Barcelona apartments, Barcelona Hotels,

Only a couple of decades ago, the moral legacy of the Spanish dictatorship confined homosexual behavior to a handful of underground bars and the city's gay population lived in fear of abuse on the streets. Nowadays, men with shaved heads and combats are more likely to be on their way to a leather bar than anything more sinister, and recent legislation introducing same-sex marriages caused hardly a ripple of dissent.

In Barcelona anything goes; most gay bars welcome straight drinkers, and vice versa. The lack of segregation means that there isn't a gay ghetto as such. The area bordered by the streets of Diputacio and Arago, Balmes and Villarroel in the Eixample is known as the "Gaixample" and is where most gay venues are concentrated. Yet even this isn't really a gaybourhood: although it has a buzz at night, the wide streets make it anything but villagey. In that area you can easily find a Barcelona hotel or a cozy Barcelona apartment.

For more information on what's going on in the city, pick up a copy of the free gay map or magazines from bars and gay bars. There are several discos where gays can enjoy theirselfes during the whole night. Barcelona even has a beach for the gays. Officially the San Sebastian beach in La Barceloneta is a nude beach, but in the summer months it is always full of gays.

Barcelona is a nice city anyway, and the Eixample district is one of the best and nicest area of Barcelona. If you intend to spend some days in Barcelona, you should stay in this area and also visit the other spots of interest. A Barcelona holiday is always a great experience for gays.