Every summer my family takes a vacation. We have been to Alaska, New Orleans, Niagara Falls and more. But this summer we opted for a Mediterranean cruise with Norwegian. I’m a cruise snob and tend to only travel with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean but we got an amazing deal and would have been fools not to take it. The cruise left out of Barcelona, Spain. Can I discuss the wonderful flight deal we got to Barcelona? I was able to find an error fare and booked our flights for under $300 round trip. I was able to be at the right place at the right time. I knew the dates we needed to travel and was able to book before the inexpensive fair disappeared. Follow me on Twitter, I’m always giving out travel tips and deals.

How to wear a caftan.

sisters in barcelona spain

Travel Noire
Family in Barcelona

The flight was really good and my young nieces did great. We flew overnight on TAP Airlines which is a sister airline to United Airlines. I was familiar with the airlines because I have flown them before to Europe. The flight came equipped with on flight movies and Wi-Fi. I attempted to watch three movies but ended up falling asleep at some point during each movie.

Where to stay in Barcelona.
Novotel Hotel
View overlooking Barcelona.
View overlooking Barcelona.

We arrived in Barcelona that evening. Our hotel, Novotel, was a cute boutique hotel outside of Barcelona in Saint Joan Despi. It was about an 11 minute car ride from the airport. The hotel was near public transportation and easy to navigate thanks to Google Maps. Even more easy since I got a SkyRoam global mobile Wi-Fi device to take with me abroad so I can stay connected. I have Verizon mobile service and it’s not like T Mobile where you get free global data. It basically sucks. I do so much traveling that I need to be connected. This little device has been a life saver. I wish I would have known about it sooner. I would have invested a long time ago.

Skyroam
SkyRoam
Travel Noire
Barcelona

There is a 6 hour time difference from Michigan so we were completely jet-lagged. We didn’t get out to explore Barcelona until 3pm because we overslept. The day was blown. We took the tram which was a short walk from our hotel to Barcelona and got on the hop on and off tour bus. If you follow me on Snapchat, than you know we got kicked off the tram because we didn’t pay. It was my fault. I didn’t realize we had to pay until the tram was coming. I told everyone to get on. I’ve been to Europe before and have ‘accidentally’ gotten on the train sans payment. I thought we would be fine. Nope. We got busted and kicked off the tram for non payment. The tram security was super cool and just made us pay at the next stop. We were lucky because ain’t nobody got time to go to jail in Spain.

The bus stopped running at 8pm so we didn’t have a lot of time to get on and get off, so we opted for lunch and one stop. We went to La Bella Donna for lunch and the food was delicious. We each ordered simple items but the food tasted like magic. They must have used fresh ingredients.

We are staying in Barcelona after our cruise and will get to see more later. Since we are also staying in the same hotel, we will know how to navigate the city. Hopefully, we won’t have jetlag either.