Barcelona August 2009!!!!

Heyy all, thinking of heading to barcelona at the beginning of august.. nightlife,culture,beaches..GOOD TIMES ;-) some people have told me august is not the best of times to visit barcelona?? Also are there day trips to ibiza, valencia, & any music festivals etc? .. would of liked to go to sonar but can't make it! We're thinking of looking to stay in hostels but this will be are first experience so we're a liitle apprehensive.. anywayy sorry for rambling on in no specifc order.. any advice/suggestions would be a great help! cheers :-) xx

i went in April 2008 on a university trip and had a brilliant time, we spent hours and hours (literally all day) walking through the streets of Barca and it really is an amazing place.

i cant really help on places to stay because it was organised for me.

the nightlife is great tho if you find the right places. however it is very very expensive. we went to a club where it was great inside, but it was 12euros for just about every drink. i was on jack daniels, and to be fair you did get a long glass full of the stuff, but it was still very expensive. however, you can find cheap places, i have no idea of the name of the place we found (though i could find it on google earth), but it was a local bar where the beer (locally brewed estrella) was dirt cheap, the equivalent of a pound per bottle (compared to £5 per pint in central Barca). every few rounds they brought us free spanish omelette and nuts, free rounds of beer, and even saved us a front seats when Barcelona played FC Twente in the champions league, sitting with the locals it was a great atmosphere. a few days before we went to see em play getafe at the nou camp for about £35 bought on the day at the nou camp which was well worth seeing despite it being a 0-0 draw! they even allowed people to smoke banned substances in there with the bar staff!

we were told to watch out for pickpockets but had no problem but were always in groups of 3-5 (or sometimes 38). skanky hookers were everywhere at night, drug dealers were everywhere in the centre and on the beaches in the day (they will try to rip you off too).

i hope that side of things is cleared up a bit.

[ Edit: Edited on 24-Feb-2009, at 04:55 by si403 ]

August in barcelona is full of activity to do, if you will be from 15/08 go to gracia neighborhood to participate one of the famous street party of the town... it is an old tradition where majority of the street are decorated, live concert in the street during 7 days and almost 24h non stop... well during night it is very crowded, during day less...
Just after this party, go to les corts neigborhood and enjoy another 7 days street party... this one looks like the gracia one, if you have to choose one, choose gracia.
if you want to go to ibiza, just take the rapid ferry boat to go there but take note that summer is very expensive in ibiza... -snip-

[ Edit: Sorry, no promos please. ]

Just got back from Spain, Barcelona included....it is quite expensive compared to some of the other Spanish cities we visited, but it does have tons of great stuff to see and do! I also heard the pickpocket warning, and feel like I might have had some Euro lifted off of me on the bus (but maybe i spent it??), but generally in the streets and metro, I didnt feel like everyone was eyeing up my purse (carried slung across me with bag to the front of me) like some of the shady bus passengers. An older Spanish lady on the bus started talking about a man who had just gotten off the bus (in my very rudimentary spanish listening skills) and pointed to her pocketbook, which had been unzipped---I hadnt seen the man that near to her, but, maybe he was just that good of a pick pocket!
I have heard that summer can be quite unbearable weather wise, but if August is when you have to travel, then so be it! Drinking is quite expensive, as pints (Guinness, Newcastle, etc) run 5 Euro or more (we tried numerous bars,etc and 5 Euro seems to be the going rate, regardless). Unless you are drinking Estrella, then you can manage to find a glass of beer for 1,5 or 2 Euros at certain spots. Tapas is the expensive bit, at each tapas ranging from 2 to 5 Euro a bite....but patatas bravas, croquetas, patatas bombas and chorizo...mmmmmmm!!!!! but it was a blast and you will have loads of fun!!!
Enjoy!