Barcelona A Philosophy For Travelers

Feast for free at the Pueblo Ingles, where English is currency.
Speak Catalan like a true Barcelonese with the Generalitat.
Sweat as you make the desert bloom with Sunseed Desert Technology.

As a tourist, you are always a foreigner. Sure, hostel-hopping and sightseeing can be great fun, but connecting with a foreign country through studying, volunteering, or working can extend your travels beyond tourist traps. We don’t like to brag, but this is what’s different about a Let’s Go traveler. Instead of feeling like a stranger in a strange land, you can understand Barcelona like a local. Instead of being that tourist asking for directions, you can be the one who gives them (and correctly!). All the while, you get the satisfaction of leaving Barcelona in better shape than you found it. It’s not wishful thinking—it’s Beyond Tourism.

As a volunteer in Barcelona or elsewhere in Catalunya, you will have the chance to participate in a wide range of projects. Whether you are looking to work with children, advocate for the environment, or get involved in local politics, this guide is chock-full of ideas to help get you started.

Study abroad combines the comfort of academic structure and English-speaking friends with the exhilaration of travel and immersion in a foreign culture. Thousands of students descend on Spain every year to take advantage of its broad array of study abroad programs. Barcelona offers language programs to suit everyone from the novice linguist to the master orator. If you’re a college student, your local study-abroad office is often the best place to start.

Working abroad is very cool and very complicated. Now that the European countries have teamed up to form the EU, non-Europeans trying to find work in Barcelona must compete with locals and with every unemployed European if they hope to land a job. And then there’s the catch-22 familiar to anyone who’s every tried to get a work visa; you need a job for a visa and a visa for a job. Spain’s high unemployment rate can make it difficult to find a job or obtain a work visa. But take heart: English speakers are always in high demand as teachers, au pairs, or workers in beach towns outside the city. In order to work abroad, you must meet the legal requirements for either short-term or long-term work (see Working, ).

Share Your Experience. Have you had a particularly enjoyable volunteer, study, or work experience that you’d like to share with other travelers? A particularly horrible experience you need to warn us about? Post it! www.letsgo.com.