Sunday sightseeing

[cccruisin]

Interested in sightseeing before sailing on Sunday in Barcelona. Thoughts on Fat Bike Tours or similar walking or any type of tour with a guide. Are many sights, shops, etc closed on Sunday?

[riffatsea]

The large department stores are closed but the sights are really all open on Sunday. I like Sunday in Barcelona! There is traditional dancing with live music in front of the cathedral.

Not sure what interests you but you can go to the Gaudi buildings, museums, parks etc.

[cccruisin]

Interested in having some sort of guide, what is recommended for 1/2 day besides bike tours. Bikes sound good but reviews mention too much time at the beach especially in December a pure waste. Thanx for any input...

[riffatsea]

Sorry, but I don't know about tours in the city.

The tourist office offers an old city(barri gotic) walking tour and there are other walking tours as the old part of the city is not a place for cars to drive.

You don't seem to know what you'd like to see??

1/2 day is not very long which is why I thought if you had an idea of what interested you then you could pick and choose.

There's a hop on hop off bus that you could take and if you just stay on and look at things from the outside it would probably only be a couple of hours.

Many people just use taxis to go from place to place in a short time.

[dabear]

You could also take a 4 hour city tour with opetators such as Barcelona Day Tours.

[cccruisin]

You could also take a 4 hour city tour with opetators such as Barcelona Day Tours.

Thank you for your idea., will look into it. Have also been reading sbout the Christmas markets that are set up through Christmas, might be different.

[cccruisin]

Sorry, but I don't know about tours in the city.

The tourist office offers an old city(barri gotic) walking tour and there are other walking tours as the old part of the city is not a place for cars to drive.

You don't seem to know what you'd like to see??

1/2 day is not very long which is why I thought if you had an idea of what interested you then you could pick and choose.

There's a hop on hop off bus that you could take and if you just stay on and look at things from the outside it would probably only be a couple of hours.

Many people just use taxis to go from place to place in a short time.

Interested in the city center for a quick tour before a cruise. Issue is more that I have read that alot is closed on Sunday. Thank you for your thought anyway.

[KirkNC]

The best thing is to go to the Barri Gotic or old part of town to the cathedral. Every Sunday around 12:00 they have the Sardana Dancers which are natives (tourists can also join) dancing to celebrate. It is very festive. When we went there were over one hundred dancers of all ages with a small local band. Then pop into Bilbao Berria right on the square for lunch, great tapas. You select what you want and at the end of the meal they charge you by the number of toothpicks you have (each tapas has a toothpick).

 

Kirk

[cccruisin]

has anyone used Barcelona Day Tour for a tour from the hotel to end at the port for departure? Where sights did you see? Thanx....

[Ocala508]

Interested in sightseeing before sailing on Sunday in Barcelona. Thoughts on Fat Bike Tours or similar walking or any type of tour with a guide. Are many sights, shops, etc closed on Sunday?

 

Depends on when your ship sails. We booked a Tapas tour through Sam's Club travel. One good tapas place, one I could have skipped and more of a walking tour than tapas (Sam's Club has stopped dealing through Expedia). The local market, La Boqueria, is a great site on Las Ramblas. A total marketplace (fruits, vegatables, meats, fish - everything!). We had a easy walk from our hotel near the Playa Catalunya. Just walking Las Ramblas (La Rambla has several districts) with street performers, flower vendors, lots of souvenir stands, is a great trip - no guide needed, but Barcelona pickpockets are notorius - and Las Ramblas is the main concentration. We took a tour to the Dali Museum and Girona on Sunday (probably not an option with a ship sailing that day). Part of the usual tour was missed because the Jewish Museum closed early. (The guide was new to this particular tour, but he made up for that problem spectacularly.)

You might check that tour operator, Spanish Trails (spanishtrails.com) for anything else. They have two American born guides - Charles who showed us a fantastic time (concerned over the early closing of the Jewish Museum, he made up for it with a tour of one of the old homes of the Jewish quarter, as well as arranging for a free return to the Jewish Museum the next day) and Bryan, as well as a French girl with excellent English.

 

The tour ended officially at the steps of the main post office (near the port), but Charles dropped us at Seven Portes (great paella) and the others at their hotels.

[dabear]

has anyone used Barcelona Day Tour for a tour from the hotel to end at the port for departure? Where sights did you see? Thanx....

 

If you search for threads on this site you will see alot of comments (mostly positive) for Barcelona Day Tours. They also have a web site and email . After my review of the posts we decided to use them next January for a 4 hour tour. They will drop you off at the cruise terminal . Another alternative is to take a hoho tour, which is less xpensive, but you will have to get transportation to the port afterwards.

[sboston06]

How interesting that I came across your thread today! We are cruising out of Barcelona next Sunday (11/21) and are researching the same thing. The great thing about Fat Tire Bike Tours is they don't require you to book in advance, so we might end up doing that if we have enough time that morning. Their tour is from 11 to 4, and our ship sails at 7 (so we must be on board by 5), so I'm not sure if that still works for you. If we don't end up doing a bike tour, we might just get a recommendation from our hotel, or go on the Gothic Quarter tour from the local tourist office.

 

Barcelona Day Tours was very nice in all my interactions with them, but unfortunately they only seem to do private tours. We are only a group of 2 and couldn't find anyone to join up with us. If you have a larger group, that might work great for you.

 

Good Luck! I hope we are both able to get some plans made soon :)

[cccruisin]

How interesting that I came across your thread today! We are cruising out of Barcelona next Sunday (11/21) and are researching the same thing. The great thing about Fat Tire Bike Tours is they don't require you to book in advance, so we might end up doing that if we have enough time that morning. Their tour is from 11 to 4, and our ship sails at 7 (so we must be on board by 5), so I'm not sure if that still works for you. If we don't end up doing a bike tour, we might just get a recommendation from our hotel, or go on the Gothic Quarter tour from the local tourist office.

 

Barcelona Day Tours was very nice in all my interactions with them, but unfortunately they only seem to do private tours. We are only a group of 2 and couldn't find anyone to join up with us. If you have a larger group, that might work great for you.

 

Good Luck! I hope we are both able to get some plans made soon :)

 

We sail at 7 also but would like to be on the ship by 2 - 2:30. We have gotten a group of 7 from cruise critic for our sailing and are trying to do a private tour with BDT but we are at 3 different hotels 2 close and the third couple are near the airport. From what I gather the tour starts from the first pick up which is not fair to the rest of us, I am waiting for an answer to that question. Also we have booked private tours in Ephesus and Cairo and small groups (7-8) in Rome and Athens - none of them required a deposit, BDT wants a deposit I'm not too comfortable I am going to see what the spainish trails has to offer as mentioned above. Good luck have fun....