Things to Avoid in Barcelona

Advice, dos and don’ts when visiting Barcelona

Barcelona is generally a safe city. But the radical increase in the number of tourists visiting it has obviously attracted a lot of thieves and robbers. The usual precautions apply: keep an eye on your gear wherever you go, and if you want to stay on the safe side do not carry expensive cameras and don’t wear expensive jewellery – this way you will not attract too much attention from robbers. The situations to avoid are the following:
 card games with betting involved: this are always scams to rob unsuspecting (or foolish) tourists.
 someone approaches you with some apparently innocent intent, like trying to sell you stuff, but gets too close to you: they might be trying to take your wallet!
 you get distracted by street performers and stand there with your nose in the air: beware, someone in the crowd might be trying to reach a hand in your bag.
 if you come by car or rent one, careful not to leave precious stuff inside; it is better to leave it in a surveilled parking lot, anyway. It can happen, especially at night, that people break a glass and take everything inside the car.
 do not go alone at night in the dark alleys in the Barrio Gotico or in the port area.
 reports tell us that the Maremagnum area can be a bit dangerous at night, especially because of fights and the like... Otherwise, you are safe, it is not a very dangerous city. Other pieces of advice:
 Beware of tap water, which is not very good; drinking it can lead to mild intestine trouble.
 Take a good look at the meter when you’re in a Taxi: check that it’s running, and check the standard prices which should be exposed within the Taxi. Some dishonest Taxi drivers might take profit of the fact that you cannot argue in their language and charge you big sums.
 Remember, Barcelona is in Catalunya, which is an independent region: here most people don’t speak Spanish as a main language, but Catalan, which is a fairly different language (even if it is easy to understand if you know Spanish very well), and they’re very proud of it.