Barcelona

Fly into Barcelona El Prat Airport and transfer to your hotel in Eixample or the Gothic Quarter. Las Ramblas — the famous tree-lined pedestrian boulevard from Plaça de Catalunya to the waterfront — is the most walked street in Spain: flower stalls, newspaper kiosks, the extraordinary La Boqueria market, and the Miró mosaic in the pavement at your feet. Walk it at dusk, then turn into the Gothic Quarter's medieval lanes for dinner at one of the tapas bars in the Barri Gòtic.

The Sagrada Família — Gaudí's still-unfinished cathedral, under construction since 1882 — is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the world: 18 towers of organic stone that look like they grew from the earth rather than being designed by a human, an interior bathed in colored light through 135 stained glass windows that shift through the day as the sun moves. Book timed entry well in advance and visit early. Afternoon at Park Güell — the hillside park of Gaudí's unrealized garden city, now a public park with mosaic terraces and gingerbread gatehouses above the city. Sunset from the park's main terrace.

El Born is Barcelona's most beautiful neighborhood — narrow medieval lanes lined with independent boutiques, wine bars (bodegas), and some of the city's finest restaurants, centered on the Gothic church of Santa Maria del Mar (the people's cathedral, built in 14 years in the 14th century by the workers of the Ribera neighborhood). The Picasso Museum in El Born holds the largest collection of early Picasso works in the world — his Barcelona years and the Las Meninas series are extraordinary. Afternoon: the medieval Jewish Quarter (El Call) in the Gothic Quarter, and the Roman ruins beneath the Plaça del Rei.

Barcelona has 4.2km of urban beach beginning at Barceloneta — a neighborhood of narrow 18th-century workers' lanes opening onto the Mediterranean, with beach bars (chiringuitos) and the Frank Gehry fish sculpture at Port Olímpic. Morning on the beach, then the waterfront promenade north past the Olympic Port to the Forum. Afternoon: take the Montjuïc cable car up to the castle for panoramic views over the port, the city, and the sea. Evening in the El Raval neighborhood — the Fundació Antoni Tàpies and dinner on Carrer del Parlament.

Gràcia — the formerly independent village north of Eixample now absorbed into the city — has Barcelona's most neighborhood character: local plazas where residents actually live their lives, weekend markets, independent bookshops, and the city's best vermouth bars. Afternoon on the Passeig de Gràcia for the Manzana de la Discordia (Block of Discord) — three extraordinary Modernista buildings side by side: Gaudí's Casa Batlló (bone facade, dragon roof, extraordinary interior), Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller, and Domènech i Montaner's Casa Lleó Morera. Book Casa Batlló's magic nights (evening admission with live music).

Montserrat — 50km northwest of Barcelona by FGC train — is one of Catalonia's most sacred and dramatic landscapes: a jagged mountain of conglomerate rock rising 1,236m above the plain, with a Benedictine monastery tucked into its face housing the Black Madonna (La Moreneta), patron of Catalonia. The rack railway or cable car up to the monastery, the short walk to the Sant Joan hermitage for views across Catalonia, and the extraordinary acoustics of the monastery's Escolania choir (one of Europe's oldest boys' choirs, performing daily at noon). Return to Barcelona for a final evening dinner.

Final coffee and pastry (croissant de mantequilla) at any corner cafe — Barcelona's breakfast culture rewards a slow morning. El Prat Airport is 20 minutes from the city center by train.