We are traveling to Barcelona 3 days before boarding a cruise ship the afternoon of May 20, 2025. In essence we will have two half days and 2 full days in Barcelona. On the first full day we have booked a day trip to Montserrat, Girona and Costa Brava. We are looking for guide to help with our single full day in the city. We are a group of 4 couples ranging in ages from 74-82 and even though all are in good health, our knees and backs aren’t what they used to be. We feel the need to have transportation available to go between sites to keep the walking to a minimum and, with just a single day, to save time. We realize it will probably have to be private transportation. We would like to work with someone that can tailor a tour to see the sites important to us and advise us on the best things to do on the 2 half days we have available. We would really appreciate a recommendation for a guide or tour company that you have had a good experience with. Or, how would we go about finding such a private tour guide or company. Thank you.
Posted by
Texas
4 posts
I think your planning is a great idea. The citizens of Barcelona are incredibly gracious, but with the thousands of tourist filling the sidewalks some of the busiest areas can feel a little chaotic if you are not moving very fast.
Last spring I took an excellent tour with a group called Barcelona Architecture Walks. I checked their website and they say they are open to designing special tours.
https://barcelonarchitecturewalks.com/tours-for-groups/
There is the double-decker bus:
https://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/en
I also found a tour group that specializes in assisting tourist with accessibility issues. I have no experience with this group, but you may want to consider contacting them.
https://www.barcelonaspecialtraveler.com/experiences
The Barcelona tourism website has a section on accessible tourism.
https://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/page/47/accessible-barcelona.html
Good news is that some of the best of Barcelona is available without much walking and taxis are plentiful and afforadable. The Museu Nacional D'Arte De Catalunya has wonderful examples of modernisme furniture and glass. You could spend hours in Sagrada Família and it has excellent displays on Gaudi. The Palau De La Musica is incredibly beautiful and they have concerts and tours most every day.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3162 posts
On the first full day we have booked a day trip to Montserrat, Girona and Costa Brava.
You're going to be on a bus all day and will hardly see much. Montserrat warrants half a day, Girona a full day at the very least... and Costa Brava, it's a little vague as this is a stretch of coast covering 200 miles and containing several "counties", so I wouldn't know exactly what are you "seeing". There's a ton of things to see.
Is this final? if so, well, that's it. If not, I would suggest changing that plan to truly enjoy the experience. It's not about how many things you get to see -in fact, not even in a month you'd be able to visit all the interesting places we have to offer here in Catalonia- it's about "grasping" what you're seeing, and for that you need a certain time on each place you visit.
What most visitors do is sketch a rough itinerary based on THEIR preferences and expectations and then, here in the forums, fellow travellers and locals we help to fine-tune it.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thanks Enric. We will do just that. We can cancel the Monsaratt/Girona full day tour. The title included Costa Brava but the itinerary shows 2 hours at Monsaratt, 3 hours at Girona and 1 hour at Tossa del Mar. It's advertised as a 10-11 hour day trip. We booked it through Viator and have plenty of time to cancel. I'll start another thread with more of what we want to see in the 2 full days and 2 half days that we will be in Barcelona and see if we are over ambitious.