Living in Barcelona: Advice for Expats Moving to Spain

Each year Barcelona enjoys more and more popularity among Spaniards, foreign visitors and new international residents alike. The town started growing and booming after the Olympics in 1996 had put it on the global map and bestowed much international attention upon it.

Since then a steady stream of tourists has visited the city in the heart of Catalunya, in Northeastern Spain. It offers easy access to the seaside and close by mountains as well as proximity to the Costa Brava, the wild and rugged Coastline along the Mediterranean Sea.

The local food is fresh and excellent and an encounter with the delicious tapas, a local specialty, leaves your mouth watering for days. The catch of the day is usually plentiful and the wine a delight. Its climate offers much sunshine year round and moderate temperatures in the winter. Beware of the month of August, though, when the high temperatures coupled with equally high humidity make for a moist and hot visit. Palm trees lining the streets bear witness to the temperate climate. And last but not least the vast cultural program that the city has to offer, ranging from Opera, concerts, exhibits and theater performances that keep you entertained until the wee hours of the night and make Barcelona a memorable city to live in. In fact, some of the concerts do not even start before midnight. Barcelona is known as a city with an abundant nightlife.

It is easy to see why people might want to stay for a while, learn Spanish or Catalan, the local language in one of the many institutes for foreigners, enroll in University courses for credit reasons or plain old elect to take a time out from their daily lives to smell the fresh sea air.