If you’re planning to fly to Barcelona at Christmas and you can’t make up your mind about the best type of accommodation, I recommend you choose an apartment. That way, you will avoid a situation similar to the one you can see in the picture. Well… what is in there? A kind of Christmas tree on a table and… what’s that? Let me answer this question later…

Undoubtedly, an apartment has a lot of advantages that no other type of accommodation has. First of all, you can enjoy much more privacy than in a hotel or a hostel. Also, if you are looking for a budget accommodation, an apartment in Barcelona is much cheaper than a hotel. It is true that you can find hostels at the same price as some apartments in Barcelona and even cheaper. But in the hostel you have to share the shower, the kitchen, the laundry… and run the risk of being woken up by your roommates at different times of the night. So, I think that paying a bit more for an apartment is worth enough. You will have all the privacy you want and save some money to spend in restaurants, sightseeing, going to clubs, buying souvenirs and many other things to do in Barcelona. What is more, there are vacation apartments in Barcelona suitable for big groups that allow you to live together with your friends during your holidays in Barcelona. Take into account that Christmas is a peak season and hotels and hostels will get full quickly.

Now, I’d like to focus on more specific advantages about staying in an apartment in Barcelona at Christmas. And, at the same time, I’m going to solve the mystery of the picture. You can’t live the real Catalan Christmas without having the most typical Catalan decorations at home. If you want to experience a Catalan-style Christmas, you must have room to place a Christmas tree as you can’t leave it in the street like the one in the picture above! Also, you need a Nativity with lots of figures and you can’t forget the caganer in your Catalan Nativity, because it is its most important figure, apart from the child. So, hide this little shepherd doing a poop in the bushes. You will find all kinds of caganers in the Fira de Santa Llucia, a Christmas market which is located in the Cathedral of Barcelona and opens from the first Saturday of December to the 23rd. Also, you must hit the Caga-tio (see the picture above) to make this funny wooden log shit presents for your children. They will go crazy when they see sweets and presents falling out of the log’s bottom! And.. why don’t you try to cook a traditional Catalan dish like the “galets soup”? Galets is a kind of pasta in a soup traditionally served on Christmas in Catalonia. To do so, you need a well-equipped kitchen that you will only have in an apartment in Barcelona, of course.

So, haven’t you made up your mind yet?