Your last meal wouldn't be weight watcher's baked beans on toast so why allow your last night of as a single man anything less than an all-singing-all-dancing-spiced-up-salsa-and-sangria-at-dawn affair. Barcelona is ‘Paradise Found' for the modern stag. From the freshly caught calamari, steaming seafood paella and wide variety of full-bodied reds (not to mention blondes and brunettes) Barcelona will arrest all your senses and not let them go until you've explored the very essence of what it means to be a man.
Why Barcelona?
While new stag destinations seem to be popping up like wildfire it's easy to simply go where the 20p pints beckon. While Barcelona is cheaper than London the days of a bed and a feed for under a tenner are long gone. Instead Barcelona offers a tantilising mix of sophisticated nightlife, fun, top-quality activities and a city that has seen the benefit of over a decade of investment, state-of-the-art design and the Olympics. You may not get those 20p pints (more like £1.20) but you will get a welcoming world-class 21st century city with friendly locals who pull out all stops to make sure that visitors have the full Barcelona experience.
Activities:
From high speed Rapid Inflatable Boats (RIBS) to mountain quad trekking, Barcelona offers stag groups some great adrenaline charged activities that are guaranteed to keep everyone entertained. The standard stag do crowd pleasers are also all on offer here: both indoor and outdoor karting, paintball, and bar crawls and if you're after something a little more laid back, you can't beat a vineyard tour where you can take in the sights and drink copious amounts of booze.
Nightlife:
Stick with us and you'll wine and dine like kings. There'll be no need to decipher cryptic menus or tucking into mysterious things that may or may not be chicken/fish/cat. We'll sort you out with good value, tasty eateries that will give everyone an authentic taste of spicy Spain. Spaniards don't tend to eat their evening meal until 9pm and bars don't tend to kick off until well after 11pm so if you're after good atmosphere it's best to pace yourself - no passing out before 1am please!
A Note on Catalan Cusine:
Be sure to try patatas bravas, Spain's answer to chips, smothered in a wicked spicy tomato sauce. If you're a carnivore your eyes will be bulging from the sheer abundance of mouth watering Serrano ham. Then there are the all-time favourites that never fail to fill the void, like Chorizo sausage and the abundant fresh seafood. Don't miss the barbequed squid, marinated sardines and fresh shell fish. Classic Catalan dishes to try are the Bacalla a la llauna (salted cod baked in tomato, garlic, parsley, paprika and wine) and the Truita de Botifarra (sausage omelette) which has ‘hangover cure' written all over it.
Drinking:
The set of bars you choose on your weekend will make or break your time away. We've done the homework for you so you can hit the ground running. We've found a great set of pubs, bars and clubs that readily accept stag groups and all come with the all important Chillisauce stamp of approval. This is wine country. It is also beer country. Though you can‘t really go too wrong, be on the lookout for Estrella Damm and Moritz lagers as they are firm local favourites.
Barcelona: Don't Miss!
‘The Fontana Magica' at the Placa Espanya - A great spot to take a crate of beers and marvel at a water display lit up by multi-coloured lights with a backing soundtrack of classical music. Oh and girls love it and where there are girls there's...well...girls.
Sagrada Familia - Antoni Gaudi is pretty much the Mick Jagger of Catalan architecture. A true maverick whose approach to design was basically ‘how would this look on acid?'. The Sagrada Familia is an unconsecrated temple and Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. A sort of cross between a sandcastle, palace and a nightmare, it has to be seen to be believed. Also look out for the most out-of-this-world apartment building you could imagine La Pedrera, where there's no such thing as a straight line and the walls appear to have been made from molten stone. Trippy.
Getting Around:
Barcelona has an extremely efficient and easy to use metro. Sunday - Thursdays it runs from 5am - Midnight and 5am - 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. Taxis are fairly cheap and are metered so you can see how much you are up for, about £10 will get you around town. Buses, trams and trixis (rickshaw-like cycle taxis) run frequently.
Getting there:
It is always advisable to book flights as early as possible to secure the cheapest deal. Check the following airlines for the best fares:
Easyjet - flies out of London, Newcastle, Liverpool and East Midlands direct to Barcelona.
Flyglobespan - flies out of London and Liverpool to Barcelona
Thomsonfly - flies out of London, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol and many minor UK airports to Barcelona.
Jet2 - flies out of Northern England to Barcelona
Ryanair - flies out of London and Liverpool to Girona, about 60 miles from Barcelona.
Also check British Airways and Iberia Airlines for direct flights to Barcelona from most major English airports.
Climate:
Expect the winter months to verge on chilly but if you're from north of Milton Keynes you'll still think it's summer as it never really gets colder than 7 degrees Celsius. Things start to heat up after Easter and the mercury continues to rise culminating in peak August temperatures of 39 degrees.
Barcelona Fact File:
- When you get off the plane in Barcelona set your watches one hour ahead of GMT.
- Tipping is not customary on top of restaurant service charges but leaving a few euros will be appreciated.
- The currency of Spain is the Euro check www.xe.com for the latest exchange rates.