Barcelona, verdict by verdict

Barcelona sells two trips in one: a Mediterranean beach city and an open-air architecture museum where Gaudi's buildings look grown rather than built. The food runs from market stalls to serious tasting menus, the barrios each keep their own pace, and the weather cooperates for most of the year. It earns its fame, and it earns its crowds.

The fame is the caveat. One of Europe's most visited cities shows it in prices, in queues at the Sagrada Familia and on a La Rambla that is mostly souvenir stalls, and pickpocketing is a real nuisance in the tourist corridors. July and August run hot, sticky and packed at peak prices, and anyone after an untouristed, sleepy Spanish city should look elsewhere.

The fix is timing and territory: book the big sights well ahead, eat in Gracia, Sant Antoni or Poble Sec rather than the Gothic core, and come in May, June or October. Three to four days covers the Sagrada, Park Guell, the Gothic quarter and a food quarter or two, with Montserrat as the extra day. It suits architecture hunters, food travelers and anyone who wants a city break that includes a beach.