What to Do in Barcelona at Night: Rooftops, Flamenco, Tapas

By Joan. I have lived in Barcelona for 16 years and I still get the timing wrong when I go out with people who are visiting.

Dinner here starts at 10 PM. Bars fill at midnight. Clubs peak at 3 AM. Almost every bad night out I have watched a visitor have started with arriving somewhere hours too early, so this is less a list of places than a clock.

Quick answer: Build the evening backwards from the clock, not from a map. Rooftop sunset at La Isabela or Terraza Martinez. 10 PM dinner in El Born or Gracia. 11 PM flamenco at Tarantos in Placa Reial, from €15 for a 30 minute show, which is the cheapest and shortest of the tablaos and the one I would send a first-timer to. 1 AM drinks in Raval. 3 AM club at Opium or Razzmatazz. Skip the Las Ramblas tourist traps. Prices change, so check the current one before you book.

The short version

• If you sit down to dinner before 9 PM you will eat alone, and the kitchen will treat you like the tourist you are.
• Tarantos is the low-commitment flamenco at €15 for 30 minutes, the full productions run €45-75 with a drink or dinner.
• Rooftops are for sunset and nothing else, because the good ones stop being pleasant once they fill up.
• Book your restaurant 2-3 days ahead for a weekend, or accept whatever has a free table at 11 PM.
• Razzmatazz runs 5 rooms until 6 AM on weekends, which is the only reason anybody in this city ends up in Poblenou at dawn.

How I would plan it

I put these in the order the night actually happens, not in order of how impressive they sound. Everything before midnight is planning and everything after is improvisation, so I only book the two things that need booking: the table and the show.

1. Sunset on a rooftop

Go up early, have one drink, leave before the queue at the lift starts. That is the whole strategy.

• La Isabela at Hotel 1898 (Las Ramblas, pool bar)
• Terraza Martinez (Montjuic, port view)
• Eclipse at W Hotel (Barceloneta, 26th floor)
• Ayre Hotel Rosellon (Sagrada Familia view)

2. Dinner at 10 PM

El Born and Gracia for foodie tapas. Barceloneta for traditional seafood. Eixample for Michelin and modern Catalan. Book 2-3 days ahead for weekends, which is the single piece of advice on this page that people ignore and then regret. Gracia is where I would eat, and that is a preference, not a ranking.

3. Flamenco and live music at 11 PM

Tarantos, from €15 for 30 minutes. Short nightly shows in Placa Reial, and short is the point: it fits inside an evening instead of replacing it. Palacio del Flamenco and Tablao Cordobes are fuller productions at €45-75 with a drink or dinner, which is a different kind of night out and a different budget. Sala Apolo and Razzmatazz host indie and electronic live shows if flamenco is not what you came for.

4. Late night

The streets of Raval west of Las Ramblas have the eclectic late bars. Port Olimpic has the beach clubs, Opium and CDLC among them. Razzmatazz in Poblenou is 5 rooms of different music until 6 AM on weekends, and it is the one place on this list I can walk home from.

Before you go out

• Have a tapa in the early evening if you are used to eating at home time. It saves you from a bad decision at 10 PM.
• Rooftop bars often want a reservation at sunset in summer. Ask at your hotel before you walk over.
• Take a jacket for the rooftops from autumn onwards. Twenty-six floors up, the sea breeze is a different climate.
• Do not build the night around Las Ramblas. The restaurants with photo menus there exist for people who did not read anything before arriving.
• Show prices are from prices and they move with the season and the day. Check the current one before you book.

Evening Experiences

Flamenco shows, sunset sailing and gastronomy dinners are the three evening bookings worth making in advance. If you only make one, make it the show, because a table can usually be found and a good seat at a tablao cannot.

The nights here are long, so treat the first evening as a rehearsal and the second one as the real thing. And if you find yourself walking home along the seafront at 3 AM, you have understood the city correctly.