Barcelona Christmas Markets Break

On the 29th of November 2024, we took a family city break to the wonderful Barcelona, staying three nights at the lovely Andante hotel, transfer time from the airport to the hotel was around 20 minutes and a reasonable cost of 30 Euros for a private taxi transfer one way. 

Location wise the Andante hotel is in the Raval Quarter in the Ciutat Vella district and around a 5 minute walk to Las Ramblas in one direction and around 8-10 minutes walk down to the sea-front of Barcelona.

As a family with two teenage girls, we booked two rooms and were allocated room 203 with a king-size bed for the adults and room 204 across the corridor with twin beds for our girls, these were in a great location for us as there were a set of doors from the main corridor that could be closed off to make it a private entrance just for our family.

The Andante hotel has a fabulous roof terrace with a plunge pool, still open in November/December although it’s not heated. 

The views from this roof terrace over all areas of the city are simply stunning day and night. 

On day one we walked along Barcelona seafront, and through some fabulous areas of the city, taking in the stunning architecture and the pavement cafe culture. We made our way the Sagrada Familia Catholic church, which we had pre-booked our entrance tickets for on their official website, ahead of our weekend away, including a trip up one of the towers, which I recommend. 

I can highly recommend a visit to Sagrada Familia, but don't forget this beautiful church is still under construction over 140 years later!

As it was the end of November, there were multiple Christmas market stalls around the Sagrada Familia, and various areas of Barcelona including the waterfront area.

On day two we made a 30 minute walk from our hotel in the Raval district to the Telefonica El Puerto cable car, we took the trip one way up to the Montjuic area, and stopped for a drink with stunning blue sky views over the city. 

We then did a return cable car ticket Montjuic to Montjuic Castle, this is the area which also overlooks the Olympic stadium. 
To make our way back down to the city, we took the funicular from Montjuic to Paral-lel station and meandered our way for waterfront drinks and then through the back streets of Barcelona for a fabulous traditional tapas at the gorgeous little Bodega Visconia, which I highly recommend 

Evening time saw us spending time at the Christmas markets.

The weather was super mild at 20 degrees average through the entire weekend, rising to as much as 23 degrees on the 2nd of December!

This was a bargain weekend break for us on a school inset weekend, Barcelona is a beautiful city that I would definitely return to year-round and would not hesitate to recommend to others as a short break too, for families, couples or groups of friends