Where to stay in Barcelona

The old town splits into the Gòtic, around the cathedral, and the Born, across Via Laietana, around Santa Maria del Mar. The Born is the nicer place to sleep: its streets are just as narrow, but less overrun than those running down to La Rambla.

Avoid rooms on or near Plaça Reial: the bars close late, and the street-cleaning trucks come through after them.

West of La Rambla, the Raval mixes the contemporary art museum, the Boqueria market on its edge, Pakistani and Filipino grocers, and bars full of regulars.

To sleep, the northern part, between the MACBA and Plaça Universitat, is the most pleasant. The south, towards the port, much less so at night.

Sant Antoni revolves around its covered market, renovated in 2018, and the bars of Carrer del Parlament. Across Avinguda del Paral·lel, Poble-sec climbs towards Montjuïc; Carrer de Blai lines up pintxos bars where you pay by the skewer.

Both districts are residential and quieter at night than the old town.

Cerdà's grid, with its cut-corner blocks, spreads out on either side of Passeig de Gràcia. The Sagrada Família is to the east, twenty minutes on foot.

It is the easiest district with a family or a pushchair, as long as you avoid rooms on Gran Via or Carrer d'Aragó, two very busy roads.

The western half of the grid has no major sight, and that is what makes it pleasant. Carrer d'Enric Granados, nearly car-free, lines up shaded terraces, and the Ninot market serves the area.

Around Consell de Cent and Muntaner, the "Gaixample" is the city's gay district, lively in the evening.

A former village annexed to Barcelona in 1897, Gràcia keeps its squares, Plaça del Sol, de la Virreina and de la Vila, where people dine outside in the evening. The streets stay quiet enough to sleep, and you meet more residents than visitors.

Check your dates: in mid-August the district festival decorates the streets for a week, and the crowds and music go on late.

The former textile-mill district has been reinvented around the Rambla del Poblenou and the 22@ business quarter. The Bogatell and Mar Bella beaches, a few minutes' walk away, are less crowded than Barceloneta.

You stay here for the sea and the quiet, and take the metro for every visit.