Park Güell, Barcelona

This time last week I was enjoying the summer sun in Barcelona. It was my first visit to the city and it surely won’t be my last. I had such a fantastic time and now I find myself craving tapas and 3 euro wine!

On our first day we arrived at our hotel the H10 Urquinaona Plaza to check-in, our room wasn’t quite ready yet as it was before 3pm, but they did of course provide us with a welcoming glass of Cava, this was my kind of hotel! The hotel was lovely inside and the staff were so friendly and helpful. The girl at check-in gave us a map and advised us of the best spots and also told us of some close by cafes etc to spend our time whilst we waited for our room. There was also a library area where you could go on the computers and print out tickets, which she had advised us to do for the main attractions. We decided to do this first and booked some tickets for Park Güell and Sagrada Familia. Then we ventured off to get our bearings and explore what was near the hotel, it was so central and right onto the Urquinaona Square and the Placa de Catalunya where all the main shops are and then also leads onto Las Ramblas.

Anyways once we finally checked-in, the hotel had some lovely touches such as the marshmallows in a jar at the lift lobby and the room also had a coffee machine and a complimentary bottle of water each day. The room itself was very small, so I’d definitely recommend maybe going up a room grade but it was lovely and clean and the bathroom and shower were brilliant, that aside we weren’t in the room very much so it didn’t really matter.

As we had booked tickets for Park Güell that evening we got ready and headed straight up. It was a gorgeous sunny day so the views would be perfect. Park Güell is situated on one of the highest points so gives you a really great view overlooking the city. The park itself is free to get into but access to monumental zone which features the Gaudi work is charged at €7 per ticket, I’d advise buying these online before you go. We took the tube from right outside our hotel and then were greeted by outside escalators up the biggest hill I have possibly ever seen!

We went through one of the side entrances of the park so got a good view of the park  and saw some pretty amazing cacti!

We then rushed down to the monumental zone for our time slot. Once inside this it’s a big wide open space surrounded by the gorgeous mosaic seating area and gives another amazing view over the city. Of course I stopped for a photo shoot opportunity!

Shop The Look

Downstairs there is more mosaic art and the most amazing giant columns. Down the dragon stairway where there is mosaic water fountain leads the way to the porters lodge pavilions and the museum.

I am so glad we did this on our first day, instead of spending time sort of wandering around not knowing where to go which is usually the case when you land somewhere new. The views and art are really amazing, so I’d definitely recommend going here. We then made our way for some food, of course the only way was tapas which I’ll share with you in tomorrow’s post!