Rainy Day
1. Nailed it
Stormy weather is the perfect excuse to stay inside and pamper yourself. At New York-style beauty salon The Pink Peony (Pg. de Gràcia 100), indulge in a holistic facial that will leave your skin feeling rejuvenated, or tend to your toes with a complete pedicure. Peony Herrera Sy and her team go above and beyond to ensure that every treatment is a relaxing, therapeutic experience. Cowshed Spa at Soho House Barcelona (Pl. del Duc de Medinaceli 4) is a similarly tranquil retreat. The Relax and Refuel package (€50) includes a 30-minute treatment of your choice (a signature massage, facial, manicure or pedicure), followed by a two-course lunch and coffee at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Cecconi’s. Available Mon-Fri 12pm-3.30pm.
2. Jump for joy
Jumping—or ‘salting’ in Spanglish—is a fun way to stay active when you can’t go outside. Salting CET10 Barcelona (Perú 160-162) is an indoor trampoline park with 33 horizontal and 18 vertical jumping beds. An activity for all ages, the whole family will have a blast tumbling around this high-energy jumping joint. At one end of the centre, you can play ‘Salting smash’, a version of trampoline basketball with hoops at three different heights, while the other end holds a large foam pit into which you can dive, flip and belly flop. Open seven days a week, jumping slots range from 15 minutes to an hour, with prices starting from €4.
3. A narrow escape
Locked in one of Barcelona’s escape rooms, you’ll have to unleash your inner detective to get out in time. At BarceLocked (Arc de Sant Silvestre 3), players must find the original plans for Gaudí’s Sagrada Família—which have supposedly been hidden by George Orwell, who famously described the building as ‘hideous’. Chicken Banana (Rocafort 12) has three escape room themes, each with different scare tactics and levels of difficulty. Or, for the ultimate quest, immerse yourself in the alternate reality of one of Maximum Escape’s rooms. With two locations in Barcelona, you can try your luck as a bootlegger during the American gangster wars of the Twenties, use magical spells as a prisoner of Alkaban, search for Sherlock Holmes in a horrific and treacherous London, and more. Prices range from €17 to €120.
4. Padel power
Rainy days don’t have to be lazy days. Try your hand at one of Spain’s most beloved racquet sports, padel, which combines the rules and techniques of squash, tennis and ping pong. Whilst the phenomenon is still gaining ground in the rest of Europe, padel is arguably more popular than tennis in Spain, with the International Padel Federation preparing to make a case for its inclusion in future Olympic Games. Padel is typically played in doubles, on a court roughly a third of the size of a tennis court. Scoring is the same as tennis, but, as in squash, players can use the walls to challenge opponents with trick shots. Rent a court at Indoor Padel Barcelona (Veneçuela 78) for as little as €5 per player.
5. Down under
Travel back in time and explore the underground remains of Roman Barcino at the MUHBA (Museu d’Història de Barcelona). Located five metres below Plaça del Rei in the Gothic Quarter, the ruins date from between the first century BC and the start of the Middle Ages, and were opened to the public in 1943. Visitors can walk along the streets of the ancient city and see the remains of a second-century laundrette, Roman baths, a fish salting factory and winery, as well as the city’s first Christian community and some important medieval buildings, including Palau Reial and the Chapel of Santa Àgata.