Barcelona Tourist Trap Tips by dlandt

Spanish Village was listed as a must see in the Japanese guide book. It turned out to be the standard craftshops and souveniers as in most other tourist traps. Nothing here caught my interest, including the Picasso Museum. Even the architecture seemed forced and in your face. It didn't have a natural feel to it. They billed Spanish Village as a place that represented, culturally, each different region of Spain, but everything I saw seemed very generic.

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At Least Do This: Above all else, do NOT eat here. The food is not prepared, only microwaved from frozen. Fresh ingredients are not used, and it will all set you back two to three times as much as out in town. Even pa amb tomaquet costs like 4 euros.
Alternative: They don't water their drinks so at least you can sit down and get drunk enough to kill some of the misery.

Paellador is a frozen paella which can be microwaved in a restaurant kitchen. You see signs for it everywhere and it does look tempting. In the photo you can see just how good it looks. Unfortunately, it won't taste anywhere near as good as it looks.

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At Least Do This: I was warned by the VT expert on Barcelona (labeep) Isabella about paellador. Isabella has since left VT but I remain in contact with her and she has very plainly stated that she is eager to help visitors to Barcelona. She made paellador sound so bad I just had to try one out of curiosty. If you've never had paella before, even bad paella, it might be passable, but it just doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. You might save a bit of money on paellador, but it would be worth the three euros extra to have a good one in my opinion.
Alternative: Barcelona has an abundance of good food just about everywhere you look. You don't need to waste your time on this stuff. It is the spanish equivalent to an Economy McDonalds. In fact, McDonalds might just make a better paella!!

We heard a lot about the Barcelona breakfast of churros and chocolate before we came to Barcelona and really looked forward to trying it. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it anywhere until we went down to the Barri Gottica, the tourist section. Once there, we found it no problem.

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At Least Do This: It doesn't seem to me that this is a local thing. Maybe at one time it was, but in reality, Barcelonians seem to eat differently. Sadly, churros and chocolate seems reserved for the tourist areas. The ones we had weren't really that good either.
Alternative: There is no shortage of good food to eat in Barcelona.