One always memorizes and fills with post-its the guides they use when traveling, but rarely ---or rather never--- consults what the guides that explain their city say. Lonely Planet, one of the most popular guide publishers, has just reissued Barcelona de cerca, a practical and small-sized format for short stays of a few days. It is already in its seventh edition, considering that Lonely Planet labels the Catalan capital as one of "the queens of getaways" for Spanish travelers, along with Valencia. They are especially so after the last years of pandemic and proximity tourism: "In the last two years, they have been the best sellers online with the rediscovery of nearby destinations."
The first edition of Barcelona de cerca was made in 2008 and now it is the only one published for the city in Spanish. A larger guide is no longer dedicated to it, reserved for cities where people go to live for a long season, explains Núria Cabrero, editor of Lonely Planet guides in Spanish, while those with the suffix de cerca are designed for weekend or long weekend trips, with the basic information to know the essentials of the city. This refers to the guides in Spanish, with Spain as the main market, because for the guides in English, Barcelona does have a more extensive guide, which totals twelve editions. In fact, in this case, the first guide entirely dedicated to the city dates back more than 20 years, somewhat after the popularity achieved with the Olympic Games. "It is one of the cities that are renewed first in English, along with New York, Rome, Paris or London," remarks Cabrero.
The pandemic disrupted the pace of Lonely Planet publications, owned by the Planeta group in Spain, where it began operating in 1999 with guides to Cuba and Greece. If before the arrival of covid, immersed in a constant tourist effervescence, guides like Barcelona de cerca were reissued every two years, the publisher stopped new editions, knowing that much information had ceased to be reliable, with restaurants and shops that had closed and museums that could not open either. According to Cabrero, the pre-pandemic rhythm has now been recovered, although, in the first pages, the guides do not stop warning travelers to check the information before going to places, taking into account that some establishments may have altered schedules or ended up closing.
Leafing through the guide Barcelona de cerca, it's no surprise to see that Gaudí is one of the most repeated words. It's not surprising that for the guide's author, Isabella Noble, one of the curiosities that most strikes her is having to research "a great monument that is still under construction, the Sagrada Família, something that doesn't usually happen with most cathedrals and churches, which have usually been well-established in their place for centuries; so when renewing the guide there are always new developments and advances." But there is also space for less popular works by Gaudí, such as the lampposts in the fountain of Plaza Reial or the Portal Miralles. In that sense, Noble encourages "discovering the city beyond the famous monuments and central areas," recommending less typical destinations such as a walk through the old neighborhood of Sarrià, a visit to the Mercat de Galvany, or a hiking excursion through the Collserola natural park.
Nor are there any unforeseen events in the main points of interest selected by Lonely Planet, with obligatory stops at the works of the city's most famous architect, Camp Nou, La Rambla, La Boqueria, and the Cathedral. However, the guide reflects that Barcelonian weariness towards the overcrowding of certain stops, speaking of La Rambla as "a crowded circus" and recommending visiting it first thing in the morning, around 8 am, "before it fills with cruise passengers," as well as advising against going to the nightclubs of Port Olímpic, since "they attract hordes of noisy tourists," and warning that the narrow streets of the old town are "somewhat claustrophobic, especially in high season."
The guide also outlines other phenomena occurring in Barcelona, such as the loss of historic shops due to rising rents, the uniformity of the most commercial streets, gentrification and the impact of Airbnb, pickpockets, or traffic in the Eixample, and recalls episodes that have marked its most recent history, such as the 2017 attacks and the political situation.
But there are also surprises, such as discovering that Barcelona is seen as "a city for night owls," when local sentiment always criticizes that everything closes too early, or that, if the Catalan capital has to be summarized with a dish, romesco sauce is chosen and not brava sauce. And vermouth is the drink that defines it, recently recovering a popularity it had before the Civil War among the local working class.
In addition, one learns that La Rambla was known as the Cagalell ---stream of feces---, that the current Museu Frederic Marès was for a time the headquarters of the Inquisition of Barcelona, that the Museu Picasso began by being called Colección Sabartés to avoid the Francoist veto, or that the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar is not only characterized by being the most beautiful but also by having been built in the record time of 54 years. For those who have been encouraged to be tourists in their own city, the guide recommends the Articket BCN, a single ticket for 35 euros to visit six major museums: the Macba, the CCCB, the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, the Fundació Joan Miró, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and the Museo Picasso.
To prepare a guide like this, authors like Noble, a British-Australian raised in Malaga who currently lives between Barcelona and London, do preliminary work remotely, selecting which areas they will recommend ---there are recent additions like Sant Antoni and Sants or Sant Andreu remain out---, locating points of interest and compiling practical information such as public transport. In this work, they rely on "moles," as Cabrero defines them, locals who recommend spaces to them, gathering the different profiles that may be interested in the guides. With this information, the authors travel to the destination for one to two months, touring the city and seeing if something that was good in the previous edition is no longer so or discovering new places. With all this, the authors return home and begin to write.