Barcelona is one of the nicest cities in Europe, a compination of great architecture, nice food, beach and soccer. These are some recommendations on what to see, where to eat and what to do:

AJ Discala’s travel tips: best hotel

• Condes Barcelona: www.condesbarcelona.com
• Majestic Hotel: www.hotelmajestic.es very central location
• Hotel Colon: www.hotelcolon.es
• Hotel 1898 http://www.hotel1898.com/

Aj Discala’s travel tip: favorite restaurants

• Cal Pep, placa de las olles, great place for Tapas http://calpep.com/
• L’Oliana , Santalo 54  http://www.oliana.com/
• Cerveceria catalane: is considered one of the best places in the city to try the more tasty tapas and local beer. http://www.barcelona.com/barcelona_directory/restaurants/tapas/cerveceria_catalana_in_barcelona
• Set portes, very traditional. http://www.7portes.com/catala/index2.php
• Restaurant Mercado San Caterina is also good for all ages http://www.cuinessantacaterina.com/
• Casa Calvet, one of the most famous and good restaurants http://www.casacalvet.es/

AJ Discala’s travel tips: things to do

• Take the Barcelona City Hop-on Hop-off bus and explore the city. That’s what I did. It’s the best way to circulate in the city and you can take two different tours.
• La Sagrada familia, Gaudi’s church. Make sure you take the bus trip that stops there.
• The Parc Guel is the famous Parc on the hill of Barcelona. It’s UNESCO listed and very artistic
• Paseo de Gracia is the street with all of Gaudi’s famous buildings; the Pedrera is one of them.
• You can also visit Barcelona’s famous bull ring
• And a lunch at the beach is of course a great option
• You need to have one tapas dinner and you could go to a flamenco show.

AJ Discala

Following the article published yesterday with AJ Discala’s travel tips for Paris it is great to see how the visitors of Paris become younger and spend more time at the museums.

AJ Discala explains that even after having existed so long neither the Louvre nor the Centre Pompidou have lost the ability to seduce the public.

The Louvre boasts 8.8 million visitors in 2011, a 5% increase from last year. The growth is comforting to the museum, which saw three years of stagnation.

For AJ Discala this can be explained by the fact that the museum’s treasures are drawing more and more foreigners each year. American visitors have made a grand return to the museums of Paris, but the museums are also drawing more and more visitors from emerging nations. Brazilians are in second place, followed by visitors from Italy, Australia, China (+ 50%!), Spain, Germany and Russia (70%!) Parisian visitors have increased by 17 %.

Another trend is that the visiting public is becoming younger and younger: half are under the age of 30!

But the main reason for AJ Discala is the quality of the exhibitions:

The quality of this year’s special exhibitions accounts for the rise in viewers (510,000 people saw the special exhibits, a rise of 22%). 2011 exhibits included L’Antiquité rêvée (Perfect Antiquity), innovations et résistances au XVIIIe siècle (Innovations and Resistance in the 18th Century), Rembrandt et la figure du Christ (Rembrandt and the figure of Christ),  Claude le Lorrain, le dessinateur face à la nature (Claude le Lorrain, An Artist’s Confrontation with Nature), Au royaume d’Alexandre le Grand, la Macédoine antique (In the Kingdom of Alexander the Great, Ancient Macedonia) and La Cité interdite au Louvre, empereurs de Chine et rois de France (The Forbidden City at the Louvre, Chinese Emperors and French Kings).

As written in the previous blog, there is more than the Louvre. A reference in the art world remains the Centre Pompidou according to AJ Discala.

AJ Discala describes that the modern art museum also posted great 2011 numbers: 3.6 million visitors, which marks a 37 % in five years.

The second branch of the modern art museum, the Centre Pompidou-Metz also welcomed 550,000 visitors in 2011, for a total of 1.2 million since its opening in May 2010.

AJ Discala

AJ Discala could not be happier for his cousin Johnny who has a great start in this new year. Johnny starts the year with his own show on the travel Channel and an Engagement!!!

Johnny Jet travels over 150,000 miles and visits more than 20 countries each year. AJ Discala explains what makes Johnny Jet so successful: “Johnny personally collects exciting and useful up-to-the-minute information about all things travel specifically for the many and varied readers of his popular Johnny Jet web site, blogs, tweets (@JohnnyJet), and newsletter. His comprehensive travel websiteJohnnyJet.com is dubbed by Budget Travel Magazine as “one of the top, best money-saving websites for travel.”

AJ Discala agrees with Johnny’s fans who refer to him as “possibly the next best thing to an all informed, travel guide working just for you.” He is consistently featured in print and broadcast media (ABC, CNN, MSNBC, among others) as one of the foremost experts in world travel, guaranteeing his readers/listeners/viewers will save money by following his clever travel tips.

With leisure dollars stretched thinner and farther than ever, Johnny Jet is the travel world’s go-to answer man.

In Johnny’s new show  he circles the globe for his first televised special “Hot Spots 2012,” which premiered on the Travel Channel January 1. The show is scheduled to air again Sunday January 8 at 4:00 PM EST (check local listings).

During the one-hour special, Johnny Jet gives viewers a ringside seat as he uncovers the hottest travel destinations for 2012. Revealing insider tips that only the most seasoned traveler would know, Johnny explores New Zealand, Belize, England, Canada, New York, and Necker Island (Sir Richard Branson’s private domain in the British Virgin Islands). Johnny also visits 5-star hotels currently under construction, including The Conrad (New York), The Four Seasons (Toronto), Trump Tower (Toronto), and The Black Swan (New Zealand).

Additionally, Johnny Jet provides first looks at the new Harry Potter Studio in London, the Titanic Museum in Southampton, the 9/11 Museum in New York City, as well as Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America—the very first commercial spaceport built exclusively for passenger use.

The shows gives you a great insight of these travel destinations and makes you want to board to New Zealand, London, toronto and NEw York, says AJ Discala. We look forward to the next episode.