My last visit to Barcelona before I moved back to Europe was in 2007, and I was just 18, but I fell in love. I had that instant “click” you sometimes get when you visit a new place. You just know you could be happy there.
Barcelona was just one stop on a grand tour of Europe that I took with my now-husband after high school. A couple of years ago, we finally got to return, this time married and with our 2-year-old daughter.
My love-at-first-sight connection held strong.
Barcelona is a sprawling yet accessible cosmopolitan wonder…
The art and architecture is what bewitches me. Countless museums and galleries, La Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, the excitement of turning a corner to find a Gaudí building you weren’t expecting…
The flamenco… the sangria and tapas… the shopping…
When I think of Barcelona, I don’t even factor in the fantastic beach, which is the main draw for many.
So what changes in a city over 15 years?
The differences were clear after just a few hours in the city. And it shouldn’t be surprising—Barcelona had come a long way in the previous 15, as well.
Back in ‘07, you couldn’t eat dinner before 9 p.m.—and even that was on the early side.
But the massive boom in international tourism since the early ‘90s has clearly had an impact. Before then, it was a fraction of what it’s been in the last decade. Many restaurants now serve at all hours, and those that open just for meal times do so much earlier.
I was a broke student when I was there last. We rented bikes to see the city because it was the cheapest way to get around for a day to see the sights… but it was chaos. With no bike lanes and no signage in English, we spent the day mostly lost and avoiding collisions.
Now, bike lanes crisscross the city (and drivers are much less aggressive), and there are 12.4 kilometers of new lanes underway along with upgrades to existing lanes, to be completed by 2027.
The increased tourism numbers are evident in some not-so-great ways, too—in ’07, we had Parc Güell to ourselves. Today, you have to buy a timed entry ticket and can barely move for the crowds. The Sagrada Familia was practically just an open construction site back then. Now, infrastructure has been built just to handle the load daily of visitors, complete with security screening, elevators, restrooms, and gift shops.
Going back another 15 years, and the city was another place entirely…
“Before 1992, you wouldn’t have recognized this city,” a tour guide explained when we were there in 2022. “It was dirty and dangerous and ‘undesirables’ ran the streets, especially after dark. Where we stand now was like their headquarters… today, it’s one of the top stops on any tour of the city.”
1992 was the year that Barcelona hosted the Olympics, and for the occasion, it knew it needed to clean up its act. Tourists would arrive from all over the world, and the city didn’t want them wandering into trouble, which would have been easy back then.
“Perhaps most significantly, before 1992, we had no beach, which some consider to be the heart of modern Barcelona,” Franco added. Sand from Egypt was imported to add three golden kilometers to Barcelona’s shores.
Old industrial buildings littered the coast, and the neighborhoods near the waterfront were “a disaster,” according to Oriol Bohigas, urban planner at the time of the transformation. “The sea was cut off from the people; Barcelona had no beaches and nowadays it is the city with the biggest and best looked-after beaches in the Mediterranean.”
As well as opening up the city to the sea, all the waterfront neighborhoods were revamped, and the city was given a master-planned makeover. Today, these parts of the city are treasured by locals and tourists alike. Any given day will see the beaches and seafront cafés packed, the promenades and boardwalk areas bustling with families, skaters, runners, bikers…
Traffic in Barcelona is minimal for such a small, densely populated city, in no small part due to the roads that were built to absorb the influx of congestion the city knew it would get for the games. Add in the excellent metro, bus, and tram systems and the city is a pleasure to get around in.
Rail lines, airport expansion, and other transport links and infrastructure were also added by ‘92. The city is incredibly well connected, both within Spain and to France, and upgrades are ongoing.
All these visionary improvements earned the city an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and “the Barcelona Model” is studied to this day as the most successful Olympic construction in history.
Thirty years on, it’s obvious that the investment paid off, with Barcelona the 2nd most visited city in Spain, 10th most visited in the world, and Spain the 2nd most popular country in Europe and in the world.
The city doesn’t take this for granted either. It keeps its streets clean, offers free public toilets abundantly (a rarity in Europe), and consistently improves infrastructure.
Barcelona is once again actively transforming its public transport network, with metro extensions, tram integration, airport shuttle, and bike lane projects, all with completion targets between 2027 and 2030. Together, these will make the city easier to get around, more efficient and more sustainable.
At the same time, a long-term plan, dubbed “Superilla Barcelona,” plans to reclaim the city’s streets from vehicles, turning one in three streets into green spaces, and making sure every resident is within 200 meters of a green street or square.
The Nature Plan, begun in 2021, aimed to add 160 hectares of greenery to the city by 2030. So far, around 22 hectares of new greenery have been delivered.
Other accolades? Barcelona placed 4th in the world for liveability according to Monocle’s2025 Quality of Life Survey. Forbes ranked it 10th globally for tourism attractiveness, evaluating infrastructure, health, safety, and appeal.
Urban gardens are a tradition here (there are 361 throughout the city), and are a cultural priority and a cornerstone of community life, made especially available to children and the elderly.
Schools claim 260 of these gardens, which are used to teach sustainability, ecology, and nutrition through hands-on experiences. Some city plots are reserved for those over 65, providing fresh produce, physical activity, social interaction, and mental well-being. But any resident can partake—each urban gardener gets their own plot of about 25 square meters, along with basic tools and water. Many also offer educational programs for the public and acted as outdoor learning spaces during Covid.
As a mother, I was quick to notice the convenience factor here—bodegas, drinking fountains, and bathrooms on practically every corner… never more than a couple blocks to a café, bakery, or pharmacy… elevators and escalators much more consistently available than in most European cities… and, above all, the easygoing, friendly, and welcoming locals (who are forgiving to families with infants)…
I’m a city girl who loves history and art, and Barcelona has a wealth of both.
And it also has a beach… something I previously thought I didn’t care much about. Now with kids, I can see a greater appeal… and to have the beach at arm’s length is exactly how I’d want it.
In Barcelona, you can have the cosmopolitan city with the option of the beach, take it or leave it. That’s a pretty luxurious choice to have at your fingertips…
My overall takeaway after my reunion with this beloved city is that life would be easy here… convenient and laidback.
I love Paris, my current home, but those wouldn’t be the first words I’d use to describe its lifestyle, and the contrast is tantalizing… it almost feels like cheating on my first city love, the one I’m currently married to.
The upshot of a life overseas is that you really can have it all—the marriage and the lover… or multiples.
We’re working Barcelona into our long-term plans. Perhaps we’ll spend a few weeks there one winter, maybe a few months one year…
Long-term, we hope to buy a beach house on the Costa Brava—close enough to get a train into the city whenever I want to leave the beach to the kids and take a museum day for myself!
Bonne route,
Kat Kalashian
Editor, In Focus: Europe
