hi fodorites,

DH and i will be in barcelona for four nights (three full days) in september. we plan to check out the gaudi sites, the boqueria market, parc guell and the port. i'm also thinking about reserving a tour of the palau de la musique.

we're experienced/savvy travellers and we're not big "tour bus" people ... we really like going at our own pace (which is usually faster than a tour) and doing our own thing. we did the hop-on-hop-off tour in london a few years ago and thought it was a HUGE waste of time/money. while we did get to see some sites that we weren't planning to trek out to, we found the tour to be exceptionally slow. at one point, the driver stopped on the side of the road (in the middle of nowhere touristy!) and took a 20 minute break! frustrated, we just got off the bus and walked to the nearest metro station to get on with our day. i also wasn't keen on the pre-recorded audio that kept stopping/starting/re-starting/starting at the wrong spots/etc.

all of our friends have been recommending the bus turistique for barcelona ... they say that it's 'better' than HOHO buses in other cities. since we'll only have three full days in barcelona, i'm wondering if it's worth it? or if we would be better off saving our 40-odd euros!

anyway, i'd appreciate any comments from folks who have recently taken the bus turistique in barcelona.

thanks!

I'm going to echo your friends. I don't even like Barcelona, and I can't stand tour buses, but that bus in Barcelona is simply a great foot-saver. Barcelona can be polluted and muggy, and quite hot, needless to say, and walking to all the sights -- which are not compact, can really get to you. And the metro is full of pickpockets! So, you have to watch your pockets anyplace in Barcelona, but the bus makes a constant loop, and that's it. It is simply a city bus whose route is to stop at the major tourist destinations.

Is it really that expensive? That's not my recollection but I admit it's several years now.

Also, by all means, go to the palau. You must take a tour to see the inside unless you attend a concert. I hate tours. The building is transcendently gorgeous. It is worth the tour.

I am with your friends also - I usually don't care for those HOHO buses, but I thought it was a good deal in Barcelona b/c it was a pretty efficient way to get to the places we wanted to see in one loop.

Plus they give you all these discounts with your ticket, and if you are going to those places offering discounts (you probably are, b/c it includes the Gaudi hotspots), it is a real bargain and an extremely convenient way to get around to the sites we wanted to see.

I don't even remember the audio at all, it was the convenience of getting around fairly quickly to the places we wanted to go that I remember. And the discounts bringing the price down to a manageable point. Better than the London version imho.

The Barcelona hop on/hop off bus is great if you are really short on time, or just want to get a good overview of the city before you start out on your own. I think the main advantage is that it goes out to Parc Guell and then winds around through the grounds of the trade center and park. As far as Boueria, port, Gaudi sites , these are easily walkable from anywhere along Las Ramblas. The bus does stop at a lot of the Gaudi sites,too. We have been to Barcelona four times and have done the bus twice, each time with different sets of companions who had never been to BC before. It is nice to be able to get up on top to get some interesting photos. Worth the 40 Euro? Probably yes if this is your first trip to Barcelona. There are times when it is nice to be able to ride along above ground and just absorb the sights of the city. Another option would be the bike tours that operate in Barcelona, they really can get you up close to the sites.

hi fodorites,

wow, you're really starting to sway me re: the HOHO bus.

i did look into the bike tour as well...we used the same company in paris and it was a LOT of fun - thin on the info/history quotient but big on the FUN-ness of it all. it's about the same price (less the discount coupons) as the HOHO bus.

i'll keep thinking about this...

tks for all the feedback.

I can only speak to my own experience. We were in Barcelona for three nights last month, immediately following an 8 day trip to Ireland for our daughter's wedding. As I said on another Barcelona thread, we were pretty much exhausted when we got there! And that definitely had a bearing on our experience. But, having said that, we loved the Bus Turistic! We got the two day ticket and very definitely got our money's worth! We did the blue route the first day, the red the second. Not only did we do both whole circuits, we used it as transportation. We were blessed with beautiful weather and found it wonderfully relaxing riding around on the top deck, watching the city go by.

It was really Maribel's admonition in her guide:

http://www.maribelsguides.com/

that, with only a couple of days you can't possibly hope to see the whole city any other way that was responsible for our taking the Bus Turistic. And I'm so glad I listened to her! She was right, there's no way we would have seen that much of the city in the little time we had if it hadn't been for the bus.

hey fodorites,

okay - we'll take the HOHO bus tour ... i'm even thinking of buying the two day pass!

one thing though ... can the bus be used (efficiently) to get from one place to another? i.e. are we stuck in traffic all the time? would it be faster to walk/take the subway?

the majority of the places we want to see are on the route ... and are also easily accessible by foot/metro.

tks!!

i have found the bus tour very good as a lot of barcelonas sights are quite a distance part. We found the best way to do the tour is to board at Plaça Catalunya: and make sure you have a top seat if you cannot get upstairs wait for the next or even the next as it is a waste of time to be inside. We have found the best ideas with bus tours is to make the whole circuit once decide the places you want to visit then on the second tour (you will not have to leave the bus, you can travel round as many times as you want). Then get off at the first location you wish to visit then when you go to the next location you do not need to go upstairs

Hi lilaki,

We used it for transportation without any problems. The bus was never stuck in traffic. The only downside is that if you decide you want to go somewhere the bus has already passed, you'll have to do the whole circuit again. So, if you're short on time, it would be faster to take the metro.

There are actually three color-coded loops on this bus tour. The red and blue loops take about one hour each. The green is about the 30-40 mts. My favorite was the red and I hopoff at the Church Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and at the Monastery of Pedralbes. This pretty much took a good portion of the day. Plan well, because to do BCN justice you probably need a minimum of a day/loop. There are certain stops you hop-off to then get on to another color-coded loop bus. So, it is kind of tricky to use it at transport, check their map to see which loop is the stop you want and where to actually hopoff to get on the right color-coded bus. I used the metro quite a bit as well, it was cheap, easy to use and on time. I actually used it to get to the stop for the football stadium and walked to the Monastery of Pedralbes (I liked the place that much, visited twice!).

I know you probably made up your mind already, but to reiterate the HOHO BCN is probably one of the smartest touristy thing to do in Barcelona, even the map they hand out is fantastic!

I can tell you that going to Parc Guell using the Metro is only the beginning..either do it in a taxi or on that bus if it stops there unless you really enjoy trudging up some steep slopes...I too would recommend the bus although you CAN do a lot of stuff by Metro in Barcelona (watch OUT for the pickpockets)but for ONCE......forget all your savvy and chill out and simply enjoy looking at things.

You won;t have to walk much or even think much....might be a nice change

hi all,

thanks for all the feedback ... we'll buy the two day bus ticket ... sounds like we'll do one loop the first day and another loop the second day.

we'll be pretty jetlagged for the first day or two, so this will be a good way to see the city.

THANKS!