Fodor's Barcelona

I read this book before and during my latest trip to Barcelona. It has excellent descriptions of each historic site or museum you will want to visit -- not too short; not too long. The top things to see are prioritized with a "Fodor's Choice" star and are accurate. Included are interesting side bar stories to enhance your enjoyment of the place you are visiting. Lots of interesting shops and rstaurants are described with addresses, etc. and are mostly accurate. Although this was my 5th trip to Barcelona, I found some new shops and sites to visit because of this book. I recommend taking this book on your trip for the larger more descriptive narratives of what you are seeing each day, and taking Frommer's "Barcelona day by day" as your abbreviated guide to use while walking around. Frommer's Barcelona Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket) (The Frommer's book also has better detailed maps to use while walking around.) I also used this book while visiting the Catalan countryside and medieval villages north of Barcelona ("the Tuscany of Spain"). If you visit this area you will also want to buy a Michelin map for the Catalonia province to find all of the back country roads. The author lives in Barcelona and it shows. I highly recommend this book!

Please note that the true title for this book refers to Barcelona AND surrounding areas (including not so near Bilbao). If visiting Barcelona AND the surrounding countryside (reaching north to the French border, and south along the coast and wine regions), this is your book. It has far more historic detail than the much slimmer Fodor's book on only Barcelona, and gives realistic touring information on how to add Bilbao to one's itinerary. However, for Barcelona alone, the slimmer volume is more focused, has better neighborhood maps, and is easier to carry around town. Although published in May 2008, Euro prices are already a bit out of date (exacerbated in December 2008 by a falling US/Euro exchange).

loved this book during my trip! It has great walking tours that help you navigate the confusing (and sometimes not very well-marked) streets and fantastic coverage of everything Gaudi. It also had excellent suggestions for tapas places that were delicious. I highly recommend this book for your travels to Barcelona.

This book is great for anyone who wants to focus their trip in Barcelona but still take some side trips outside of the city. The book made it easy for us to decide what we wanted to see, and then to find our way around the city. Directions and tips on how to get places were much appreciated, esp in some of those areas with tiny twisted streets. The history and background information was informative (esp since we don't speak Spanish) and surprisingly fun to read. We weren't sure where to go out of the city, so we just followed the guide. It leads you from Barcelona to Bilbao along the Costa Brava, which is gorgeous. There's just enough information about the seaside villages along the way to help you decide where to stop, eat and stay. We let the book really shape our trip- and it turned out to be a great one!