genoise

We will be in Barcelona for 4 days in early October. I see that there are two tourist buses that you can get on and off of. Any opinions on these? I can't quite figure out the difference between them. Also there are a number of walking tours. We usually like to have one guided walking tour in a new city. Any recommendations on an especially good walking tour?

Christina

They are just two different companies, that's all. They probably have slightly different prices and routes, but you can check those out online. I did do the Bus Turistic my first time in Barcelona and enjoyed it. It was just a convenient and relaxing way to see some of the city, and weather is usually sunny there (wouldn't want it if it were rainy). I liked the views from on top of some areas. And some things are spread out quite a bit in Barcelona, so it was a convenient way to get to the park where the Catalonia Art museum is, for example (and Joan Miro museum), as well as Sagrada Familia. It's maybe not as convenient for the real central area around the cathedral, etc., where you can walk mostly, anyway. But I thought it was worth the price. It can get busy at the main loading spot on placa Catalunya, so helps to get there early if that is the point you want to load. In other spots, it didn't matter.

I didn't do a walking tour.

suec1

Well its true that Barcelona is fairly spread out but I have never been a HOHO fan - find them a little pricey and often you have to wait to reboard or deal with a long queue. I guess if I was going to do the HOHO, I'd get on and ride the whole route then use public transportation to revisit the sites I wanted. Excellent metro in Barcelona but do be vigilant. I think the main tourist office has some walking tours - we did one of the hospital designed by Gaudi and it was decent for the price paid.

Smeagol

We absolutely LOVED Runnerbeans tours. They do 3 walking tours ( they are free you tip at the end) we did the Gaudi one and loved it so much we went back the next day to do the old city tour.

Check out their website. Www.runnerbeantours.com

Christina

There weren't long lines or queues anywhere but the first point, as I said. I don't think there would be much point of riding it all around the city and then going by public transport back to the Joan Miro museum, for example. As that can take a while to get to some of those sites. There weren't any big waits for it, any more than there are for other buses or metro, you are on vacation, so waiting a couple minutes isn't any big deal to me. Using the metro can eat up a lot of time, also.

BigRuss

How hale are you? Fat Tire has bike tours. All English (founded by a former Texas A&M student) and even the Australian guides are comprehensible ;-).

http://fattirebiketours.com/

Not a HOHO fan either - pricey and the buses are subject to the vagaries of traffic, which generally sucks. Plus, it's very easy to zip around Barcelona on the metro for all main sights other than Parc Guell.

genoise

This is very helpful info. Thank you all so much. We took a free walking tour in Japan that was a highlight of our trip! So the runnerbean tours are perfect for us. The four of us are 68-74, so I think we'll skip the bikes. As for the buses...I'm wondering whether we'll do them, after all.

Smeagol

Genoise, I am going to Japan later in the year, can you remember who you used for the walking tour in Tokyo? ( and would you recommend?)
Sorry to hijack your thread!

KTtravel

Another vote for the runner bean tours. We took both the Gaudi and Old City walking tours and really enjoyed them.