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Sightseeing tours Barcelona. |
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Why a tour can be more..
Seasoned travelers often tend to wrinkle their nose at going anywhere near an organized tour, preferring to be swallowed up in a the city in the hope of getting completely lost and discovering some little corner of Barcelona than no-one has ever seen before.
That’s a fine plan. But when it comes to seeing major sights like Gaudi’s buildings, or the Roman ruins of Barcelona, then doing it yourself might mean that you might be losing out on a lot of really interesting information. That's why a tour is often unbeatable value for money.
The best thing about city tours is that you get a wealth of information that makes the experience so much more interesting.
Guide books and websites like BarcelonaYellow are a great help for planning your visit, but when you are in Barcelona a live guide can bring the history and culture of the city to life with details, anecdotes, gossip and rumours about the sights.
Taking a tour is also practical. It gives you an impression of the whole city and all the major sights in one day. The bus tours of Barcelona are all hop-on/hop-off, so you can get off at any tour stop and linger and then get back on the tour bus at your leisure.
Once you have an impression of all the famous spots in Barcelona from a tour, you could go back the next day to specific sights that you liked best, and spend more time on them.
Taking a tour is fun! You meet guides and fellow tourists on a tour. It’s nice to chat to people from all over the world and going on a tour is a good way to talk to someone else other than your partner or the people in your group. Talking to fellow travelers also means that you sometimes get great tips about other things to do and places to eat.
The tour guides in Barcelona are mostly natives of the city, or long term residents. They can often help you with little translations and answers to questions. But remember thee guides are not interpreters, so don’t bother them too much.
Taking a tour is hands-free. Bus tours are a hands-free experience which is great for taking pictures. The open air city tour double-deckers and the Montjuic tour buses are have open-air top decks, which means you can let someone else worry about the driving and concentrate on getting the superb snaps of Barcelona’s landmarks.
There are 2 city wide bus tour operators in Barcelona. The orange Barcelona bus tours. And the biggest company which has the red and white buses of the official city Bus turistic tours.
The two main Barcelona tourist bus services race each other on the Passeig de Gracia
And don’t miss the Montjuic bus tours, which unveilded new open-air mini-buses in 2007, that take you around the mountain of Montuic in fine style.
The Montjuic tour bus has a cool new open air design
If you want to stay healthy while absorbing the famous sights of Barcelona, and perhaps have a bit more time to chat to your guide, then you might choose one of the many walking tours of Barcelona.
The bike tours of Barcelona are a clean, green and increasingly popular way to see the sights. Again friendly and informed guides can provide you with local information and insights into the city as well as giving you traffic safety tips. The traffic in Barcelona can be a bit, shall we say, unpredictable, so taking pictures while moving is definately not recommended!
If you prefer to avoid the crowds, but still want the info, then why not consider hiring a personal tour guide?
This is a little more expensive but excellent value for money. Personal tour guides in Barcelona will not only tell you all about the city and the sights, but will also enrich your stay with exclusive information about where you can shop at reasonable prices, where to eat, the best things to do in Barcelona from breakfast at the best coffee shops in Barcelona to the best restaurants and clubs in the city.
Personal tours guides are your interpreters, hosts, ambassadors, entertainers, helpers and general source of information to make sure your trip to Barcelona is as meaningful as possible. Often they will also drive you or provide cars with drivers.
If you want to stock up your wardrobe, then book a shopping tour of Barcelona. Your personal shopping guide to steer you through the winding streets of the Barri Gotic to find the best shops in Barcelona. A shopping tour guide will also give you personal style and fashion tips.
Or hop on the Barcelona Shopping Bus. It's rather ominously for English speakers, called the Tombbus (T1) but it's not not the ride of death, except perhaps for your credit cards. The Tombus is a shopping bus which follows the "Barcelona Shopping Line" route all day long.
The Tombbus T1 shuttle shopping bus service which leaves from Plaza Catalunya
The shopping bus a cool way to save energy for shopping by letting the comfortable leather seated bus take you up and down the 5 km stretch, where you will find most of the biggest brand name shops in Barcelona. The BSL Barcelona Shopping Line and the Tombbus starts from the Plaça de Catalunya, heads up the Passeig de Gràcia, then turns left at Avinguda Diagonal. From the top of Diagonal the bus heads back the same way. Click here for more information about the Tombbus T1
Barcelona doesn’t have any Hollywood style movie tours yet, but they might happen soon. The number of movies shot on location in Barcelona is growing every year. El Perfume starring Dustin Hoffman was shot here in 2006 and Woody Allen will be shooting a new movie in Barcelona in 2007 purportedly starring Penelope Cruz.
In the meantime why not try the unique Shadow of the Wind tour based on the on the bestselling novel “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
When you have "been there, done that - bought the Camiseta!" for all the big tourist attractions in Barcelona, then why not try day trips. Catalunya Bus Turistic organises one day bus tours from Barcelona. You can visit many fabulous locations adn towns like Montserrat, Girona, The Dali Museum, Vineyards and Sitges. Click here for more information about 1 day bus tours from Barcelona
Which ever tour you choose in Barcelona, we are sure you will enjoy it. Have fun!
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Barcelona, Spain
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Temp:
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17°C
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Wind Chill:
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17°C
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Humidity:
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82%
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