Barcelona city sight seeing

We were there in May and did all our own touring using taxis and metro. We bought our tickets to La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell on our own and used a taxi between the two. I think poster Enric has some great directions for walking, but that was too much for one of our group. We also bought tickets to the Picasso museum ahead of time. The metro/train to Montserrat was easy to navigate and We thought it was much more fun than taking a tour bus, as we opted for the cable car up the mountain. If you can get ahold of a copy of the RS guide to Spain or Barcelona, he explains the directions to Montserrat quite clearly.

You could also use the Turistic bus, a hop-on hop-off bus that covers three routes. It hits all of the main tourist attractions of Barcelona, and has narration explaining what you are seeing. We had a one day pass, but agreed that it would have been better to take the two day option so we could have gotten more use for our money.

Hi Cathy and Nancy,

thank you for the travel tips.
This is very insightful and will definitely get the SR guide and buy the Hop in/off bus.
It's really amazing even for a seasoned traveller like myself, an (used to be ) international flight attendant that there are many things in the world that you need assistant with. Didn't spend much time in places other than the major cities.

Ethelynne

Some of the sights are within easy walking distance of your hotel. For the rest, consider a 10-ride metro card (not sure if you can use it for more than one person at a time). I used the HOHO bus just for the tour. Street traffic in Barcelona can be very slow, so for point-to-point journeys, the metro is often faster.

See the sights on your own. For the Gaudi sights that you want to visit, book tickets in advance. My recommendation is to get the first entry to La Sagrada Familia and line up 15-20 minutes in advance. Then you'll have some relatively quiet time before the church fills up with people and noise. One of my faves was the Palau de la Musica. I took a couple of walking tours, one was a rather expensive, but great fun, evening tapas and wine tour that went to the markets and the Barri Gotic, the other was a morning tour run by the TI, also good and interesting.

First question you should ask yourself: do I need/like to be carried around and told what to do/see at every moment? If the answer is no, good news, you can do all of what you mention above on your own and in fact most visitors do, not only it's cheaper but also you can go about at your own pace. Many of the sites have excellent audioguides that you can rent if you need, or else a good travel guide will do too (I guess I shall point RS's here :) Also reaching the sites is very easy and Barcelona has an excellent network of public transportation.

Some data if you decide to move about on your own:

• Travelcards (T-10 for 1 zone) which allow you to take bus/metro/train/tramway within the metropolitan area costs 9.95€ and can be shared by more than one passenger. See this post for more info http://bit.ly/bcn-t10
• A transport ticket to visit Montserrat -which includes all the transport tickets you need (metro+train+cable car or metro+train+racktrain) can be purchased online at the Barcelona Tourism Board shop

Some advice: don't shorten names!, especially if you don't know what they mean, otherwise you end up making no sense. La Sagrada Família is not la sagrada, it'd be like referring to Saint Paul's Cathedral as "saint". Nor say Barca to refer to Barcelona (you didn't but other members of the forum do!) since "Barça" is just the nickname of the football team (FC Barcelona) but the city has no 'short name', it's simply Barcelona. Also, there is no "gothic quarters", the name is El Gòtic (or Gothic Quarter if you must) and it's a neighbourhood -the birthplace of the city-, hence you don't need any sort of ticket to visit this. It might be advisable though to have some sort of guide to visit it so you don't miss the most important landmarks, for that either bring along your travel guide -many have suggested routes- or else join one of the available free tours. I personally recommend Runner Bean but there are others (just Google)

And one last comment: are you sure you want to rush to the Pyrenees for just one day?... the Pyrenees are a mountain range 300 miles wide (just the Catalan part!) so obviously a day escapade can only include an insignificant part of it. The landscapes vary a lot depending which bit you visit. Furthermore, and more importantly, visiting from Barcelona means a 5-6 hours return trip (minimum!) by bus by motorway. A typical route is Barcelona-Andorra La Vella which is located over 160 miles away. In short, I wouldn't advise a day escapade to the Pyrenees, it's hardly enjoyable, it requires at least 2-3 days for a proper taste and it's to be done by hiring a car so you can move about from town to town at your own convenience as well as visiting the numerous national parks in the area. A taste: Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park.

Enjoy!

check out the city tourism center in the Plaza de Catalunya -- downstairs under the plaza under the two large pillars with the "i" on them. You can get tix to attractions.

Many thanks to Nancy, Chanti and Patty for the very helpful travel advise.
Special thank you to Enric who was kind enough to share very useful tips, how to get around and buying ticket (T-10 1 zone) and other helpful information that will certainly help us navigate Barcelona. Very good advise about the shortening of names. For the record, I do understand what La Sagrada Familia means because I understand and speak Spanish but I sometimes get lazy typing and tend to do short cuts.
However, your advise is well taken.
Thanks you.

Ethelynne

I agree with everyone else here - you can do all the things in Barcelona that you mentioned on your own. Most people do, both to save money and for their own freedom. I am not sure about the Pyrenees - I haven't done this and sometimes going so far out of the city into a more rural area is difficult on your own. This may be a case where a tour is helpful, if it's even worthwhile in the first place. How much time is visiting vs. driving?

You're on the Rick Steves board, so obviously you are familiar with Rick Steves. Rick Steves guidebooks are great for basic logistic information - how to buy tickets to this, when to go to avoid lines, how to use the subway, that kind of thing. Get a copy of the most recent Barcelona book and you will find it extremely helpful.

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Barcelona and did everything on our own. RS Barcelona walks in his Spain guide are easy to follow and enjoyable. We also used Rick's excellent directions for a day trip to Montseratt. What really helped us in Barcelona was to book advance reservations at La Sagrada Familia, Picasso Museum, La Pedrera (evening rooftop jazz concert) and another concert at Palace of Catalan Music. FYI: taxicabs in Barcelona are great and reasonably priced! Have fun!