The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-15 · by Ben Groundwater
It’s tempting to wear a raincoat in Barcelona.
asserted
It → ’ → Barcelona
The sun is shining, it’s another gorgeous Catalan day, but you’ve heard the stories.
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you → shin → stories
You know the reputation.
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You → know → reputation
Tell ChatGPT to create an image of mass travel and the problems it can bring, and there’s a good chance the spires of La Sagrada Familia would be lurking in the background.
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spires → tell → background
Barcelona authorities are taking action, too: they’re planning to revoke all licences for short-term housing rentals featured on the likes of Airbnb to deal with sky-rocketing prices and a lack of availability in the inner city; limits have been put in place to prevent too many new hotels being built in that same area.
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hotels → take → area
Large tour groups have been banned from the city centre.
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groups → ban → centre
And there have been plenty of street protests, crowds of locals voicing displeasure not at the way Catalan authorities have dealt with tourists, but at the tourists themselves.
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authorities → voice → tourists
The water pistol has become the weapon of choice for protesters, who have taken to squirting unsuspecting tourists sitting at bars and cafes enjoying a drink.
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who → become → drink
So… do I need my raincoat?
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I → need → raincoat
I’m back in Barcelona, a city I know well.
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I → ’m → Barcelona
I’ve been visiting here since the late 1990s, and have watched as it has morphed over the years from a city once infamous for its pickpockets and petty crime to a booming tourist hub popular with travellers of every generation, and now the poster child for overtourism.
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it → visit → overtourism
I’ve seen gritty areas such as El Born and El Raval clean up and change from no-go zones to must-visits.
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areas → see → visits
I’ve seen Eixample go from quiet neighbourhood to super-busy urban centre.
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Eixample → see → centre
I’ve watched as my favourite building in the world, La Sagrada Familia, has gradually taken shape and the crowds coming to gawk at it have swelled dramatically.
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crowds → watch → it
The issues are real in Barcelona, though I’m not always sure locals’ ire is directed to the right place.
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ire → ’m → place
Tourist numbers have risen rapidly, but there’s also been a failure of local government to deal with that influx effectively, and a tendency to take the easy route of blaming the foreigners rather than doing anything about it.
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numbers → rise → it
Revoking all short-term housing licenses, for example, while also slowing hotel development doesn’t seem like a recipe for success to me.
But what’s it like on the ground in Barcelona?
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it → revoke → Barcelona
What’s the feeling here as a short-term visitor?
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feeling → ’ → visitor
I’ve checked into a hotel just a few blocks north of one of my favourite parts of the city, Sant Antoni, a leafy neighbourhood that lacks any big-ticket tourist attractions, and yet is still only a few stops on the metro from the likes of the Gothic Quarter and Eixample.
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that → check → Quarter
I’m staying in a boutique hotel rather than an Airbnb because that seems like the responsible way to travel here.
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that → stay → way
The cafe on the bottom floor of Magatzem 128 is filled with tourists, but the streets here are still lined with little grocers and daggy old bars, with kids playing in the parks and residents in leisurewear walking in and out of the fitness studios.
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kids → fill → studios
There’s a pretty basic restaurant just around the corner, Bar Iberics, that specialises in jamon, so I duck around there for an afternoon beer and a bocadillo, remembering to mumble a few phrases in Catalan (“gracies” instead of “gracias”) to show I’m aware of where I am, and that it’s not, in many locals’ eyes, Spain.
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it → ’ → eyes
The guy running the bar is friendly and jolly, running out some fat, juicy green olives to go with the beer.
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guy → run → beer
I drink and eat at a table on the pavement and barely see anyone around at all, let alone someone who might want to shoot me with a water pistol.
uncertain
who → drink → pistol
I’ve got a few days here to explore.
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I → get → days
I’ll walk from Sant Antoni through El Raval – mental note, some streets probably still worth avoiding at night – quickly across Las Ramblas and into the Gothic Quarter, through El Born and up into Eixample and all the way to La Sagrada Familia.
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I → walk → Familia
I’ll spend another day in Badalona, a beachside city that has spread to essentially become part of Barcelona, and where it feels like there are no international tourists at all.
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it → spend → Barcelona
This whole time I won’t feel unwelcome for a second.
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I → feel → second
I won’t feel in danger, I won’t feel as if I’m doing the wrong thing.
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I → feel → thing
Locals on the streets just go about their business.
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Locals → go → business
The big crowds of tourists are easy to avoid if you want to.
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you → avoid → tourists
The tacky venues are simple to spot.
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venues → spot → ?
My takeaway from this short stay is that if you do Barcelona right, Barcelona will (mostly) do right by you – as so many famously over-touristed cities in the world will, from Amsterdam to Kyoto to Prague.
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cities → do → Prague
If you do a little research and think about the way you travel, you can still visit these places and be welcome.
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you → do → places
For that, you need to stay in accommodation that will have the least negative effect on locals.
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that → need → locals
You need to behave in ways that are unobtrusive.
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that → need → ways
You need to spend money and be polite and then go on your way without leaving a huge footprint.
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You → need → footprint
Do all that and you won’t have to bother with the raincoat.
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you → do → raincoat
The Aporia
