Barcelona bus route removed from map apps to tackle tourist overcrowding
Residents welcome removal of number 116 route, often used to get to Park Güell
March 2024
Entrance fees, visitor zones and taxes: how Europe’s biggest cities are tackling overtourism
From Seville to Venice to Amsterdam, Europe is learning to improve locals’ lives by curbing tourists’ enthusiasm
February 2024
Cool for Catalans: 10 stylish places to stay in Barcelona
Picasso’s Barcelona: in the footsteps of the artist as a young man
April 2023
Picasso pilgrimage: a Spanish art trail marking 50 years since his death
From Málaga to Madrid, there’s a fiesta of special exhibitions this year in the places where the artist lived and worked
February 2023
Barcelona’s ‘other’ great architect: five of his finest buildings
Catalonia’s design gems don’t begin and end with Gaudí. The works of Lluís Domènech i Montaner deserve a closer look on the centenary of his death
April 2022
Rail journey of the month
Rail route of the month: Barcelona to Cádiz, the slow train right across Spain
Our slow travel expert takes a 12-hour odyssey from Mediterranean Catalonia – via Cervantes, bandit and sherry country – to Atlantic Andalucía
February 2022
Spain by train: a three city mini-break to Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid
Turning a Spanish city break into a train trip to remember by visiting three cities and exploring their distinctive food, art and culture
November 2021
Back to Barcelona: where to eat, drink and sleep
From international hotels to Spanish flavours with a twist, the best new openings in the Catalan capital
October 2021
Want to see the real Catalonia? Then look beyond Barcelona
From Pyrenean peaks to flamingo-dotted deltas, a new tour draws visitors away from busy Barcelona
October 2020
La Rambla: plans to transform Barcelona's tourist rat run into a cultural hub
Spanish hotel group to offer guests free Covid testing
May 2020
‘Things have to change’: tourism businesses look to a greener future
Barcelona without the tourists: ‘We've reclaimed our city but inherited a ghost town’
December 2018
Belle and Sebastian launch indie music cruise
The band’s frontman, Stuart Murdoch, discusses plans for the four-day Boaty Weekender festival in the Med next summer
August 2018
The Guardian picture essay
How tourism is killing Barcelona – a photo essay
One of the coolest destinations in Europe just two decades ago, Barcelona is now so overcrowded it has become a tourist theme park – and is losing the character that made it so popular
July 2018
Barcelona continues crackdown on illegal holiday apartments
Residents in tourism hotspots have had enough. So what's the answer?
June 2018
'Tourists go home, refugees welcome': why Barcelona chose migrants over visitors
Increasingly it is tourism, not immigration, that Barcelonans see as a threat to their city’s identity, though numbers of both have skyrocketed in recent years
November 2017
On the radar
Gaudí opening to lead Barcelona’s tourism comeback
The first house designed by the iconic architect – exuberant Casa Vicens in the beleaguered city’s Gràcia district – opens to the public later this month. ‘This could be a moment of peace,’ says its manager
