How to not be squirted with a water pistol in Barcelona

Picture the scene: a pair of young travelers are taking a break from the midsummer sunshine in the shade of a café along one of Barcelona's famous Rambla walkways.

He is working his way through a glass of white wine, she is sipping mineral water.

Out of nowhere, our unsuspecting protagonists are under fire.

There are spots of water (at least seven) ALL over his shorts. His companion is forced to swing her bag over her shoulder as they beat a slow retreat, a bemused smile spreading over the man's face, who seems to have borne the brunt of the onslaught.

Across the globe, sensationalist newspaper writers sharpened their pencils to capture the true devastation of the shocking event:

'Angry' (Evening Standard) Catalan protestors 'blasted' (Washington Post) the now 'drenched' (GB News) victims who 'cowered' (Daily Mail) after an unsuspecting 'attack' (Daily Telegraph). As the dust lifted, a half-eaten slice of tortilla, abandoned amid the 'chaos' (Daily Express), became a poignant symbol of the destruction wrought on the poor, unsuspecting diners just trying to eke out the last few scrapes in their cardboard ice cream tubs.

The truth is that there were about seven apparently good-natured protestors packing little water pistols and besides, most of the 'victims' trotted off with smiles on their faces or, at worst, a bemused look - but why let facts get in the way of a good headline?

Seriously, watch the video, it's actually quite amusing.

This protest, which amounted to around 2,800 locals (in a city of 1.7 million), was one of a series of anti-tourism protests which took place in Spain over the last few months. 15,000 protested in Málaga in June, 20,000 took to Mallorca's streets in July, and the Canary Islands mustered up 57,000 in April.

So, after 50 years of sun, sea and sangria, are Spaniards finally getting fed up of tourism? I don’t think so, it’s simply that business as usual is no longer acceptable to many.

There appear to be three main points of contention: 1) overcrowding, 2) behaviour and 3) short-term vacation rentals.

Overcrowding is the most visible issue. The city of Barcelona is home to 1.7 million people, yet received over 25 million overnight visitors in 2023. Add to that 3.6 million cruise passengers and day trippers from the resorts of the Costa Brava and you’re sailing past 30 million a year. The overwhelming majority of these naturally enough want to see a few key sights. In Barcelona, those hotspots are clustered along Las Ramblas, at the most famous Gaudí sights and into the old town.

This problem of overcrowding then intersects with the occasional bad behaviour of some visitors. We are probably all aware of the wild times synonymous with parts of the mainland, Mallorca and Ibiza. But that’s not the full story. It can also include being careless, or unaware. In Tenerife, some visitors were caught using camping stoves in the tinder-dry Teide National Park. In Barcelona, estimates suggest that tourists use almost twice as much water per day as locals despite there being a drought emergency under which locals are restricted to 230 litres of water use per day.

And perhaps the issue which sits at the heart of it all: short-term vacation rentals. In Barcelona, rents have increased 68% over the past 10 years (compared to 22% in London). The cost of buying a house has gone up 38%. "The only way you can afford to live right now in Barcelona is sharing with two, three, four people," said one local in the CNN piece. But it’s not just pressure AirBnB puts on housing supply for locals, there is also a direct knock-on effect in terms of behaviour.

There are the obvious horror stories around anti-social behaviour and parties but those are probably quite rare. Less apparent but more insidious is the fact that apartment buildings cease to be supportive neighborhoods. During the week they are empty. At weekends, visitors come but are out and about seeing the city most of the day and night, so streets feel more deserted, a less welcoming place to live. And that’s assuming the most impeccably behaved visitors. Add to this the fact that the local bakery, grocery store or barbers no longer have enough residents to support them, so they tend to close and get replaced by stores tailored for tourists – cafés and bars most obviously. In short, neighborhoods become, if not unliveable, at least more difficult and less practical to live in, and much less appealing.

Speaking from experience living in ever-popular Brighton, as a local living in a hotspot, you know how to dodge the worst of the crowds. You also know where behaviour tends to be worst, and so you move around that. It can be a bit of a pain, but it keeps the local economy going and people in work so there’s a quid pro quo. However, when tourism moves away from the honey-pot visitor sites and moves in next door, your rents start to rise, your stores start to close - you really don’t have a way to dodge that, beyond upping sticks and going somewhere less appealing or less known to tourists.

In truth though, all of these issues are contained within the concept of community. Where communities are overwhelmed, disrespected or even displaced, tensions naturally arise.

What’s the solution?

There are three obvious ways to tackle the problems:

1. Policy – legislative frameworks implemented at city, regional, national or transnational level to shift the dial.

2. Product – how is tourism being promoted, what experiences are being offered which can change the status quo? What language is being used?

3. People – which is to say each of us, our behaviour and choices.

Policy

This is really the driver of most of the recent protests in Spain. “We are not blaming the tourists… we want to pressure our government to change policies” said one protester to CNN.

On this, Barcelona has been pretty active of late. In 2022, new restrictions limited the freedom, size and decibel level of tour groups moving through the narrow streets of the old city.

In October 2023 the city announced that it would ban cruise ships from docking close to the city centre and instead force them to come in on shuttle buses from along the coast. A limit to seven ships a day has been imposed, down from 10 previously. Barcelona's own press office recently told CNN that "tourists who visit the city for less than 12 hours typically cause extra crowding at the main attractions". Let’s be honest, they have the 4 million-odd cruise ship passengers in the crosshairs of the water pistol here.

Most dramatically, Barcelona's mayor recently announced that the city would not renew the licences for the city's 10,000 short-term tourist lets. That’s an effective ban on AirBnB. A less draconian clampdown has been announced today by the adjacent Valencia region, but it's certainly a tightening of the rules. Interestingly the head of Valencia Tourism, Nuria Montés, has called out an important oversimplification: “tourist flats seem to have been identified as the cause of every problem,” she said, mentioning housing shortages and rising rents. “And I think that this is tremendously unfair.”

Then there’s the tourist tax which is split between the province of Catalonia and the city of Barcelona. If you are staying in a really posh hotel then you’ll pay €6.75 per night which is more or less what they charge for a cruise ship passenger staying less than 12 hours. In a four-star hotel, it’s €4,95. In a short-term rental, it’s higher at €5.50 a night, which is more or less what a cruise passenger staying more than 12 hours will pay.

More subtly, this spring, the city authorities took the unusually cunning step of removing a bus route to Gaudí's Park Güell from Google Maps. The park sits in a residential area up in the north of the city, well away from the tourist epicentre. It’s a pain to get to – the nearest metro station is a steep 15-minute walk away. Using Google Maps, tourists discovered the local bus from the city centre to the gates of the park – the route became so popular with tourists that the locals couldn’t get on. This policy move has pushed the inconvenience of Parc Güell’s location back onto the people who actually want to go there – as opposed those who happen to live nearby.

On policy matters, really we have little influence but we can at least appreciate the thinking behind them and appreciate that, done well, they are a means of our paying our way.

Product

This brings us somewhat neatly to how and what Pura Aventura offers visitors. This is an interesting one and, to a large extent, falls on us as a tour operator and experience provider to be thoughtful in what we are offering.

Barcelona has signalled a shift from quantity to quality tourism in changing its 15-year-old slogan from “Visit Barcelona” to “This is Barcelona”.

So what does quality look like? I think Eddie Fiegal put it best in her recent article for The Telegraph: "Many demonstrators say they value tourism – they just want tourists to visit responsibly and sustainably. That means frequenting small businesses, staying at locally owned hotels, and heading off the beaten track away from tourist hotspots."

It’s quite a big ask to say to someone visiting Barcelona for the first or second time to ‘simply’ head off and find the hidden treasures. It’s not that easy. I guess we all know about the ranks of influencers and wannabe-influencers all taking selfies of the same spot saying how amazing and undiscovered it is.

It’s actually a full-time job to continually discover, discard and improve knowledge of a place – we call it ‘working for Pura Aventura’.

Some elements of what we think makes for a great trip to Barcelona:

1. Stay in a hotel or guesthouse

Or to put it more bluntly, avoid short-term apartment rentals and chain hotels if possible. There are lots of small and lovely hotels across Barcelona. There are owner-run guest houses and there are still some original style AirBnBs where you stay in a house or home. Those all work well. We’ve just discovered a lovely small hotel set up by a group of friends, 20 rooms located just away from the centre, at the foot of Montjüic. The hotel is a community hub with meeting spaces for local businesses, a weekly jog for locals and visitors alike, provides exhibition space for Barcelona's artists and sells locally-produced items in its small store. You can rent out bikes to explore the area. On arrival, you are given a little book with independent restaurants, cafes and stores in the neighborhood. In short, it does all it can to create a way for you to get to know the surrounding community of Poble Sec. In doing so, you have a much more interesting experience in Barcelona plus your visit actively nourishes the community.

2. Don't just see the famous sights

Just off Las Ramblas is the Mercat de Boqueria, the most famous market in the city. It is an Instagrammer's paradise, with stall after stall piled high with exotic, colorful goodies. Once upon a time, it was where the locals came to do their shopping. Now they go elsewhere and leave Boqueria to the masses, a sea of smartphones. There are other, more authentic markets out there. Sant Antoní in particular is part of a thriving foodie hotspot. Mercat de Santa Catarina is as vibrant as its undulating ceramic roof.

It's OK to visit the Sagrada Familia or Park Güell (though it's best to do so on a guided tour at either end of the day). But take a walk along the Montjüic hill and you'll open up Barcelona's best views on a trail between beautiful gardens. Grácia still has a bit of a village feel, a kind of Hampstead-in-Barcelona. Before the city walls came down and the Eixample (Catalan for Expansion) swallowed it up, it was indeed a separate village completely disconnected from the city. Poblenou has been ambitiously dubbed Barcelona's answer to Brooklyn. What you see in the epicentre of Barcelona is only a fraction of what makes this part of Spain so special.

The smaller and historic cities of Girona and Tarragona are also an easy train ride away from the centre. Better still, let's also get you out of the city and into the Catalan mountains, countryside and coast. What you see in Barcelona is only a fraction of what makes this part of Spain so special.

3. Hire a local guide

It's all very well going off the beaten track, but it's not easy to put what you are seeing into context. How do we ensure that the 'proper' markets don't get flooded with visitors and go the same way as Boqueria? The answer is to hire a guide for at least a part of your trip. A good guide will not only share parts of the city that you wouldn't find yourself, but they are also local residents themselves and as such are best placed to act as guardians. They might take visitors to one market on one day, then their next clients to another the next to spread things out. They'll take you to their favorite neighborhood café for lunch and introduce you to the owners, who in turn get a little slice of the tourist dollar that they would not have otherwise got while you get a far more flavorful experience all round.

4. Go off-season

I was in Barcelona for a few days in November last year. My previous visit was in January. Blue skies, warm sunshine, fairly long days and manageable crowds even in the old town. On a day trip out to the Montserrat abbey, the late afternoon sun illuminated the serrated peaks of the mountain range as I walked back down from the chapels high above. It was a beautiful scene that only happens in winter months, or unless you stay until much later in the summer. Hotels have more availability and tend to be cheaper, plus you can still get out and about to see other parts of Catalonia, or take the train to Madrid or Seville. So where possible, actively aim away from the peaks.

5. Stay for longer

Honestly, spending a week in Barcelona makes for an amazing vacation. You can see all the sights, explore way off the beaten track and head out of the city into the mountains or along the coast for the day. You'll still leave wanting more. But even if you can't spare that, it's worth nudging your two-night stay to three, or three nights to four. Not only will you see much more and get much more out of your stay, the city and its people will reap greater benefit. But go on, spend a week there and see for yourself! If you stay longer than a week, the tourist tax stops by the way – it’s limited to seven nights.

6. Take the train

Did you know you can travel from Paris to London by train in the space of six hours or so? The journey whizzes you down through rural France, passing coastal lagoons frequented by flamingos as you get down south and cross through the Pyrenees into Spain. On my upcoming vacation in September, I'm taking the night train from Paris to Latour-de-Carol in the middle of the Pyrenees. From there a commuter train leaves you in Barcelona in time for lunch by the sea.

Taking the train even in one direction can dramatically cut the carbon footprint of your trip. Call it 49%. But it also adds a bit of adventure and sense of journey that you just don't get with EasyJet. From London St Pancras you'll be in Paris in no time. Spend a day seeing the sights, or better still exploring away from the crowds there, then spend the night on the train or in a little Parisian hotel by the station and you'll be in Barcelona the next, ready to explore. It's easy, we've even done the work for you: Ultimate Barcelona with Paris by Train.

Equally, Spain's rail network is incredible. It's 2.5 hours to Madrid, the same again to Seville or Córdoba. You can get a direct train to San Sebastián in the Basque Country, the other end of the Pyrenees. It's perfectly possible to base your whole trip around trains.

People

Let’s assume that, particularly if you are still reading, you are someone who likes to visit places where they are welcome. Someone who does not ever want to consider themselves part of a problem or to be unwittingly adding fuel to a fire. You accept the need for policy interventions and you understand the value in diversifying the tourist footprint within destinations. But the question of agency remains: what is it that we the traveller can and should be doing?

The choices, as we see them, for how travellers can approach popular places:

1. Don’t go away at all. It’s an option, for some. But for those of us who believe in the transformative power of travel, it’s a non-starter. Also, in the case of Spain, it’s about 15% of their economy so they wouldn’t thank you. Barcelona alone generates nearly €13bn a year from tourism, which is presumably paying for a lot of schools and hospitals. And water pistols. Let's face it, pre-Olympics Barcelona was a pretty grim place. So pulling up the drawbridge is great for the Spartans, but it’s a thumbs down from us.

2. Only go to places nobody else wants to go on vacation. I’m sure there’s a market for vacations in (picking a victim very, very carefully here…), Scranton. Or Slough (to stick with safely un-loveable locations for The Office). When I say ‘I’m sure’ that’s actually a lie, there is a reason people want to go to Windsor instead of Slough, to Barcelona more than nearby Manresa. This one’s a non-starter.

3. Only go to places nobody else knows about. There’s something in this but it only works sometimes. Barcelona is an undeniably thrilling city to experience. The Sagrada Familia is truly an extraordinary thing to behold. To actively avoid visiting any Gaudí whilst in Barcelona is an act of self-harm. Typically there is a nugget of legitimate interest in any hotspot and that’s got to be OK so this one’s a hard ‘no’.

4. Go thoughtfully to the famous places. Right…this comes down to the right product or at least taking time to seek out knowledge for yourself. What time of day/year is it best to experience a place? This is where local expertise comes in – that can be in the shape of Pura Aventura, or friends and family or just seeking out a really good local guide for a morning. The very act of asking yourself ‘how can I best visit X site?’ is a huge step forwards.

5. Mix a bit of known & unknown, thoughtfully. See what we’ve done here? I know that when I go to Barcelona I will always want to walk Las Ramblas, and that’s going to take me past the Boqueria market. That’s OK, I know what to expect. But I’m going to take time out to actually go to the Santa Catarina market and have lunch. I might even pack my running shoes to head out with the motley joggers of Poble Sec. It's highly unlikely that anyone would ever book a trip in order to go on a neighborhood jog. But when that run creates connections with the local community which is also home to the Sagrada Familia, our relationship with the place is transformed. Put simply, we feel more at home, more welcome and therefore more open to the wonderful things that happen when we travel well.

Assuming that you are the type to share common courtesy, decency, humility and gratitude as you travel then there’s not much more to add. These places absolutely still welcome visitors. The right visitors. Enjoy!