For our first holiday as a couple I treated my girlfriend for a weekend break in Barcelona. As a pair of recent graduates our first vacation was always going to have to a shoestring affair. Without any contacts in the city and wishing to avoid a communal hostel we were short of ideas where to stay on the cheap. Luckily a friend of ours had recently stayed in Prague and had found a great company called Wimdu, which specialises in private accommodation. Through this platform anybody can lend out a room in their home, and for the fraction of the price that some of the hotels were quoting in Barcelona.
After checking out their website, we decided to rent a room in a beautiful Barcelonan apartment. We had arranged to meet our host at the airport and, despite our flight being delayed last minute by two hours, our host, Florian, was still there to pick us up. He took us to his apartment, right in the centre of the city, which he shares with his wife and young daughter. Once acquainted, the family showed us around their lovely home and to the room that would be our home for the next three nights. The room was even better than it appeared on the photographs, towels and fresh linen had been provided and our hosts were at pain to stress that whatever else we wanted would be provided.
Inside knowledge
Following a quick shower my girlfriend and I were eager to explore the city, but where to start? We had read about all the museums and the best beaches but when we asked Florian which one of these was his favourite he gave us an almost pitying look. He then invited us to go with his family to the ‘real beach of Barcelona’. Being conveniently located in the heart of the city, it took us just under 15 minutes by local bus to reach this beach. It was spectacular, and looking back it definitely was the best beach we visited on this trip.
The trip continued in this vain throughout the weekend, the advice and tips Florian gave us were invaluable, from small tapas bars to niche museums we always had the inside track on where to go. My personal highlight was visiting the Camp Nou for Barcelona v Sevilla. Florian managed to get us excellent seats behind the goal in the ‘hard core’ section rather than up in the heavens where most tourists tend to end up.
Travel like a local
Whenever we needed great advice, we were pointed away from the cattle herding of modern tourism and towards discovering the real essence of the city. Despite this, we were still able to visit all the places we had highlighted in our guide book, as Florian knew the perfect times to visit to beat the queues.
On returning home, my girlfriend was straight on the Wimdu website to write a glowing review of our host. It was nice to see our money, cheap as it was, go directly to a local. In return he gave us a lovely home which to stay, expert advice and a new friendship.