Barcelona Online | The offical Barcelona sites

Local authority Barcelona site Top 10 Barcelona site
Bcn.es

The Bcn.es site is the official local authority (Ajuntament de Barcelona) site. It regularly wins prizes as one of the best, nay, the best in Spain. Now, that's not saying a lot, it must be said, but bcn.es does have a vast amount on it, if you are prepared to do a lot of patient searching.

Among other things, it has a good section on getting about Barcelona, and a good one on education.

For tourist information, the new Barcelona Tourist Board site is probably a better bet, but the "News" and "Agenda" sections on the Bcn.es home page are also excellent sources of what's on now .

•Top recommendation #1: the interactive street map (note that you have to scroll off the first screen in order to be able to enter the street name you are looking for).

•Top recommendation #2: Use the search box and the site map rather than the navigation in order to find out what's really there.

•Score: First time visitor 8/10; Long-term resident 8/10
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan
•We liked: The "Agenda" on the home page as a good source of what's on in Barcelona
•Not so hot: Familiarising yourself with what is actually there

It also reckons, "what's more", that you can "find practical information, easily and quickly [ahem!], about living here or getting to know our country from a political, social or cultural viewpoint.

The main sections include Generalitat, Catalonia, Living, Working, Business and Studying and it also has links to the various local government departments and their websites. This is your site if you're looking for them.

Gencat.net has a ton of stuff on it - though for a first time visitor to Barcelona annoyingly little of it is in English. Like, "I'm interested in learning Catalan". "Ok, here's a ton of stuff - you speak Catalan, right?" "No, actually". Now is that dumb or what?

•Top recommendation: Use the site map if you want to stand any chance of finding anything

•Score: First time visitor 3/10; Long-term resident 5/10
Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan
•We liked: "Advices for gathering and eating wild mushrooms"
•Not so hot: Too much stuff, too hard to find.

Cat365 is, it says on its home page, "the fast track for municipal procedures" and invites you to "get to know it". Hm, sounds interesting... "What to do when..." That sounds interesting, too.

Perhaps it's hypocritical of us here at monolingual Barcelona Online to slag them off when it then says "The page requested is available in the following languages: Catalan"; but we think a really "open" administration should give you a choice of languages, and that happens with annoying frequency on this site.

And it would be a bit more practical, too. "I've just had my wallet nicked..." Let's see: "Per fer més aclaridor aquest procés, us proposem..." Sorry?

The main sections are "Your life", "Assistance and Subsidies", "Procedures and Handling", "Citizen Involvement", "Citizen Services" (including things like Health and Education), "Business". The site does include useful stuff like "Requirement to benefit from the health service" but... you get the idea, huh?

The site also has information on Catalan language.

•Top recommendation: Learn Catalan (no, actually, we mean that seriously; if you want to really belong in Barcelona, you're going to have to make the effort)

•Score: First time visitor 1/10; Long-term resident 1.5/10
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan and Aranes (spoken in the lovely Vall d'Aran in the Pyrenees)
•We liked: Realising how easy Catalan is, particularly if you start with some knowledge of Spanish and French
•Not so hot: The beastly rules for pronouns

Traffic and transport site
Mobilitat.net
The Generalitat maintains, among others a "mobility and traffic" site. It has information on public transport, roads (including weather and traffic reports), other means of transport (including bikes) and a fair number of useful links to other sites.

One link people are always asking for: road maps showing places outside Barcelona.

•Top recommendation: A lot of patience - there's is stuff here that is of interest if you trawl for it, like the routes (walking, bike...) from the Palau Robert.

•Score: First time visitor 1/10; Long-term resident 4/10
•Languages: Spanish, Catalan
•We liked: The mountain bike routes we eventually got to
•Not so hot: 304 broken links (we counted them)

Pssst! About those wild mushrooms...
Look, they're the non-hallucinatory kind, and it's a pecularly Catalan autumn tradition to nip off into the woods to pick them... Absolutely delicious cooked with butifarra sausage.

Pssst! Have you got a guide?
Yes, here's a guide in Spanish.