Top tips for a Spanish course in Barcelona

Barcelona is one of the most dynamic and stylish cities in the world. Summer is serious party time, but year-round this Spanish city sizzles – it’s always on the cutting edge of architecture, food, fashion, style, music and good times and is the perfect place to learn Spanish. Forget your worries about Catalan ‘v’ Castilian Spanish, you’ll learn Castilian Spanish on a Spanish course in Barcelona with the added benefits of picking up a few interesting local phrases as well.

Barcelona has so many immigrants from other parts of Spain and Latin America and there is so much tourism that different dialects and accents are the norm so that everyone is comfortable with Spanish meaning there’s no excuse not to put your Spanish into practice outside of the classroom.  If I can do it, so can you!

Here’s a few things of my favourite things to do whilst you are in Barcelona….

1. Go to the Café Opera for churros and chocolate on the Ramblas, across from the Opera

2. Get your fill of the gloriously surreal Gaudi – if you are short on time, the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell are not to be missed and as luck would have it, our Spanish school is right by the Sagrada Familia so there’s no excuse!

3. Head to the Picasso museum – although Picasso hails from Malaga, the museum is my favourite in Barcelona and is well worth a visit and the 6 Euro entrance fee but get there early as it closes at 3pm

4. Get yourself down to the awesome Barca stadium – tickets go on sale a week before the match and you can buy them from the stadium (you can get them from caixa if you have a Spanish credit card),  just entering the stadium has been known to make a grown man cry

5. Boqueria market and Spanish cookery class – Spanish food is often overlooked in the great gastronomy of the world which is a shame as its delicious and you can learn to cook yourself on a fun cookery class which for under 70 euros, you get a guided tour of the Boqueria market which is an event in itself, a cookery course and all the food, wine and coffee you can drink – catch here is you have to eat what you cook but trust me, after a few hours with Chef Teresa, you’ll be a dab hand in the kitchen – expect jealously from your mates back home when you cook up a storm.

You have the beach, a buzzing city with some of the best nightlife you’ll ever experience, fine food, great bars, hidden streets, a great transport system and bags of culture packed into a city that bursts with life and if you learn Spanish in Barcelona you’ll get so much more out of it…