My mother and I are about to spend a week in Barcelona, any ideas on not getting mugged?

I lived in Barcelona for six months and had my purse taken from inside my bag twice on the metro escalators, so be extra careful here. Otherwise basic common sense should suffice, no dark alleys etc.

Petty crime is quite widespread in Barcelona, although I have to say I've never had a bad experience during my numerous and lengthy visits to the city. If you hold on to your bag, avoid chit-chat with random people in the street, and don't wander around dark alleys on your own, you should be fine.

Also, if you have any luggage you're carrying around, don't leave it on the floor - my friend's bag with Xmas gifts was snatched from right underneath her feet outside one of the busy Metro stops.

So, be careful and on guard, but also try to relax. Barcelona is really not as dangerous as people think, as long as you're a smart traveler.

I am an independent traveler and I usually feel safe enough using a moneybelt. Barcelona however, I was warned by the hotel clark, who suggested I leave anything valuable in the hotel safe. I carried my wallet (with a few dollars) in
a plastic bag. No purse, no backpack.

I saw a purse snatched on a busy street, and a wallet snatched in front of eyewitnesses. They don't care if anyone see them because when it comes time to prosecute, the tourist won't be around.

...go to the police in Barcelona, even if you suspect that they may not do much to help. Then you will get a police record of the crime which is necessary when dealing with insurance company, banks etc. at home.

I, too, have been reading/hearing a lot about violent crime against tourists being on the increase in Barcelona. I am planning to visit on my own but now am having second thoughts. Any additional suggestions/cautions/reassurance that anyone can offer? Thanks.

I would say - despite your concerns, don't miss out on seeing this special city, just be sensible when walking around at night.

I just got back from a week in Sitges (30 mins on train outside Barcelona. Found Barcelona very nice and would suggest the usual stuff with keeping safe. Keep your purse in your front pocket.

If you fancy time away from the city, Sitges is lovely. Popular with the spanish and many gay visitors. Nice, relaxed and hassle free!

It is the same as ANY big city. You wouldn't walk around your home city with big packpack or bumbag or obvious camera which screams tourist, so don't do it anywhere else. I've heard of gangs of children trying to goad you on to play football with them and then snatching everything, but it could all be scaremongering. It's all common sense really. I have had no trouble in any of the places I have been too (i.e. most of Europe). Just keep your wits about you. And a small gun. Just joking.

I agree with the comments made by Phileas. No matter what city you visit you HAVE to be careful. Simply avoid exposing any valuables (eg money,cameras) and avoid badly lit areas. From my experience, I was walking along "Las Ramblas" until about 1:30am and found no major problems. I did notice alot of homeless people especially in the above location, tried to give a few Euro's on each occasion. (",) SAFETY IN BARCELONA

Please read the message left by Kathryn, re:"Beware the bird**** scam in Barca". This is simply unbelievable, its shows what lengths people go to commit a crime!!!.[B][/B]

I was lucky enough to find Barcelona generally safe. I went for a week without anything being stolen or any hassle from people, but know quite afew people who've returned with valuables taken. Also when walking around I was quite aware of many commuters and tourists who chose to wear their bags over their fronts rather than on their backs which just shows that there is abit of a problem. Rather than a big problem with violent crime it seems that there's a problem with sneaky theives and pickpockets etc. especially as JEni said, on the esculators. I agree with Clinton too, don't miss out on Barcelona or avoid it, its as risky as being in parts of London or even my own home town at times! Stick to the general rules, don't flas money about, leave bags unattended etc and you should be fine.

from what i have heard from my friends, they have never had any problems in barcelona as far as safety goes.

Cory
League City Web Design
www.leaguecityweb.com

Just got back from Barcelona after 3 night City break, out of a group of 4 couples we had 3 lots of street crime. So statistically you have a 3 in 8 chance of being robbed. Barcelona is not safe I personally don't consider having hand bags snatched and walletts stolen just something to be written off as petty crime. My advice is if you must go - don't carry anything of value in the streets except money for immediate needs.


The 3 seperate items were ;

1) Hand bag snatched late at night coming out of a restaurent near the Ramblas. Only loss was lipstick and mirror.

2) One wallet stolen after the bird Sh*t trick, lost money credit cards and spent 2 days cancelling cards and dealing with authorities (who are not interested). This guy was a very experienced traveller.

3) One guy who was doing the guess where the pea is out of three upturned cups asked me to change a 50 euro note - I handed him change - he kept it. When I started to get aggressive with him 4 of his mates threatened me. I'm 105 Kg and 1.8m and also a seasoned traveller.

Also I witnessed an American family in a coffee shop have a mobile phone taken from the table from under their noses !

The warning in the rough is correct my complaint is it should be on the front page in bold letters !

Barcelona is as safe as any major european city. It's a damn site safer than a lot of eastern europe.

If people are still so naive to fall for scams in this day and age then they deserve it. In about ten visits i've seen two robberies. One was a bloke running out of Cafe Zurich with someones handbag, and the other was on a metro. Both victims were local and not tourists.

Have never ever seen any violent crime and i've spent about 30 days there in the last 5 years.

I think that the problem is that in Barcelona this kind of small robberies used to be unusal and unfortunately now there are some organized people, specially Romanians, that are starting to make all sort of small robberies and some scamms.

Raul Ramos
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I live in Barcelona and can tell you first hand that it's really a fairly safe city as cities go. The crime here is petty - snatched bags n' sutch. But for the most part it's really low key...

I've written an article on my site about travel scams in general, many of which are applicable to your situation.

Check out www.thetravelmonkey.net/scams.asp.
Richard

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Richard Fletcher
The Travel Monkey - FREE advice on tickets, accommodation, scams and more!
www.thetravelmonkey.net

Is it safe to traval by metro between the airport and the city? I'll have to change metros 3 times. Is it safer to take a taxi? Can i take a taxi if I don't speak spanish?

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