Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
City beaches
From Port Olímpic ( Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica) it's a 15min walk along the promenade to Bogatell beach, or
around 1hr all the way to Parc del Fòrum
Beyond the Port Olímpic, the city
beaches
continue right the way up to Parc del Fòrum and
Diagonal Mar, split into separate named sections
Nova Icària
,
Bogatell
,
Mar Bella
,
Nova
Mar Bella
and
Llevant
, each with showers, playgrounds and open-air café-bars (Mar Bella
offers an area for nudists). It's a pretty extraordinary leisure facility to find so close to a city
centre - the water might not be as clean as it could be, but the sands are regularly swept and
replenished, while joggers, cyclists and bladers have one of the Med's best views for com-
pany.
Poble Nou
PobleNou(foundatthejunction ofc/Pujades andc/Bilbao, oneblockeast ofRambla delPobleNou),orbus
#36 from Port Olímpic
The next neighbourhood along from the Port Olímpic is
Poble Nou
(New Village), a largely
nineteenth-centuryindustrialareathathasbeeninthethroesofredevelopmentsincetheearly
1990s. The authorities have given the regeneration area a suitably contemporary epithet,
22@Barcelona
(
22barcelona.com
),andarecurrentlyoverseeingthetransformationof120
cityblocks,straddling200hectaresofland,into“theinnovationdistrict”.Theredevelopment
of old factories and the like has already had a significant effect, as some of the city's hottest
clubs, galleries and art spaces are now found here. You can come here directly on the metro,
but it's far nicer to walk along the promenade from the Port Olímpic (15min) to Poble Nou's
spruced-up
beaches
- Bogatell, Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella - before crossing the main
highway to reach the neighbourhood's main spine, Rambla del Poble Nou.
