We are planning ahead for a Fall '19 Spain visit. We will have 4 days in Barcelona. One day we plan to bike along the beach. The other days are mainly walking/sightseeing. We will be traveling with our daughter who will be 7 at time of travel and thinking now that doing one additional day of sightseeing on a bike would be easier for small legs than walking. We plan to stay in the Born district and I am wondering if biking to La Boqueria and sightseeing La Ramblas/Raval District by bike of the morning/early afternoon would be doable? After a rest at the hotel plan to see Passeig Gracia of the evening and also thought it might be nice to keep the bikes for that as well. Thoughts? This would be renting bikes on our own and NOT doing part of a tour.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3071 posts
1.) Over time I have noticed that in your neck of the woods you tend to use the word "district" differently to what we use here. A "district" is an administrative division of the city. So, there's no "Born district", the district is called Ciutat Vella, and specifically, the neighbourhood where the Born boulevard is located is called La Ribera. Same with "La Ramblas/Raval"... neither is a district. Les Rambles is a boulevard and El Raval is a neighbourhood. It's better not to get confused with all this. The city has 10 districts which are divided into 73 neighbourhoods. When locals want to refer to a zone, either a subdivision of a neighbourhood or simply to a bunch of streets around a landmark we use the word "area" instead, so it'd be all right to say "the area of El Born" for example and everybody will know what you mean.
2.) From Jan 2019, in Barcelona, cycling on the sidewalk -except where explicitly indicated (ie cycling lanes)- is prohibited. Cycling where there's no cycling lane will have then to be done on the road, alongside the rest of the traffic.... which, obviously, isn't safe for a child. Saying so because, while there are nearly 200km of cycling lanes in this city --some on the sidewalks and many others on a segregated lane on the road-- it doesn't guarantee you can always go from A to B "in" one of them and in certain stretches you might need to join the rest of the traffic on the road. Map of the existing cycling lanes as of Sep 18.
3.) At present, I am not sure how the new regulations will affect the streets of El Gòtic and El Raval neighbourhoods -right in the heart of the city- as many of the small narrow streets are already pedestrianised. You should check it out sometime next year when it comes into effect.
4.) Here a couple of links that can be handy: https://www.spinlister.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-biking-in-barcelona/ -note this was 2016, the news about enforcing the "no-bicycles on the sidewalk" hadn't been approved back then. Another one https://www.timeout.com/barcelona/things-to-do/barcelona-cycling-guide And here the link to the City Hall's section on bicycling in the city: http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/bicicleta/en/services/public-bicycle-scheme -note that the Bicing scheme is not available to you as it's for resident's only, but the rest of the sections can be useful for your purposes.
This is not to put you off cycling, Barcelona is a great city to cycle, it's just to make you aware that it's not necessarily so straightforward.
Enjoy
PS. A city with 1.9 million souls has, of course, all sorts of individuals, so you might (and will) see some cyclists doing this or that, or riding here or there... but that doesn't mean it's always legal and that doesn't mean either they (or you, if you imitate) can't/won't be fined if caught in-fraganti by the Police, you know what I mean, right? :)
Posted by
OP
44 posts
Thank you for all the info! :) I'm just going by what I have been reading in travel blogs about the district descriptor - great info so I'll know how to properly use for when I am asking more questions and over there (as to not embarrass myself!)
Thanks for all the links. That is my biggest concern is trying to figure out how to read the bike maps as I definitely would not want to hit areas where we would have to join in with traffic with having a young rider! We may just stick to biking at the beach. I'm just looking for ways to make the sightseeing a bit more fun than simply walking, but safety definitely first.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3071 posts
... worst case scenario, get off the bike and push it (on the sidewalk) until the next bike lane -which won't be too far anyway. This is safer if you ride with a kid.
Keep in mind Barcelona is a "dense" city, and space it's at a premium... regarding apartments, regarding commercial premises and, obviously, regarding sidewalks and roads too. The reason being because the city is "embedded" so to speak, between the sea, the Collserola mountain ridge (which is a natural park and building is no longer allowed) and the cities of Badalona and l'Hospitalet de Llobregat to either side... so the city can't really "grow" anymore and creative solutions have to be found all the time for the needs of the citizens. This is the reason bike lanes are not always "linked" to each other, which would make for a smoother ride across the city.
Posted by
2 posts
Hello! I hope I'm not late! But I have seen your message and I have remembered that I was in Barcelona a few months ago with the family and it was a very nice trip. We visited Barcelona and we also went one day to see some villages of the Costa Brava (Tossa de Mar and Figueras Cap de Creus), I strongly recommend that you visit something from the north of Catalonia because it is very beautiful.
As for your question about cycling with children, I tell you that there are many options and routes for different levels of difficulty. You can take relaxing walks around the city or the promenade, but you can also go mountain biking. I did a tour in Montefusco Cycling - Road Cycling on the surroundings of the Montserrat mountain and the experience was very pleasant. We laughed a lot and the kids had a great time. If you want more details, tell me, I do not want to extend more. Greetings!