Tour Options, Barcelona

i found a web page really interesting for all travellers who coming to barcelona and Catalunya as a region...its better than viamichelin.com or orher maps
in fact you can see photographies of all Catalunya like a zenital zoom and make routes or try to llok where will you go the next days and surroundings as well

If you don't have much time in Barcelona, the Bus Turistic is a great way to explore the city. There are 3 lines red, blue and green, the red line being my favourite with Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, the Temple de la Sagrada Famiglia and Parc Guell on its line. The Blue stop has the aquarium, it also has Casa Mila, Casa Battlo and Barri Gotic. You can easily make the switch from the blue and the red line at Placa de Catalunya. The green line is good for shopping destinations so my wife was happy with that. The pass is good for 24 hrs and if you make a couple of passes on both lines that same day so you get a feel for the layout of the city and you can get around to the different sites much easier, it's also good for taking a tan with its open rooftop. You also get discounts to the sites and the discounts are good for the rest of your stay, the year if you plan on returning. Beware of the other tour line, Barcelona Tours. It costs 20 euros and does not offer what the Bus Turistic offers.

Bus Turistic operating hours: from 9 to 19hrs in winter and until 20hrs in summer

Prices 2011: Adults - 23€/30€ (1day/2days), Children - 14€/18€ (1day/2days)
Child discounts apply from 4-12 years.
4 and under - free

Against my usual habits, here in Barcelona, in my short visit I did take this one day bus tour ticket. I found it very useful in such larger city where not to every place you want to walk during July hot weather. There are few operators where you can but a daily ticket where you can jump of and off the bus when ever you feel like. The only down side is that is some popular stops you might need to wait a bit in the queue till you get space in the next bus, but all those were not too much of a problem, the buses came every few minutes anyway.

Hi Johnny,

for the Gaudi Tour you have got a couple of options:

The most comprehensive one for sure is the Gaudi Combo which is accompanied by a guide and lasts the whole day: http://www.barcelonaguidebureau.com/tours.php?idTour=15&tour=The-Gaudi-Combo-Offer

If you prefer to do a bit of exploring on your own, try the Barcelona Bus Turistic: www.barcelona-bus-turistic.com
The routes cover all Gaudi places in Barcelona, so you can check them out on your own. An audio guide on board gives you some background information as well.

Hope that helps,
Luke

If the person just wants an overview of the city, an option is to use the Bus Turistic bus in Barcelona.

http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat
http://www.barcelonaturisme.com

It's a hop on, hop off tourist bus that goes around the major attractions of the city. Your ticket lasts the whole day so you can rides all 3 routes that you can choose from. The bus attendants speak English. Headphones are provided so you can hear about the major city attractions in various languages. Also provided is a discount coupon book.

You can go to the Tourist Information Center or the Bus Touristic kiosk at Plaza Catalunya for info and tickets since Plz Catalunya is the hub for the tourist bus service companies. 1 day: €14-€22; 2 days: €18-€29

4 more images

I bought my tickets for this bus on line and picked them up at the airport. They cost about $40 each for a two day ticket but they were well worth it.

NOTE: The days go from morning to night - they do not start at noon and then go to the next day at noon.

When we got in from the airport my grandson said it wasn't cold and we wouldn't need our coats. We did the whole blue loop aside from the last two stops when I said we should go downstairs - my teeth were chattering and besides if we weren't downstairs I wouldn't be able to get down the steps in time to get off.

The next day, which was Saturday, we set off to do the red route. The lines for the buses were EXTREMELY long, and I got impatient. So I walked across to the taxi line and got in a cab to the first stop I wanted to see which was the Sagrada Familia church by Gaudia. When we finished there, the buses were still quite crowded and the first one we got on had no seats on the open top deck. So we rode on the first level for one stop, and then went up to the top. We rode all the way around to the Av. Diagonal transfer point for the blue bus and got off. We missed two short sections of the red route where the blue route did not parallel it.

We got on a blue bus. We sat downstairs, because we'd been up in the outside on the previous day. We rode the blue bus down to the water front area where we got off and had lunch and went to the aquarium. Then we got back on the blue bus (sitting on the first floor again) and got off at the green transfer point.

The green route is really short, and we transferred back to the blue bus without doing the complete green route, but there was only the short section between the two transfer points that we missed. Some of the buses stop running at 1900 and some stop at 2000, and I didn't want to be out somewhere when they stopped. I think we've done the whole blue route, and some of it twice.

Me and my wife thought that the best way to get around was by Metro, or by Barcelona Card (valid ticket to all public transportations that can be bought to 1 or 2 days) but in fact we realized very quicly that the best way is to buy the Bus Turistic ticket. This touristic buses are diferent from many other cities in the way that you can leave at any stop and step up again on the next one (they pass in any stop every 6 minutes!!). Its kind of having public tranportation just for tourism! As you can imagine, the bus gets around all of Barcelona interesting points and we almoust didnt need to went anywhere by other kind of transportation. You can by a 2 days ticket for 20 euros and get to listen all the explanations by headphones on every city point..!

Bus Turistic is a very good way to spend a full day in Barcelona seeing the landmarks. They have 3 routes that stop on more than 40 locations - basically all of the tourist spots and landmarks of the city.

A day ticket (with unlimited boarding in all the routes) cost 19 Euro's.

I used it when I was in Barcelona and the longest wait at a stop I had was 15 minutes.

See website for their routes and stops