You ' ll have a good time in either city they ' re both pleasant places to visit , but they ' re quite different . Barcelona is an older city with a large medieval quarter largest in Europe which is great for just wandering around . Madrid , being younger , doesn ' t have this . Architecture in BCN is more varied and striking . Both cities have great restaurants . BCN ' s top end tends more to the avantgarde ' modern Catalan cuisine ', so if that ' s your bag , I would recommend BCN . Madrid has better museums hands down , but you say that ' s not so interesting for you . In my experience Madrid servicewise is often a bit more old fashioned and polite . Barcelona is an industrial port city and its people are a little rougher round the edges , don ' t dress as smartly , go for a more familiarbrusque approach . This can take some getting used to if you ' re more used to other parts of Spain . I like it personally , but you do hear people moaning about it , so it ' s good to know in advance . Madrid doesn ' t have as many tourists . In May , Barcelona is already pretty busy .