Av. del Tibidabo

Forget the Ramblas for a second. If you want to see where the real loot went—the industrial-age, pharmaceutical-grade, 'I-own-the-city' kind of money—you have to head north, away from the sea, toward the hills of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi. Avinguda del Tibidabo isn't just a street; it’s a long, steep, architectural flex. It was the brainchild of Dr. Salvador Andreu, a man who made a killing selling cough drops and decided to turn this incline into a garden city for the elite at the turn of the 20th century.

Walking up this avenue is a lesson in how to spend money with style. You aren't looking at cookie-cutter luxury here. You’re looking at the fever dreams of Modernista architects who were given blank checks by the Catalan bourgeoisie. Take Casa Roviralta, known as 'El Frare Blanc.' It’s a massive, white-washed stunner that looks like it belongs in a fairytale, or perhaps a very expensive asylum. It’s now a restaurant, but the bones of that 1913 masterpiece still scream of a time when Barcelona was exploding with new wealth and even newer ideas about what a house should look like.

Then there’s the ghost of the Tramvia Blau. For over a century, these blue trams rattled up and down the center of the avenue, ferrying the well-to-do and the curious toward the funicular. They’ve been 'under renovation' since 2018, and their absence is a wound in the neighborhood’s character. You can still see the tracks embedded in the asphalt, a reminder of a slower, more elegant era of transit that the city seems in no hurry to bring back. Without the tram, the walk is a bit of a haul, but that’s the point. You earn the view.

As you climb, the air gets thinner and the houses get weirder. You’ll pass Casa Muley Afid, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch for a Moroccan sultan in exile. It’s got that brickwork and those horseshoe arches that remind you that Barcelona has always been a Mediterranean crossroads, even in its most exclusive enclaves. Most of these mansions have been carved up into private clinics, prestigious schools, or corporate headquarters, but the facades remain—ornate ironwork, trencadís mosaics, and towers that look out over the sprawl of the city toward the Mediterranean.

Is it worth the sweat? If you give a damn about architecture and the history of how cities are built, then yes. It’s one of the best things to do in Barcelona if you’re tired of being elbowed by tourists in the Gothic Quarter. This is the quiet side of the city. It’s the sound of wind through old trees and the occasional hum of a high-end German SUV. It’s a place to contemplate the fact that while regimes change and economies crash, the view from the top of the hill usually stays the same for the people who can afford the climb. By the time you reach the top at Plaça del Doctor Andreu, you’re rewarded with a panorama of Barcelona that makes the whole city look like a toy box. Grab a drink, look down at the chaos you escaped, and realize that Dr. Andreu knew exactly what he was doing.