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Day Trips from Barcelona


JHUNTGOLF

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I'll be in Barcelona for 3 days precruise. We're interested in taking a 9-10 hour day tour from Barcelona. Realizing there are many, many choices, does anyone have an absolute favorite day tour they took and what private tour operator did you use? Thanks.

 

John

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The "obvious" choice is Montserrat. The best way to get there, imho, is by buying a combination ticket (railroad and cable car or railroad and funicular -- your choice). It's a nicer and more interesting way to make the journey than in a tour bus.

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Barcelona is a large wondrously interesting city!

IF you have never been there before there is a lot to see and do in 3 days. So far I've spend 9days there with only 1 of those on a day trip.

I chose not to go to Montserrat because I was not interested in hiking the mountain and I didn't think it was worth a whole day.

We took a private tour to some of the Costa Brava seaside towns +the walled city of Girona. It included lunch and was very good.

See:

http://www.spanish-trails.com/

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With only 3 days in Barcelona, i would suggest Montserrat, which doesnt need to be a whole dsy affair if you do it yourself as suggested by ab0si. We were on the first train out and were back in the city in time for a late lunch.

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We will be in Barcelona for 3 days pre cruise and this will be our first trip, The day after we arrive, we are going to do a 2 1/2 hr walking tour with Runnerbean, & sight see afterwards then on the 28th, a tour to Montserrat with many of our Roll Call. I figure the day we arrive, we will be relaxing and getting over our long flight from So Calif.

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We went to Figgures for the Dali Museum and Girona with Spanish Trails. They were great and a reasonable price. We will be using them again this year for a day out at Medieval villages, that they show on their site.

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We are touring Barcelona one day and using Hop on Hop Off bus for that and then using barcelonadaytours.com for the next tour and chill the other day.

 

In fact the barcelonadaytours.com are handling all of our transportation in Barcelona. We are a party of 6 and a private transfer works better for us.

 

Enjoy your trip

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I highly recommend the town of Sitges for a day trip. Before my cruise a few years ago I met a family who were on my roll call who were staying in this town. We took the train from Passig di Gracia and it was a quick 35 min ride. The town is charming with a beautiful beach and wonderful restaurants lining the sea. Here is some info.

 

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/sitges/index.html

 

http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/cercanias/barcelona/index.html

train schedule

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  • 4 weeks later...
Thanks everyone for your ideas. I really liked the idea of Costa Brava seaside towns and the walled city of Girona. I've also checked out Spanish Trails so I'll relook at that site again. Thanks.

 

John

 

Just returned from Barcelona. We used http://www.barcelonagreattours.com and had a fabulous experience. We were a group of 33 ending our cruise in Barcelona. The group was put together on our roll call. We wanted a half day tour that included being picked up at the port with our luggage; tour to Montserrat (which was fabulous) and then were dropped at several hotel locations at the end. Barcelona Great Tours has many options. Check out the website. Gail

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks everyone for your ideas. I really liked the idea of Costa Brava seaside towns and the walled city of Girona. I've also checked out Spanish Trails so I'll relook at that site again. Thanks.

 

John

 

I 2nd Girona combined with lunch & a wander on the Costa Brava. Our guide(pepito tours) took us to a small bay called S'garo for lunch. Wonderful views and a cliff walking path among villas and bougainvillaea. Med at it's best.

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I will be spending 3 days pre-cruise in Barcelona as well, in less than a month. We are planning to spend one of those days at Montserrat, and the other seeing the Dali Museum in Figueres (this tour also includes Girona as well).

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We did a day trip that had a tour of a Cava winery, lunch at a local country restuarant and the afternoon at Montserat. It was a fantastic day.

 

This was arrainged through Patrick at Barcelonatourguides.com. It was a large group arrainged through our roll call but I know they do small/individual tours as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

To simply say we had a fabulous time on our tour with Spanish Trails (Montserrat and Cava Tour) would not give it justice. It was out of this world amazing. From the beginning while setting it up, Tracy was great to work with.

 

Our guide, Richard, was personable and funny and informative.....just all around FABULOUS!! He had our group laughing and thoroughly enjoying our day. My own party of 5 talked about this tour for the entire week of our trip.

 

Montserrat was a wonderful place. We all walked the grounds together and enjoyed every part that this magical place had to offer. Our guide new exactly what time to get us there to beat the crowds. When we were leaving, the crowds multiplied so I was glad we got there early.

The restaurant our guide took us too for lunch was so lovely. It was probably the best meal we had all week. The service was great....the food was out of this world....and our guide helped us communicate what we wanted to eat. Everyone was sharing dishes and just really enjoying the meal together.

 

The Cava winery we went to (Felix) was Heaven! The location was perfect (it was so beautiful) and the people at the winery were also very friendly and informative. I bought a bottle (piece of artwork) that I already have displayed in my home. It reminds me of that entire day and brings a smile to my face every time I look at it.

You will not go wrong using Spanish Trails in Barcelona. It was the highlight of my Mediterranean trip!!

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When you are with Spanish-Trails is it only your group or are others with you?

 

 

Not sure what tour you are asking about, and am not sure about the Barcelona tours, but the day trips that we have done with them out of Barcelona are a max of 8 people.

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When you are with Spanish-Trails is it only your group or are others with you?

 

You can request a private tour, however, most regular tours are just 8 people. We had our party of 5 and 3 others booked the same tour and were with us. We had the best day ever. Our guide was fabulous!!

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Another option for a day tour during your stay in Barcelona is checking out the wine districts close to Barcelona. Here you can choose between Penedes, Priorat, Alella, Cataluña, and more. Penedes is close to Barcelona and there you have for example Torres, a big and beautiful winery one hour drive from Barcelona. I know that the following agencies operate there:

Spanish Trails

City Tours Barcelona

Food wine tours

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We are cruising on the Magic on August 26th. We are arriving in Barcelona a day early on the 25th. We were hoping to get in a excursion to Montserrat that day. Is is doable? We arrive at 10:30. Do you have a tour company you can recommend? Thanks, first time in Europe and hoping to make the most of it!!

 

Judy:)

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How easy or worth it is it do a day trip to Madrid from Barcelona? Assuming one could take a train for a few hours and be back in town by evening.

 

In looking at flying into Madrid then going to Barcelona, was surprised to see its 8 to 9 hours one way between the two.

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We are cruising on the Magic on August 26th. We are arriving in Barcelona a day early on the 25th. We were hoping to get in a excursion to Montserrat that day. Is is doable? We arrive at 10:30. Do you have a tour company you can recommend? Thanks, first time in Europe and hoping to make the most of it!!

 

Judy:)

 

If you google Barcelona Tours you'll find a lot of company's that will do private tours of Montserrat - and most of them will arrange to pick you up at the airport, do the tour, and drop you at your hotel in the evening. I'm pretty sure the company I mentioned in post #14 above does this and I'd guess most of the other companies do as well. Most of them are used to catering to cruisers!

 

Are you staying in Barcelona post cruise? The city itself is a wonderful place to explore on your own. If this is your only time to do so you might consider just staying in town and seeing some of the city sights rather than heading out to Montserrat.

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We are cruising on the Magic on August 26th. We are arriving in Barcelona a day early on the 25th. We were hoping to get in a excursion to Montserrat that day. Is is doable? We arrive at 10:30. Do you have a tour company you can recommend? Thanks, first time in Europe and hoping to make the most of it!!

 

Judy:)

 

Judy:

 

May very well be possible. You might try www.pepitotours.com. My tour to Montserrat was a half day tour prior to port transfer. He has also met me on arrival at the Barcelona airport to do a half day tour prior to hotel check-in. Like you, always want to make the most of a trip to Europe.

 

Have a great trip.

Martha

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If you plan to do Monserrat, PLEASE consider doing this yourself. I'm currently in Barcelona (my cruise starts tomorrow!), and we went to Monserrat yesterday. We took a metro to Placa Espanya, found the tourist office (above ground), and bought a combination pass. All of our transportation to and from Montserrat was included...and it was only 23 Euro (plus another 2 Euro for the metro ride). We didn't think we'd spend more than 3 hrs there, but ended up spending most of the day there.

 

Another thing to think about...we just came back from a day trip to Girona and Figueres. We used the same company that runs the Catalunya Bus Turistic. (You can get brochures from them) We did a 10+ hr tour with them for 61 Euros. Not sure how much a private tour would cost, but this tour was well worth the money.

 

Both day trips were great and it was nice to get away from the crowds (and the heat) in the city. Good luck!

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To simply say we had a fabulous time on our tour with Spanish Trails (Montserrat and Cava Tour) would not give it justice. It was out of this world amazing. From the beginning while setting it up, Tracy was great to work with.

 

Our guide, Richard, was personable and funny and informative.....just all around FABULOUS!! He had our group laughing and thoroughly enjoying our day. My own party of 5 talked about this tour for the entire week of our trip.

 

Montserrat was a wonderful place. We all walked the grounds together and enjoyed every part that this magical place had to offer. Our guide new exactly what time to get us there to beat the crowds. When we were leaving, the crowds multiplied so I was glad we got there early.

The restaurant our guide took us too for lunch was so lovely. It was probably the best meal we had all week. The service was great....the food was out of this world....and our guide helped us communicate what we wanted to eat. Everyone was sharing dishes and just really enjoying the meal together.

 

The Cava winery we went to (Felix) was Heaven! The location was perfect (it was so beautiful) and the people at the winery were also very friendly and informative. I bought a bottle (piece of artwork) that I already have displayed in my home. It reminds me of that entire day and brings a smile to my face every time I look at it.

You will not go wrong using Spanish Trails in Barcelona. It was the highlight of my Mediterranean trip!!

 

Wow, this had to be a wonderful experience. We are a group of four and this sounds like what we are looking for. This is probably a silly question, but did you do take these tours on two separate days. We plan on flying in Thursday morning, and we will board our ship Monday. We want to experience as much as possible.

 

Any information is greatly appreciated.

 

mev

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