Because, clearly we’d never have the opportunity for dessert with every meal on the cruise. 

We found a bakery in the Gothic Quarter near the hotel called Pastisseria la Colmena. It’s been around in one form or another since 1849 and seemed pretty popular based on the number of people inside as it was getting ready to close. We picked three items of chocolatey deliciousness that I could honestly not name, but they cost around $11.50 and we ate two of them that night and the other… oh, that may still be in Rona’s bag. We better check that.

And with that, our pretty full day in Barcelona was coming to a close. Tomorrow was a big day as we’d be boarding the Celebrity Xcel for our sailing east on the Mediterranean and then the Aegean. We were going to be in the Retreat, so we could show up as early as we wanted and be among the first to board! 

Keep an eye on the Xcel Mediterranean 2026 page or subscribe down below to be notified when the next trip report goes live. It’ll cover everything we experienced on embarkation day!

But before you go, if you are worried about pickpockets in Barcelona, what follows is some bonus content.

Avoiding Pickpockets

You’ve probably read or heard about pickpockets in Barcelona. In two visits to Barcelona we’ve been fortunate to not have had any issue, but we know others who have. Here are our recommendations:

• Keep nothing in your back pockets, especially not a wallet or phone.
• Don’t walk around with much in the way of valuables and carry minimal cash.
• Don’t whip out your wallet or open your purse looking for cash or a credit card in a crowded area. 
• Use mobile payments – tap to pay – on your phone. I used Apple Pay for almost everything so that my wallet stayed in my front pocket.
• Don’t walk around in a crowded area with your phone out. When we were trying to navigate the streets of Barcelona with Google Maps, I had an Air Pod in my ear and phone in my pocket with the app verbally telling me where to go as we walked. 
• Handbags and backpacks
  • Use a purpose built secure one, or make yours secure.
  • Rona uses a Travelon cross body bag, which is slash proof and has locks on each zipper.
  • I walk around with a regular old backpack with each zipper secured with a clip. The clip has to be manually removed in order to open the zipper.
  • My backpack has an Airtag hidden inside, in case someone manages to snatch the whole thing.
  • Wear your backpack in front instead of on your back. (I don’t love to do this)
  • Be careful what you do with it when you are sitting down, especially outside. Attach it to something like a chair or table leg.

That’s a lot, but really, just be aware of your surroundings, realize you are in a city and keep your stuff out of sight and you’ll be fine.