Roavi · Barcelona
Become a Local Friend in Barcelona
Go out, explore your city and meet travellers from everywhere. Your days, your rate.
Go out
A sunset, music, a rooftop
Explore
Your city, the way only you know it
Meet people
A coffee with someone from abroad
Your terms
Your days, your rate
In public places · Respectful · Platonic only · Earnings vary by city and demand
How it works
Get started in
3 simple steps
- 1
Create your free profile
Tell travellers about yourself, your interests and your city. Stop and come back any time; your words are saved.
- 2
Show what makes you special
Your favourite places, three real photos, and how you'd like to spend time. A person on our team reads every profile.
- 3
Connect with travellers
When you're ready, reply to travellers and agree on a plan that works for you: the day, the hours, your rate.
Example profileMarta$22/hr
Lisbon, Portugal
Usually replies within 1 hour
I'm great for
Speaks
Portuguese · English · Spanish
Send a messageExample profile · this is how yours will look
Real people. Real places.
See what Local Friends share
From hidden beaches to local food spots, Local Friends show travellers the side of their city that isn't in the guidebooks.
Explore more profilesWhat a Barcelona local can show past the saturation
Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe and it feels like it. La Rambla is a corridor of paella with tinned peas, Park Güell and the Sagrada Família need tickets bought days ahead, and the Gòtic in August belongs entirely to people who do not live here. Locals still have a whole city — it is just not on the route.
What you can show
- 1
Gràcia, Sant Antoni, Poblenou — neighbourhoods with squares full of residents rather than tour groups, and the vermut hour that happens in them.
- 2
How eating here actually works: lunch from 14:00, dinner from 21:00, pa amb tomàquet, a menú del dia, calçots if it is the season. A restaurant serving dinner at 20:00 is telling you who it is for.
- 3
Which Gaudí is worth the ticket and which is worth walking past, and the ordinary modernista buildings all over the Eixample that nobody queues for.
- 4
The pickpocket reality, plainly: it is not violent, it is opportunistic, and it happens on line 3, on the beach and at Sants. Ten seconds of local habit prevents almost all of it.
Two languages live here. Locals move between Catalan and Spanish constantly, and visitors are almost always addressed in Spanish or English without friction — but being able to explain that relationship is itself something visitors are curious about and rarely get a straight answer on.
Travelers are looking for locals in Barcelona
Be one of the first Local Friends they meet. Build your profile today and get discovered by travelers heading to Barcelona.
See the Barcelona page
Questions?
Everything you need to know
The questions people ask before they join, answered plainly.
Ask Roa or the teamCatalonia regulates the profession of tourist guide, and guided visits inside certain protected monuments and museums require an official habilitation. Roavi is not that — you are not selling a guided tour of a monument, you are being paid for your time as someone who lives here. If a visitor wants a guided visit inside a regulated site specifically, the right answer is to point them at an official guide for that part.
The saturation is on the standard route, not on the people. What visitors increasingly want is exactly the thing the route cannot give them. Be specific on your profile — your neighbourhood, what you would actually do with someone, what you know about — because 'I show Barcelona' is what the crowded end of the market says.
Yes. Creating and publishing your Local Friend profile is completely free — there’s no cost to appear in the directory or receive messages.
No — and that is the point. A Local Friend is not a tour guide: you spend time with someone as yourself, you do not run a tour. Professional guiding is a licensed profession in a number of countries; spending an afternoon with someone is not. And if you do hold a guiding licence, put it on your profile — travellers look for it.
Yes. You set your own hourly rate, and you can change it anytime from your profile.
Yes. You choose your days and times on your profile, reply only when it suits you, and can pause your profile whenever you like.
No. You need to be 18 or over, live in the city, and add three real photos of yourself. If you know where you’d take a friend, you have what it takes.
No. Roavi doesn’t process payments or take a commission on what you arrange with a traveler.
No. You decide who you respond to, and you can say no to anyone, for any reason.
No. Verification is optional. It’s completed through Stripe Identity and adds a verified status to your profile, but your profile, visibility, and messaging stay free either way.
Travelers message you directly through Roavi once they find your profile in the directory. You choose whether and how to reply.
Yes. You can pause your visibility or delete your profile at any time from your account settings.
Ready to share your world?
Become a Local Friend today
It's free. It could be the start of something amazing.
18+ · Every profile is read by a person before it goes live