To those who have visited Barcelona this will be old news, but for a first-time visitor this may be useful information.
My wife and I had visited Barcelona previously, but this time had 3 full days and nights to experience the city. We wanted to visit many of the superb Modernista architectural jewels, La Boqueria Market, the Barceloneta District, the Forum area and Diagonal Mar, Montjuic and much more. As "pensioners" we hoped to minimize walking and were on a budget.
We purchased the 4 day Hola BCN! card and used the Metro and Buses for all our travel. We particularly enjoyed the buses. The map of bus routes in Barcelona is the best I've ever seen. Every route is shown, directions the buses move on each street are indicated and stops are marked. Using this map we walked only when we wanted to as changing from one bus route to another usually could be done with little if any walking. The buses ran very frequently, were not overly crowded. and bus stops were well marked with most having a bench and electronic signage of bus arrivals. We even used the buses to our advantage as we booked lodging in a great hotel that was distant from tourist areas yet just a 2 minute walk from a bus stop.
We visited everything we'd planed to and without rushing; additionally we saw much more of the city between the stops. We used several of the routes, specifically Route H16 as a "hop-on-hop-off"; all for 55 Euros for 4 days, what a bargain.
