bornintheusa

Was wondering if I needed to get travel cards for public transport in both Madrid and Barcelona...our hotel is 5 minute walk from Barcelona cathedral and in Madrid we are a 6 minute walk from Plaza Mayor....I'll need public transport to get to and from the airports but was wondering if we (active seniors) would need to get a card for 4 days in each city to get us to and from sights using Metro, buses, funiculars, etc. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Traveler_Nick

Mostly you should be able to walk everywhere. In Barcelona Sagrada Familia is likely the one you'd take the metro to. In Madrid? I guess the bull ring?

Michael

Anything between the royal palace and Prado is walkable. One of our favorites is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum:


If I recall correctly this entire album was taken within the walkable distance in Madrid: https://flic.kr/s/aHskGJW5af

Maribel

For Madrid

Since you're staying close to the Plaza Mayor I think you'll find that you won't need the metro or buses, other than to go from/to the airport by Cercanías (commuter, suburban rail line) for which a metro pass won't work. The metro to the airport requires line changes and thus, is a longer ride. The cercanías suburban line runs from Atocha rail station to Terminal 4 Madrid airport..

You can also go to/from the airport by the Airport Express bus shuttle (5 euros) with stops at Plaza Cibeles or Atocha rail station. Buses have luggage racks.
https://www.esmadrid.com/en/airport-express

The official Madrid taxis to/from the airport have a flat rate fare of €30.

From your lodging, if you enjoy walking, you'll have walkability to the Art Triangle (Caixa Forum, Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), to the Royal Palace/Almudena Cathedral, Plaza de España, Puerta del Sol, a tapas crawl in La Latina, Atocha rail station for a day trip to Toledo, Retiro Park, even as far north as Plaza Colón for visiting these excellent museums outside of the Art Triangle: Fundacíón Mapfre on Paseo de Recoletos, the MAN (Museo Arqueológico Nacional) on Serrano or Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson on Alcalá Galiano.

Central Madrid is pleasantly walkable.

annhig

I agree [of course] with the other advice you've received about Madrid which is very walkable, but in Barcelona you may want to use public transport some of the time. If so probably the easiest thing is to buy T Familiar ticket the first time you want to use the metro which gives you 8 journeys which can be used by anyone in your group. At €10 it's quite a lot cheaper than buying 2 transport passes at €31 each for 4 days, even if you got one each. The only advantage to the Hola Barcelona cards is that they include travel to and from the airport but presumably this will only apply to one leg of your stay in Barcelona as you will be arriving/leaving by train on the other.

https://www.tmb.cat/en/barcelona-far...-card-hola-bcn

bilboburgler

I tend to walk most places, we found Madrid was frighteningly hot at midday and skipped from shade to shade and fountain to fountain. Barcelona, being on the coast would probably not so bad but weather is not climate.

Barcelona is mainly a modern city so the pavement is easy to walk on, Madrid is modern only in terms of about 1000 years (which as you know in Europe is nothing, and of course Spain is not a very old country) old so watch out for those cobbles, more crowded pavements etc

Public transport is great in both cities, though obviously watch out for "wondering Hans" the German door to door salesman. Use cards all the time if possible, bury your passport deep in clothing and if you must carry a bag to a restaurant stick a strap around a chair leg etc. Neither city is especially bad but why have a problem.

KTtravel

Something may have changed since we have been there, but I remember using public transportation to get to Park Guel was not as helpful as I would have liked and I wished we had taken a taxi. We entered at an area with an escalator which, unfortunately, was not working. We exited at a lower level but then had a long walk to catch public transportation. At the time, I was wearing a foot boot so perhaps that colored my impression.

Madam397

It's been a long time since I was in Madrid so cannot recall but we did use public transport, the Metro in Barcelona as we were staying not far from Sagrada Familia but we did go by metro to Barceloneta port area and to go up to Montjuich and the Miro Museum as well as to the Barrio area and the Cathedral. We were there at the end of August and it was hot during the midday. I know one day we got out of the midday sun by having lunch at one of the counters in the major market. In both Madrid and Barcelona you do need to be careful because there are issues with pickpockets on both the Metro and in particular in Barcelona on the Ramblas. I know that we took the airport train to and from the Paseo de Gracia which is both a railroad stop and a metro stop and that worked well and was very easy.

Maribel

For Parc Güell, by public transportation there is still a walk to reach the entrance.
See how to reach it these days by metro or bus.
https://parkguell.barcelona/en/plann...w-to-get-there
I would take a taxi.