We are going on a cruise our of Barcelona in May 25 and know from experience that we are pretty much wiped out for the day long flight from Reno NV. We tried to hit the ground running on our recent trip to Amsterdam and we realize that first morning and early afternoon we are virtually sleep walking when tried do anything.
As of now we fly into Barcelona mid morning on a Friday and depart for the ship on Sunday. That leaves us Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday AM to explore Barcelona. Of course we will do the mandatory tour of Sagrada Familia. Not big on the art scene so will skip Picasso Museum. What other suggestion might you have for our limited time? Thanks
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10637 posts
We had a restful, quiet stay at the H10 Marina hotel before a cruise. It was walking distance to the more touristic areas and the metro. We took a taxi to our pier.
We’ve stayed near Plaza Catalonia a few times but prefer this, and it’s a nice hotel.
Posted by
Austin, TX
2300 posts
I was in Barcelona for four days pre cruise in October
It's a wonderful city.
Yes, Sagrada Família is a must, if possible, but I greatly suggest Montserrat. I paid for a half day guided tour which turned out to be disappointing. It might be best if you could do it yourself which is a real possibility but if you pay for an excursion, be certain that you know what you are getting.
Although I did not take the hop on hop off bus, I have heard very good things about it.
Barcelona was still very hot mid October and extremely crowded.
I took a Mediterranean cruise which you are probably also going to do. Late October, it was still very hot. Rome and Florence were very crowded but it is a great cruise. Every port was interesting, awesome and beautiful.
Posted by
3447 posts
Unfortunately, Sagrada Familia is mandatory for just about every visitor to Barcelona, so the crowds might take away from your enjoyment. But, you can walk for maybe 10 minutes from SF, and have the Saint Pau Recinte Modernista complex practically all to yourself by comparison. Montaner isn't as famous as Gaudi, but his work is fascinating.
Posted by
Washington DC
28151 posts
On any day you need to book the main Gaudi sites ahead of time if you want to go inside them. That's La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Mila/La Pedrera and Casa Batllo. If you do not book ahead, you will be in an extremely long ticket-purchase line and conceivably may not end up with a ticket at all. Those sites are all massively crowded.
For me the Casas are definitely not better than La Sagrada Familia. All those Gaudi sites are crowded, but a lot of what you're looking at in the church is overhead and quite visible despite the crowds, whereas at Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, you are in some cases trying to see things being blocked by other visitors. I did enjoy seeing the Casas, and I'm not suggesting you skip them, but with as little time as you have, I think one of them is enough.
Also recommendable is the Palau de la Musica Catalana, a lovely modernista building not designed by Gaudi. You can see at least part of it by attending a performance there, or there are tours. The English-language tours do sell out, so they, too, need to be pre-booked.
I don't recommend the Hop-On/Hop-Off buses in Barcelona for typical travelers. I saw a very long line of people at Placa de Catalunya in 2016. They were waiting to board a HO/HO bus, and there were clearly too many of them to fit on a single bus. There was no bus in sight. Public transportation in Barcelona is very good, and it runs more frequently than the much more expensive HO/HO buses. The beautiful and quirky architecture is a big part of the experience of being in Barcelona. It's far better to spend time walking around than standing in one spot for who knows how long, waiting for a HO/HO bus to show up.
If you want an introduction to the historic part of the city (whose narrow streets are not traversed by the HO/HO buses), consider taking a Barri Gotic walking tour. I really liked the one offered by the tourist office, which I took in 2016. There are commercial tours as well, but my observation was that the so-called "free" tour groups were much larger than my tour group. And of course you must tip the "free" group tour guides generously, because they're charged several euros for each person who shows up for their tours and need tips to dig themselves out of that hole--a situation that is not by any means unique to Barcelona.