Barcelona 2013 Holiday – Bars And Nightlife

Thirsty much? haha 😉

Since I am from Newcastle I am used to going out and having a huge choice of bars, all more or less next door to each other. It’s a good thing, and I am lucky to live in a city that has this luxury, but I know places like London, Barcelona and probably most other cities are not like this.

We went to a couple of places on or around La Rambla, and they were alright but nothing spectacular. An Irish bar called Cheers which had a Spanish doorman who looked like a traditional bouncer from the 80s was on the door. We went to an Australian themed bar called Hogan’s and just like this one it was a traditional style bar, but with upmarket bar prices. They were charging over €5 for most drinks, over €6 for pints and €8 if you wanted anything with imported/premium spirits in.

We did find a nice bar just off a street off La Rambla which was a much better place, unfortunately I can’t remember the name! 🙁 We decided that La Rambla was not the best place to go for drinks, the places are too expensive for what they are, there doesn’t seem to be too many and they were not even all that busy. It’s definitely a tourist trap, if you want good bars or cheap bars then La Rambla is not where they’re at.

We went to Kulas (I think that’s what it was called!) and the place was not the best, the (British) waiter came over and decided to tell us “You can’t stand and drink at the table, you have to sit, it’s the law“, the next night we were going to go into Cerveceria Catalane but it was packed with loads of people standing drinking outside! Don’t go to Kulas, read the Trip Advisor reviews to see why!

We tried The Philharmoic for a drink, it was a nice enough place, but rather quiet. It was close to the hotel so was worth trying out for a drink. It’s a nice place if you want a quiet drink or watch the sports on their large screens. They also do traditional British pub food, although I did not eat there.

We went to Scobies, an Irish bar which was pretty good, had a nice selection of drinks and were a bit more sensibly priced at around €4.50 for a bottle or €4.60 for a pint.

The bar we went to the most was The George Payne. A traditional Irish bar, they claim to be Barcelona’s biggest Irish bar, although you’d never know it by the front door, but once you’re inside the place opens up. It’s a nice place, and if you buy their offers it’s probably as cheap as you’ll get in Barcelona for a nice place like this. 5 bottles of Heineken for €10, 2 Smirnoff vodka and a can of Red bull for €5, 3 Jaeger shots and a can of Red Bull for €10, it was the place to go! 😀 It had plenty of people, especially the locals on Sunday night when Barcelona played Malaga 🙂

We went to a place called La Taverna De Barcelona which was a nice little place with huge beer! A medium was massive, and they gave you free popcorn with your drink.

We only really saw 1 or 2 stag parties in the bars we went to on the nights we were there, which I was quite amazed by. We did see a couple through the day too, all British ones as well 🙁