Find a golden beach in Spain and the likelihood is you’ll find a glitzy tourist ghetto beside it. Now call me snobby, retro or just plain picky, but I still prefer to get to know a real community when chillin’ by the sea. That’s one reason why I’m all loved up with autumn time in La Barceloneta. The season when the armies of the untanned retreat to their homelands.

Fishing for a great beach

If you’ve ever hung out in Barcelona, you’ll probably know about La Barceloneta’s beaches already. Over 4km of powder gold sand packed as tight as a Frenchman’s thong with pretty bars like Opium and sci-fi-tastic hotels such as W. Looking at all that, you’d never believe that it was once a working beach, covered with fishermen’s huts and warehouses.

La Barceloneta has over 4km of powder gold sand packed as tight as a Frenchman’s thong with pretty bars and restaurants.

Smells like community spirit

The fact that La Barceloneta was late to the beach party is one of the reasons I’m so into it. Originally built as a fishermen’s quarter, in the 19th century it was an industrial slum. Even today, the streets remain so narrow that you can virtually touch the washing hanging off the balcony opposite yours. The place may have been gentrified since those early days, but go beyond the beachfront and you still have a real sense of the community.

Get real

The Placa de la Font, a buzzing square, is the area’s heart, surrounded by bakeries, halal butchers, bars and food markets. Going to get your groceries, you might find yourself walking in on a family party with kids playing footy and granddads chuffing at cigarettes. To me this seems like one of the few places in the world where beach life moves cheek to cheek with real life.

Drink like a fish

And if the opportunity to hang in the hood rather than a tourist ghetto wasn’t enough, La Barceloneta also has loads of bars and restaurants: allegedly there’s one for every 120 inhabitants. The seadog history of the place is evident from the fish restaurants dotted at every corner.

Freshen up with the locals

If you fancy knocking up your own grub, La Barceloneta has its very own indoor market too. Mercat de la Barceloneta might not be as big as La Boqueria on La Rambla, but you’re far less likely to get your pockets picked. And with the cash that you save from those light-fingered louts, you can enjoy a cafecito at Los Fogones de la Barceloneta.

Leave on a high

Staying in La Barceloneta, the last thing you’ll probably want to do is hit the stuffy metro tunnels or overcrowded buses. If you can bring yourself to leave at all, there’s only one way to do it. Grab the super scenic Transpordador Aeri to Montjuic hill. As you glide over the marina, filled with the yachts of the obscenely rich, you’ll be able see La Barceloneta in all its glory. That this old community hasn’t succumbed to the flamboyant excesses of those silver spoon playboys, to me makes it as beautiful as the beach it sits beside.