Barcelona excursion Pre-or-Post cruise??

[lvcrzn]

Our cruise will embark and disembark in Barcelona. We would like to take an extensive tour of Barcelona. We would like to view the interior of the Sagrada Familia Church and not a walk or drive by as described by so many of the shorter excursions. Taking into consideration the fight into Barcelona from the USA also the boarding time and disembarkation of the ship, what does anyone suggest we do?? :confused:

[garycarla]

We have done Barcelona a few times. We try to come in a few days early, and leave a day or two later. This pretty much eliminates stress over delayed flights going, or missing flight coming back.

 

We have stayed in 3 different hotels on or near Ramblas. The hop on, hop off buses are a few blocks away and do stop at all the regular place including the church.

 

I would assume they sell "tours" at the church along with just a regular walk in admission. Check their website to make sure. I am sure there are other tours available in the Ramblas area as well.

[robins11]

Our cruise will embark and disembark in Barcelona. We would like to take an extensive tour of Barcelona. We would like to view the interior of the Sagrada Familia Church and not a walk or drive by as described by so many of the shorter excursions. Taking into consideration the fight into Barcelona from the USA also the boarding time and disembarkation of the ship, what does anyone suggest we do?? :confused:

 

hello Barcelona is a wonderful city to visit and explore. There is so much to see and do but in order to get an appreciation of the city one option would be to do the Hop On Hop Off tour. It has two routes for the price of one ticket and covers all the significant sights. You are free to get on and off or stay on for the whole tour. Commentary is given. The operator we used was City Sightseeing.

One of the stops is at the Sagrada Familia. I agree you must stop and tour this beautiful church both internally and externally, including one of the towers. Its an uplifting experience. If you visit their website you can view the options available including ticket purchase. There is bookshop with guides, etc outside the church.

You should also visit the medieval area, Barri Gotic, with narrow streets, churches, restaurants, bars, art galleries, the city cathedral, it really is worth doing.

A website I have found useful is http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/

We have also stayed in a couple of good hotels right in the centre, including Hotel Jazz. We picked up recommendations on Trip Advisor.

John

[joyy7403]

We also stayed in Barcelona pre-cruise. Also highly recommend the hop on-hop off bus. We stayed at the Hotel Continental, on the La Ramblas. Nothing special about the hotel, just a wonderful location with a 24 hour small buffet. It had ice cream, wine & beer on tap! Very comfortable rooms also.

[mcmomny]

We also stayed in Barcelona pre-cruise. Also highly recommend the hop on-hop off bus. We stayed at the Hotel Continental, on the La Ramblas. Nothing special about the hotel, just a wonderful location with a 24 hour small buffet. It had ice cream, wine & beer on tap! Very comfortable rooms also.

 

We stayed at this same hotel pre and post cruise, nothing special is right but location and 24 hour Buffett was great! And very friendly and helpful!

 

We did the HOHO bus and found it to be a great way to get an overall look and then decide where we wanted to return to for a closer look

 

We also used Rick Steve's Mediterain Cruise guide which covered Barcelona and all of our other ports of call. He had a walking tour for each port including Barcelona that was wonderful!

 

If you decide on Hotel Continental mention Rick Steve's and they will give you a discount!

[4774Papa]

We have taken two cruises out of Barcelona and spent some days there pre-cruise for both cruises.

It is a great city and if you have time go to Monserrat. You can take the train on your own.

 

Total cost is about 42 euro, including everything, even your lunch and the extra charge for one-way rack rail/one-way cable car Of course, if you're not interested in seeing everything or if you don't have time for everything, you can skip parts and it might be cheaper.

 

You can book your Montserrat trip a number of different ways. To go one-way on the cable car, simply buy a separate one-way cable car ticket from the top - should be 5€. If you want to go up on the rail and down on the cable car, it may be cheaper to buy things a la carte; not sure since I didn't do the math

 

There are two combo tickets (prices as of April 2009):

 

"Trans Montserrat" (22,50€) which includes

2 Metro rides (can be used anytime, not necessarily in conjunction with your trip to Montserrat)

Round-trip ticket on the train from Pl. Espanya

Round-trip rack railway OR round-trip cable car

Sant Joan Funicular (unlimited rides, but one round-trip is probably plenty )

Santa Cova Funicular (unlimited rides)

Audiovisual entrance

"Tot Montserrat" 36,95€ which includes all of the above AND

Lunch at their cafeteria

Museum entry

Alternatively, you can buy everything a la carte. The monastery itself, all hiking trails, and the nature center are free.

 

Metro rides (to/from Pl. Espanya for example) are 1,35€ per trip

Train from Pl. Espanya to Montserrat to catch rack rail/cable car is 3,80€ one-way or 7,60€ round-trip

Rack railway is 5,05€ one-way or 8€ round-trip

Cable car is 5,40€ one-way or 8,40€ round-trip

Sant Joan Funicular is 4,35€ one-way or 6,90€ round-trip

Santa Cova Funicular is 1,75€ one-way or 2,80€ round-trip (if you plan on doing both funiculars and purchasing a la carte you can get round-trip on BOTH for a discounted price of 7,75€)

Audiovisual exhibit is 2€

Museum is 6,50€

Lunch obviously varies depending on what you get but is fairly reasonable

 

 

We took one tour there with Barcelona Day Tours, which was excellent, but you can do most of Barcelona on your own.

 

Here is a portion of my CC review regarding restaurants in Barcelona:

We had dinner at ATN, which was located close to a Roman excavation of tombs just off Las Ramblas on Canuda Street. The restaurant was open, even though it was about early by Spanish dinner standards. We had a wonderful meal with great service. Separate checks were not a problem with a party of six and credit cards were accepted. The next day, we had dinner at small tapas restaurant near the Plaza Sant Just on Palma De Sant Just. That restaurant, Bodega LaPalma, was not modern like ATN, but small and rustic. The tapas were excellent, with large servings for very reasonable prices. I highly recommend both restaurants.

[Ashland]

We did it a little differently...We arrived on a flight very early morning of cruise went directly to the ship. We stayed in Barcelona post-cruise at the Hotel 1898..this worked out well for us. Each person has their own timeframe and comfort level to deal with when traveling..Not everyone has the option of pre-cruise on every vacation they plan.

[lvcrzn]

Our cruise will embark and disembark in Barcelona. We would like to take an extensive tour of Barcelona. We would like to view the interior of the Sagrada Familia Church and not a walk or drive by as described by so many of the shorter excursions. Taking into consideration the fight into Barcelona from the USA also the boarding time and disembarkation of the ship, what does anyone suggest we do?? :confused:

 

Thank you all for the wonderful and very helpful suggestions! (HOHO sounds wonderful). We will certainly refer to all of them when making our excursion plans.:D

[Froufie]

If you are pressed for time I would recommend the Best of Barcelona/skip the line tour offered thru Viatour (or Explore Catalunya)....it's an all day tour taking to all the hot spots in the city along with a walking tour and visit to many of the Gaudi sites.

 

The best part is they buy the entry tickets for you before hand - so no waiting in lines or having to worry about that - and as well you get to 'enter' thru the group tour entry where there is never a lineup.....you can check out my Breeze review below (see link near signature) for details and pics!

 

I loved Barcelona and can't wait to go back! :)

[lvcrzn]

If you are pressed for time I would recommend the Best of Barcelona/skip the line tour offered thru Viatour (or Explore Catalunya)....it's an all day tour taking to all the hot spots in the city along with a walking tour and visit to many of the Gaudi sites.

 

The best part is they buy the entry tickets for you before hand - so no waiting in lines or having to worry about that - and as well you get to 'enter' thru the group tour entry where there is never a lineup.....you can check out my Breeze review below (see link near signature) for details and pics!

 

I loved Barcelona and can't wait to go back! :)

 

Thank you, I have been looking into Viatour and also the recommendation of Barcelona Day Tours.