Barcellona hop on hop off bus tour
 

What is the feeling of fellow Fodorites on the hop on/off bus tour of Barcellona? Is a good way to see the city? Or does someone have a better idea?

Barcelona can be overwhelming, so spread out I that's why I always suggest the on/off bus for the first day,fabulous at night.

I didn't think it was a particularly good itinerary but as mentioned above, Barcelona is spread out so it can give you a good sense of where things are.

I note my opinion might be jaded as it was pouring rain and cold the day that we did it which made for an unpleasant day.

We found it useful because it was a 24 hour ticket (at the time we used it) rather than a calendar day ticket, so you didn't have to be constrained by time. It did cover a lot of ground as noted above.

The only negative was the stop for Pacr Guell. The park is on a steep hillside, you enter from the bottom, and the bus left us several very steep blocks further down the hill, daunting after a couple of weeks of heavy touristing.

We got a cab near the bus stop to drive us to the top of the park, and we walked down through the park and back to the bus stop. Otherwise, it was great.

The HOHO is one of the best ways to orient yourself in the city on your first visit.

When we were there I think it was 7 years ago there were two versions of the HOHO bus. We bought tickets for one of them and rode all over Barcelona. But we had bought the tickets so that we could also ride the next day and the next day the bus was on strike, so somewhat wasted money.
I'm not sure about there being two now, but I'd check that and also inquire beforehand if there are rumors of labor disputes.

We were in Barcelona last September, and didn't bother with the HOHO bus - the circuit they travelled (on both routes) seemed to take you a long way out of the city, so depending on what you are particularly keen to see you could be sitting on the bus for an unnecessarily long time.

When we walked past the queues at the most popular sites they were extremely long and not moving very quickly because the incoming buses were very full and not many people getting off.

We walked to most places - the only time we used a cab was to get to Parc Guell. See my trip report if you are interested in how we managed time during our visit. Di

Thankyou, everyone, for your opinions. We used the HOHO in London and quite enjoyed it so will be trying the Barcelona ones as well. (And in Lisbon too)

We found the Hop on Hop off bus (Bus Turistica) to be a very efficient way to get an orientation to the city. It also allowed us to get glimpses of the outskirts that we might never otherwise visit. All in all, I thought it was worth the money.

My friends and I did the HOHO a few years ago and stayed on the bus for one complete circuit. It took a while (maybe 2 hrs) but we enjoyed it and it was a good way to become acclimated to Barcelona.

I used the blue line - the one that went past the Sagrada Familia and onto Camp Nou. I found it was great although I was on the service in January and there was hardly anyone using it - so no crowds.