Where to Stay in Barcelona With Family, Measured on Foot

Wide chamfered blocks and flat pavements on a grid a child cannot get lost in, with the widest hotel choice in the city. Passeig de Gracia is a three-line interchange and Verdaguer a two-line one, so almost nothing needs more than a single change. The Sagrada Familia is a measured 23 minutes on foot.

Good to know: It is the least characterful place to stay in Barcelona and children find it dull to walk around. The grid that makes it easy also makes it monotonous, and there is no square that functions as a playground the way Gracia's do.

Narrow medieval lanes opening onto small squares, with Parc de la Ciutadella a measured nine minutes away and the zoo inside it at nineteen. The aquarium is fourteen minutes and Barceloneta beach eighteen, which makes this the only area where a family can reach green space, animals and sand on foot.

Good to know: The lanes are genuinely narrow and often cobbled, so a buggy is hard work in them, particularly in the evening when the streets fill. Noise is the real cost of the location.

A former village of low buildings and linked pedestrian squares that never joined the grid, and the only central area where the squares themselves function as the playground. Park Guell is a measured twelve minutes away, which is closer than anywhere else on this page.

Good to know: It is uphill from everywhere, so the walk back from the centre at the end of a day is a climb with tired children. Anything on the water is genuinely far: the beaches and the aquarium are a metro journey rather than a walk.

Sant Antoni is a residential Eixample block around its restored market and Poble-sec below it climbs toward Montjuic. The funicular is a measured ten minutes on foot and the Magic Fountain is close, which puts the whole Montjuic half of Barcelona within reach without a long journey.

Good to know: Poble-sec is steep in places and the climb toward Montjuic is real with a buggy, which the ten-minute funicular figure hides. Both Gaudi anchors are far from here.

Converted industrial blocks and new-build towers behind the calmest beaches in the city. Bogatell is a measured thirteen minutes on foot and is the widest beach in Barcelona at about 100 metres, with a children's play area on the sand. Rooms are larger and cheaper than in the old city.

Good to know: It is a long way from everything historic: the aquarium is a measured 39 minutes on foot, Park Guell 69 and the Magic Fountain 74, so almost all sightseeing becomes a metro journey rather than a walk.

A dense grid of narrow fishermen's blocks between the marina and the sand, a measured five minutes from Barceloneta beach and six from the Port Vell cable car. The aquarium is sixteen minutes and the zoo twenty-five.

Good to know: The flats are small, old and mostly without lifts, which with a buggy on a fourth floor defines the whole holiday. It is also the loudest area in the city at night, which is the trade for being on the sand.