A Quick Introduction to Barcelona, Spain

Many readers may be curious about travelling or even moving to a new city, and have many questions and concerns about it. If some of you have ever considered moving to Barcelona in sunny Spain, this post will cover what you need to know! The Barcelona experts over at OK Apartment made a large-scale study by interviewing and surveying hundreds of expats that made the move to Barcelona and here they share their thoughts with us about the city. It might just whet your appetite to visit the Catalan capital!

Barcelona is a very cosmopolitan city where you'll find people from all over the world, whether it's through tourism or expats living there, but a general concept that all foreigners tend to share is that when they come to Barcelona they fall head over heels in love with it. This is because it's a city that offers everything including culture, beautiful architecture, beaches, mountains, sports (FC Barcelona), a wide choice of food, art, and mild climate throughout most of the year, even if sometimes in summer it can be too hot for those not accustomed to it.

Barcelona is also the most visited city in Spain, even more so than the capital Madrid. It has an international airport that allows connections to practically anywhere in the world. At a European level, geographically, it's very well located.

The choice for activities here are incredible, because there's always concerts, shows, performances, festivals, and many holidays, throughout the entire year, meaning there's hardly a day that will go by when there's nothing to do.

In addition to all this Barcelona offers a lot of academic possibilities so if you are thinking of going as a student to learn in Barcelona, you'll meet many likeminded young people from around the world.

What do foreigners living in Barcelona say about it?

• Just arrived and looking for a new home? Can’t find anything? A good idea might be to rent a long-term apartment to get you started while finding a permanent place to live.
• Which area should you live in? The best neighborhoods according to people immigrating to Barcelona are Gràcia (18%), Poble Nou (10%), Sarrià - Sant Gervasi (9%), Born - Sant Pere (9%), Eixample Dret (8% ) Eixample Esquerre (7%) and Gòtic (5%).
• What do expats like most about Barcelona? The most valued aspect of the city is its quality of life (43%) followed by the weather (25%) and culture (12%). Almost all respondents (99%) consider that the quality of life in the city is either excellent, good or satisfactory. Only 1% found it to be below satisfactory.
• What are the best local Barcelona traditions? The local tradition that foreigners like the most is Sant Jordi or St. George's Day (33%) - where local couples share roses and books, followed by Castellers (18%) - a human tower spectacle, Correfocs (8%) - a street fireworks parade, and National Catalonia Day on 11 September (8%) - when locals commemorate their loss of political freedoms to the Spanish Bourbon army.
• And what did they not like about Barcelona? The levels of Mass tourism (34%), closed character of the local Catalans (26%), pollution (19%), economy (16%), crime (8%), political issues between Catalonia and Spain (8%) and Bureaucracy (5%).

For a foreigner, there will always be good and bad things about moving or visiting a new city and a new country. It's all relative and our experiences are not always going to be the same as those of others. This post was quick introduction for getting a clearer idea of how Barcelona is as a city to live in or visit.

I hope that it's been a sufficient introduction, and if you want to learn more about moving to Barcelona, feel free to write to me!

"This post was quick introduction for getting a clearer idea of how Barcelona is as a city to live in or visit, for a more in depth look, visit the original study here."

This is a contribution from one of our contributing writers.

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