Barcelona has been getting a lot of bad press recently because of all the petty theft, and it is a legitimate concern. I even got an email from the U.S. Embassy while I was there saying they are aware of the rising problem and more Barcelona police were being dispatched to tourist areas. But to the people saying they want to cancel their trip because of it, please don’t! You just need to be aware and prepared. Hopefully my experiences and suggestions will be useful to those going soon:
– Get a cross body security bag. I got this Travelon Bag off Amazon and this thing is legit. It’s heavy duty, cut resistant, has RFID protection, and the outward facing zippers have clip locks on them. It’s also pretty cute and comes in all sorts of colors.
– Phone theft is the most common thing I hear about, so I got a wrist strap and a finger holder for my phone. They’d have to break my hand to get my phone off me, so not an easy worthwhile target for a thief looking for a quick score.
– I kept 20 euro in a front pocket to use as needed, but the rest of my money as well as my wallet/passport stayed inside the locked purse and I never opened the locked part in public.
– I was traveling solo, so I tried to look for obvious tourists to hand my camera to for photos. Bonus points if they were clearly experienced and taking photos of each other with good angles and stuff on their own. Then I would offer to take a photo of them together in exchange. We all left happy!
– Most importantly though, don’t be afraid to be rude. Don’t feel guilty about it. If someone is bothering you, or making you uneasy, you don’t owe it to them to stay in the conversation. You can leave without their permission. You can walk away without saying a word of goodbye if you have to. Or if you must, you can look them right in the eye and let out the loudest, screechiest, most T-Rex sounding wail right into their ear then stomp off with impact-tremor inducing ferocity. Whatever you gotta do to stay safe.
And that’s it. I walked everywhere, I bought a 3 day metro pass and took trains/buses all over and never once felt unsafe. So go and do the thing! Barcelona is gorgeous, and a half day trip to Montserrat is TOTALLY worth it. I did mine with a company called We Barcelona, and would definitely recommend. Have fun!
