Best of Barcelona & Madrid - 9/6 - Anyone?

Hi Laurie,
We just took a Mediterranean cruise and spent two days in Barcelona. It's a really nice city and you'll really enjoy it. My advice would be to buy a ticket on one of the buses that goes around the entire city and hits all the key sites. The ticket is good for the entire day. So, you can get off and get back on whenever you want to. Wear comfortable walking shoes and have fun!

Marni

The Barcelona Bus Turistic(about 28 euros) is the best! We did it for 2 days since it was only 10 Euros more for the extra day.There are 3 routes..the most used are the red and blue.It takes a LONG time to get to each site due to traffic, so start early..the website is barcelonabusturistic.cat This way you can plan the sites you want to see efficiently.Please note that all the locations you stop at will require entrance fees..we were shocked that the one for the stadium was 25 euros each!(we skipped it). I highly recommend Familia Sagrada (blue line),(tickets online in advance recommended or the same day and go back to see it 5 or so hours later) and the Teleferic Montjuic(red line). (You can switch lines for the same cost at certain stops).The view of all of Barcelona from the castle at the top of Montujuic is fab and has a developing amount of historical info in different rooms.It was only 5 euros for the castle and a 2 o 3 euro discount with the coupon book for the teleferic which I think was 7 euros round trip with the discount (rt recommended).You get the coupons with the bus tour brochure(read it well and keep it for future cities 10% discount with hop on/off tours). A delicious and inexpensive restaurant near Sagrada Familia is SILA Kebap House.C. Mallorca 437 .You can eat a great falafel/wine or beer for about 6 euros.
Placa de Catalunya is great for shopping/eating. There was a big sale at the time and we did well.
We were just in Barcelona 2 weeks ago and I lost 2 lbs.from all the walking and good eating.Get Rick's Pocket Barcelona and read/reread before you go..really great.THANKS RICK!!

Laurie,

Although I am not signed up for this tour, I am a regular poster on this Forum and mostly travel independently. I arrive in Barcelona from the Western U.S. on the 3rd Sept. My tentative plans for the 5th is to see a show at the Museo of Catalan Music. PM me if you think that is of interest to you.

BTW, if you have not done so already, on the RS tour page for your tour, down on the very bottom is a link called Pre Tour and that will list what is NOT covered by RS tour. Link below.

I went on a RS tour to Italy about 5 years ago and had a real nice time.

Happy travels.

Linda

Pre Tour

Thank you for your feedback--much appreciated. Linda, I am just now planning out my timeline. The performance sounds very interesting and I'd like to see if I can incorporate it into my plans. Give me a couple days to work through everything and I'll get back to you.

-Laurie