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Barcelona Tour / EXCELLENT English speaking guides?

Barcelona Tour / EXCELLENT English speaking guides?

Old Aug 13th, 2013, 11:18 AM
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Barcelona Tour / EXCELLENT English speaking guides?

Hi...Can anyone recommend a really good Barcelona tour company who also has guides who speak an excellent English?

Where did you enjoy the best tapas in Barcelona?

Were there any really unique / fun/ different experiences/activities that you can tell us about in this special city? (besides the usual/but wonderful/ typical tourist attractions).

We realize Catalan is the language. Will our Spanish help?

We are hoping to find low/medium price point restaurants/ real MOM and POP places, that are a bit more authentic. Am I naive to think these exist in such a touristy city?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND INSIGHTS!
S
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 12:50 PM
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>

You'll be hard-pressed to find people in the tourist trade who know no English. But Catalan and Spanish are close enough for your purposes.

>

Barcelona has about the same # of residents as Philadelphia. Do you really think they all cater to tourists or that all commerce in the city is tourist-driven? Get out of tourist areas and you'll find places that don't . . . cater to tourists. Check timeout.com - it is usually very good for restaurants.

You also need to specify what "low/medium price point" means because that differs from person to person and place to place.

Realize that mom and pop places are nice conceptually, but have widely varying quality. Is there a successful restauranteur (or two dozen of them) whose holdings may be interesting in Barcelona (probably, you can research this)? If so, that restauranteur's various offerings could be far better than the romanticized mom-and-poppery (see Dallas, Texas and Stephan Pyles for an equivalent).
BigRuss is offline  
Old Aug 13th, 2013, 01:02 PM
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Try www.runnerbeantours.com. They do run organised tours BUT you can arrange private tours. We did 2 of their walking tours and they were excellent. Anne- Marie is Irish and her husband is Spanish.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 01:32 PM
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Everybody I met in Barcelona spoke Spanish, even if they could speak Catalan, of course. It would be like wondering if anybody in Montreal could speak English. So it isn't a matter of Catalan being "close" to Spanish (I don't know about that, seems different to me the little I learned) but that fact that this is Spain, after all, and they are bilingual.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:22 PM
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I did a few things that I haven't seen on any (or many) trip reports.

Pedralbas Monastery - a bit out of the way but you can take the metro and then a commuter line there. If you decide to go I can give you directions. It's a very peaceful place; outside the monastery is a small square with benches, inside is a lovely cloister where you can view some of the nuns's cells, a treasury with liturgical objects.

Sant Pau Hospital. It's under construction so there is not much to see on the tour but I'm glad we went. It will be beautiful when the restoration is complete. It's in the university area so you will find local restaurants. We stopped in one place for lunch (across the street from the hospital) where no one spoke English and they couldn't have been more helpful and kind since we speak no Spanish. I can't remember what I had but it was tasty and inexpensive.

Mies van der Rohe Pavillion guided tour in English on Saturdays at 10:00. This is in Montjuic and although people visit the Miro or Catalan Museums I've seen few references to this Pavillion, built for the 1929 Exposition.

I've also seen few references to people visiting Palau Guell but I really enjoyed this house. It's a UNESCO site and the carved wood was wonderful.

Another lunch place was off the Ramblas near the Palau Guell. We learned about it from someone at Palau Guell (I think). It's called La Perla de Oro on c/Unio 34 and has only a few tables but delicious food. If they have gazpacho, get it. After I returned home I googled this place and there are recommendations on Trip Advisor for it.

Believe me, there are restaurants all over the place where there is not a tourist to be found.

Not everyone speaks English but many people do. I don't think it's a problem to go someplace where I don't speak the language.

Of course your Spanish will help but you'd need to be fluent otherwise people will start speaking English to you.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:07 PM
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All Barcelona speaks Spanish (castellano) and most of Barcelona also speaks Catalan.

As BigRuss says, go a bit off the obvious tracks in the Gothic quarter/ in and around Las Ramblas/ more upscale Passeig de Gracia, and you will find great local restaurants and tapas bars all over. Barcelona is a big city and very much of it has very little to do with tourists. I've found a fine local vibe in Poble Sec and within the Barceloneta neighbourhood close to the beach. More upscale local restaurants, bars and nightlife in and around Carrer Aribau close to the university.

People who really know Barcelona will give you further advice, but here are some suggestions close to your wishes I know from recent visits

La Perla in Poble Sec, entered for a beer and ended up with fabulous food and very good people: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Catalonia.html

Ca L'Estevet, one of those timeless places: http://www.restaurantestevet.com/EST...ienvenida.html

Txakolín, fine Basque pintxos on the outskirts of the great El Born area: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Catalonia.html
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 05:18 PM
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For dining recs, it would help to know the neighborhood in which you'll be staying.

You'll quickly become familiar with " menu del dia". Take a mid-afternoon lunch as your big meal of the day...restaurants cater to this preference by offering a several-course menu for the palatable price of 8-12 euros a head. The menu del dia typically includes a first course (salad, soup, or pasta), a second course (meat, fish, or pasta), a dessert, and an alcoholic beverage of your choice (be sure to try a glass of clara....beer with lemon.) The same menu selections at the same restaurants would cost you two or three times as much in the evening.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 06:38 PM
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I haven't made it to Barcelona (always went down the Costa Brava intending to and then turned back to France), but Catalan and Spanish are different languages, but everyone I ever encountered on the Costa Brava spoke Spanish (which I speak only fairly well...never studied it, but it's not that hard a language if you've got lots of romance language history). I didn't find it hard at all to read Catalan on menus and such. It's a different language, but it's all about the cognates, the roots...but I doubt you'll find many people in Barcelona who can't converse with you in Spanish. Almost all were totally bilingual IME.
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