By Bus, Barcelona

The Bus Turistic is a great way to see Barcelona. We purchased the two day passes (21 euros per person). This gave us the time to get on and off the bus as we wished. I recommend doing some advanced research into what you really want to get off the bus to see and where it is, mostly because you can become a bit disoriented when getting off the bus. The bus takes two routes and if you plan on getting off at a lot of stops, then the two day pass would be worth it for you. Otherwise, just get the one day pass, stay on the bus and listen to the comments about each site and then hop on the metro the next day to get to where you want to go.

you are coming to Barcelona for the first time, or if you are planning to stay in the city for a short time, this is one way of getting to quickly see the city’s monuments and most important tourist sights of interest. The bus touristic (as it's officially known) offers you an easy and quick way to start your visit to Barcelona and gives you an easy way to "find your feet" so that you can gain an overview of the main sights and then go back more depth later if you wish.
How the Barcelona Bus Tour works
Barcelona Tourist Bus covers 2 different city tour routes:

North Barcelona, South Barcelona

The Barcelona tourist bus stops at 42 places, all of them important sights of interest. From these stops you will have quick access to museums, monuments and important landmarks. You can stay at each sight of interest as long as you want, and when you are finished you just have to wait for the next tourist bus to take you to the next sight of interest

Depending on the season, the frequency of the Barcelona bus tour service calling at the stops is between 6 and 20 minutes. However in reality this is not the case. But the reality is you can often end up waiting longer than this and then have 2 or 3 buses turn up at the same time. This can lead to wasted time standing at stops for up to 30 minutes. On the plus side you won’t have to walk far to see each sight as many of the stops are right outside the sight of interest.

WE DID NOT USE THIS THOUGH WE STUDIED IT IN CASE>WE FOUND THE METRO CHEAPER AND MORE OF AN ADVENTURE!

On arrival at Barcelona airport, I headed to the Information booth to get a map, some info and my bus touristic tickets. The woman who served me was quite helpful and could speak English .

There are many ways to reach the city, but I found the Aero Bus to be cheap and convenient. I didn’t have to wait for a Bus, they run every 5 minutees. The only catch is you have to load your luggage in the rack yourself, which may be rather hard if you are a woman with heavy luggage.
You can buy your ticket from the staff at the bus stops (payment in cash or by credit card), automatic machines (payment in cash or by credit card), but we paid the Driver of the Bus direct (cash payments only).

It takes about 35 minutes to reach the City from either of the Airport Terminals (T1 or T2).

The ride to the city was fast and in …………
2011 cost 5.30 euro’s one way.
Return tickets are available for…9.15 Euro's and are valid for RETURN up to 9 days after purchasing.

We were dropped off in Rambla de Catalunya, this was very convenient, and for our return trip, it was from the same place.

In Barcelona you'll find a lot of buses lines that connect all the city.Is also a good option,you can buy a 10 trips tickets in subway stations and you can use them in public buses aswell.
Also there is a line called Barcelona Turistic Bus,that can take you to best places to see in city,this is a good option if you come for a short visit to the city.
This is a picture of that bus in the stop of Plaça de Catalunya.

These two storey buses take you all around the city and stop near the main attractions. They cover two routes and stops at 42 places. On every bus there is a guide who will give you a short description in several languages on what you will find at each stop.

You can get off and on these buses as many times as you like.

You can buy your ticket on the bus or at any tourist information office. There are also tickets valid for more than one day on sale. Once you bought your ticket you are given a guide book and a leaftlet with many discount coupons you can use at some museums, restaurants and at some other attractions.

After taking the subway toward Park Guell, the next choice is to walk up the steep streets, find the escalator to get more directly to the top, or take the bus to the stop there. We took the bus; number 24 from Plaza Lesseps stop from the subway. It takes about 20 minutes and around 10 stops to get to the park. The bus was jammed with excess of people while we were there at 11AM. Bus fee is 1,40 Euro, or .80 if buy the multiple tickets of ten.

Barcelona is a shoppers paradise with all the designer names you care to mention, do your shopping in style by taking the shopping bus complete with little tables & table lamps a designer bus to help you splash your cash. A very popular bus service and so frequent.
Route from Placa de Catalunya to Pius X11 every 7 minutes.
Time Mon to Fri 7.30 - 9.45
Saturday 9.30 - 9.20
You can shop till you drop if you have the cash to do so!!

In my opinion, this is the most efficient way to see the sites and sounds of Barcelona. Please note the name above: "Barcelona Bus Turistic". That is the official tourist bus and, while there are others (for example, "Barcelona Tours"), this is the best and most efficient.

There are 2 routes: The Blue route (basically south) and the Red route (basically north). Each route goes its own circular way, stopping at sites which interest tourists. There is also and additional 3rd (Green) route which runs during the height of the summer tourist season, about which I know nothing, since I was there in March. Cost (March 2009): 21 euros for 1 day, 27 euros for 2 days (lower prices for children). I recommend the 2-day ticket. You can get off and on the buses as many times as you wish during the validity of the tickets and they are quite frequent (at most 15-20 minutes between buses - much less if during the busy season). They run from 9am till about dark (when I was there - Winter/Standard Time - the last bus for each route left at 7pm. They run later during Summer/Daylight Time). The 2-day ticket is for consecutive days only and, although the buses run 7 days a week, I recommend any 2 consecutive days of the following: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. This is because the weekends (Sat/Sun) tend to be more crowded and all museums are closed on Mondays. Also, the museums are open much shorter hours on Sunday. I would do the Red route first - it has the more important sites on it - and then the Blue route on the second day. My own personal experience was that there wasn't enough on the Blue route to fill a full day, so that you can go back to the Red route later in the second day to complete anything you may have missed on the first day.

Another personal tip: Since the Gothic area - including the Picasso Museum - is very centrally located and includes many sites worth seeing, do not waste valuable time visiting this area on the days of the ticket validity. It makes more sense to visit it on a separate day and should also include a visit to the nearby Las Ramblas and the Columbus Column - time permitting, of course. To each his own preferred pace. :)

Each passenger also receives a thick booklet for discounts at many places. As with most of such booklets around the world, the majority you probably won't use. However, there are many you definitely will use such as for the Picasso Museum, the cable car on Montjuic, the Gaudi house on Passeig de Gracia (Casa Batllo), etc. These discounts make the price of the bus ticket even more attractive.

And when considering other options (bus,metro), you must take into account that the connections of regular public transport to some of the sites are not very good (e.g., to Parc Guell, Tibidabo, Barcelona FC stadium).

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The subway is easy t get to places around the city, but then the choice is to walk, or catch a bus. Bus fare is 1,40 Euro each, or a multiple ticket of ten averages ,80 Euro a ride. There is a 75 minute connection availability to get from subway to a bus, or bus to bus. In other words if you transfer within 75 minutes, the transfer is free.

Some may not know but up to an hour after using the bus you can use the metro for free using the same pass. So if you discover you've gotten lost or made the wrong stop, or if you just want to transfer from bus to metro, you can do this using only one trip on your pass.