Guide for Barcelona Part 2: Where to live in Barcelona??

I started very soon searching for rooms in Barcelona and I can definitely recommend the following pages to search for rooms: http://www.loquo.com/ and http://www.idealista.com/! But you should also look on facebook because there are also great advertisements of student who search for roommates. (alquilo habitación /busco piso – pisos compartidos en Barcelona → I found my room on this site on facebook). Although they say that you could come to Barcelona without having any place to stay...it is NOT that easy! I have a lot of friends, who did it like this but they were only changing their hostels and searching for rooms and not having a place to stay! So I would recommend it to search before you get here!

Barcelona is an expensive city. But not so expensive that you are not able to find a room for less than 300 € per month! My two rooms that I had in Barcelona cost 270/280 € per month, located in Gracia. The first was a 9m² room with a big bed and closet and was located right next to the Park Güell.The second one was a very big room (16m²) close to the metro station Fontana. So you see that it is possible to find rooms at an acceptable price! If you are searching on the internet, you should definitely search for rooms with pictures, because the Spanish habitants have another way of define „big“ and „sunny“ than we do! There are three different types of rooms: without window, window to a patio (interior) and window to a street (exterior). I would not rent a room without windows, because it is just strange and you will need more electricity and will not feel comfortable. A room „interior“ has the advantage to be quiet, but my experience is, that it also could mean that you have a small window to a very small patio in the middle of a house where they put their clothes. I would definitely prefer a room „exterior“!

There are different parts of Barcelona where it is good to live and not recommendable to live! My favorite parts are Gracia and Eixample! Gracia has a very beautiful neighbourhood with lots of alternative people and great bars and cafes! I lived there and I really loved it! It has everything you need, is very well communicated and the people are very nice and friendly! Eixample is right next to Gracia in the south and is more expensive but also more elegant. It is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Barcelona and lots of the sightseeing spots are located in this part of Barcelona. Les Corts are good for those, who will study at the UB (Universitat de Barcelona) and do not want to live far away from the university. For women I recommend not to live in Raval o Barri Gotic. Of course, there are always advantages and disadvantages of every part of Barcelona!