Barcelona city centre technically encompasses Barrio Gòtico too, but it’s best known for Las Ramblas and graceful Plaça Reial. Nowhere else in the city’s as busy or more designed to make you feel like a tourist. Take it on the chin and wander the legendary main street without shame. You really don’t need to buy a Barca T-Shirt but you’ll be offered plenty of opportunity along with everything from postcards to miniatures of the Sagrada Familia.

• Avoid the overpriced tapas bars and chain restaurants and have lunch, standing up, at the counter in La Boqueria. Europe’s most famous food market is just as wonderful in reality as its reputation.
• Go for a drink on Plaça Reial, it’s the city’s best loved square and the street lamps were Gaudi’s first Barcelona commission.
• Don’t miss: Gran Teatre del Liceu; Mirador de Colom; Plaça de Catalunya; the grand reveal of the Mediterranean at the south end of Las Ramblas.

Barcelona’s medieval quarter is incapable of disappointing and no matter how many historic districts you’ve seen, this is always the one to beat. Its tiny cobbled streets and narrow alleys opening on to beautiful squares and grand buildings are atmospheric enough to fade hordes of visitors into the background and there’s nowhere better for quaint shops, oddity museums, bloodcurdling stories and unrelenting drama.

• You can see the barrio’s ancient Roman roots in the massive Augustine columns inside the 14th century Canon’s House – one of many local curiosities.
• Plaça de Rei has the motherlode of Barcelona’s medieval grandeur and early royal history.
• Take kids into Barcelona Cathedral. Its official title is La Catedral de la Santa Creu I Santa Eulàlia and a flock of 13 very pampered geese live in the cloisters – each one represents a year in the life of Saint Eulalia, the youngest Christian martyr.
• Don’t miss: Frederic Marès museum of oddities; Museum of Modern European Art (MEAM); Palau Reial Major; Barcelona City History Museum (MUHBA); the Jewish Quarter, El Call; Carrel del Bisbe; Herboristeria del Rei, the city’s oldest shop.

The beachy bit of Barcelona minutes from Las Ramblas is a fraction of the city’s 5km long Mediterranean shoreline, but it’s best for sights, cute chiringuito, fantastic seafood, manicured sands, impressive waterfront hotels and getting to grips with why the world thinks Barcelona is the epitome of cool.

• Favourite city hang out for families at weekends and catching a few lunchtime rays during the week.
• Don’t miss: Barcelona Aquarium; the cable car to Montjuic; Marina Port Vell; Frank Gehry’s ‘Fish’; Museu d’història de Catalunya.

Cross over Plaça de Catalunya at the north end of Las Ramblas and you land in Barcelona’s 19th century ‘new town’. L’Eixample is the heartland of Catalan Modernism and stuffed with domestic architecture by Gaudi and his contemporaries. It’s also the district for expensive shopping streets and many, many luxurious city centre hotels.

• Passeig de Gràcia isn’t just the city’s costliest street it’s where you’ll find two of Gaudi’s apartment buildings: La Pedrera and fantastical Casa Batlli.
• Parc de Joan Mirò is a pretty space to take a break and admire the work of another legendary Spanish artist.
• Don’t overlook Casa Ametlier next to La Pedrera: another remarkable modernist building, designed by Gaudi’s contemporary, Puig I Cadalfach.