Best of Spain -Barcelona Bari Gotic tour

Posted by derek (Walnut Creek, CA) on 07/31/21 12:05 AM

We have four days in Barcelona prior to our RS Best of Spain Tour in October, 2022.
Has anyone been on this tour? Our question is, what do they show or visit on the Bari Gotic tour before visiting Sagrada Familia?

I ask because we want to visit Santa Maria del mar, because we have read Cathedral of the Sea (cathedral del mar) by Falcones.
We want to visit this church on our own on a pre-tour date and we will take a free runner-bean walking tour which covers many of the sites in the El Born area and ends at Santa maria del Mar, and then we will spend more time on our own in the church.

I am assuming that the El Born neighborhood is different than the Bari Gotic neighborhood (but they're next to each other), so I am hoping the tours visit different areas.

But I don't want to duplicate what the RS tour will see and show to us.

Posted by Janis

WA State

07/31/21 03:04 AM

3961 posts

I have not been on the Best of Spain Tour so I can’t comment on the itinerary. That said we did visit Barcelona on our own and took both the Gothic Quarter and Gaudi Tours with Runner Bean and really enjoyed both tours. We got our tickets for the Sagrada ahead of time and planned to tour the Cathedral following the Gaudi Tour. We had lunch in the area and returned in about 1.5 hrs. The great thing about the Gothic Qtr. tour was that it ended at Santa Maria Del Mar! Both tours were a great introduction to Barcelona.

Posted by CL

Salem, Oregon, USA

07/31/21 01:48 PM

2337 posts

I have been on this tour and we did not visit Santa Maria del Mar, but that doesn't mean your tour will (or won't). Definitely go see what you want to see - even if there's a repeat on either of your tours, better twice than not at all. I really wanted to see the cathedral (and the geese) and am glad I went on my free day ahead of the tour, because our RS walking tour wasn't able to go inside the cathedral because of an event. And in my experience, even if you overlap places you've seen already, you often get a different perspective/information from the tour guides.

Also in the same area as Santa Maria is the Picasso Museum, which I really enjoyed for its compact size and chronological order.

Posted by Dick

Olympia, WA, USA

08/01/21 04:54 PM

6502 posts

Like you, I had several days in Barcelona ahead of the RS tour. The RS walking tour included Santa Maria del Mar, the outside of the cathedral, the restrooms at the Picasso Museum, and the outside of the Palau de la Musica. Then we rode the subway to Sagrada Familia. In the days before the tour I went into the cathedral and up to the roof, spent a morning at the Picasso Museum, visited the history museum in Bari Gotic, walked down Las Ramblas to the shore, went to La Boqueria, the Belem Church, and the Maritime Museum, and took a tour of the Palau de la Musica ending in a concert there, along with visits to other parts of the city. I also went to Santa Maria on my own, not realizing that the tour would spend time there. It's a very good walking tour but very time constrained because there's a timed entry to Sagrada Familia and then a free afternoon.

I don't know about the Runner Bean tour, but I'd suggest that it's likely to duplicate at least some of what your RS tour will cover. I also don't know what variations the RS tour might have based on day of the week and Sagrada Familia entry time. I suggest you assume that the RS walking tour will be mostly outside buildings and go on your own inside those that interest you most. You may get some duplication (like Santa Maria for me) but that's not so bad.