Anyone use Barcelona Day Tours?

[FoxyBride14]

We did a tour with them in early August. Anna was our tour guide and she was wonderful. Very helpful and really very excellent. We did the full day barcelona & Montserrat tour. It was great!

[Loving My Life]

Hi. I am considering the Barcelona and Montserrat tour while in Barcelona, but I worry that it will be super fast-paced. For those who have done this full day tour, did you feel rushed on this tour or that you didn't have enough time at one or more stop? It just seems to be lot to stuff into one day. Thanks!

[paulhoward]

Hi. I am considering the Barcelona and Montserrat tour while in Barcelona, but I worry that it will be super fast-paced. For those who have done this full day tour, did you feel rushed on this tour or that you didn't have enough time at one or more stop? It just seems to be lot to stuff into one day. Thanks!

 

We did that tour in May 2014 and it was excellent - you could always use more time but they managed our time very well - I would have liked another hour at the Montserrat but will be doing that tour when we go back in April 2015. They will also customize the tour if everyone agrees.

Paul

[Loving My Life]

We did that tour in May 2014 and it was excellent - you could always use more time but they managed our time very well - I would have liked another hour at the Montserrat but will be doing that tour when we go back in April 2015. They will also customize the tour if everyone agrees.

Paul

 

Thanks!

[paulhoward]

Does anyone on the forum know of a good tour company in Frankfurt Germany.

When we do the Transatlantic in April we come into Spain and are only staying one night. Our return flight had a stop over in Frankfurt so we extended the stop over for 5 days to see some of Germany and need to find a good tour company.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Paul

[maw1953]

We used Barcelona Day Tours for a city tour and for transport to our cruise ship.

They were excellent. The bus was right on time at our hotel both times. The half day tour was very informative and I highly recommend using this company if you have never been to Barcelona before. It's a great way to see the city with a very responsible tour company.

[luvn2cruzzz]

Just did a half day city tour today and Anna was our tour guide. Would highly recommend her and the company. Professsional, friendly, and informative.

[skylight]

We have used Barcelona Day Tours every year. We use them for transfers from the airport and have had 2 of the 4 hour city tours. Always on time and great for transfers better price than booking with other transfer companies or taxi.:)

[RonnieLyn]

We recently used Barcelona Day Tours for our group of 12 people. From start to finish our experience with them was perfect. Anna Marie, my contact there answered all my e-mails immediately (and there were many). Prior to the tour, we discussed the itinerary and everything went smoothly and exactly as was promised. Our tour guide,Marta was not only professional but it was a joy spending the day with her and our driver Pepe. She was extremely focused on providing the best possible experience in Barcelona for us. We saw all the important highlights possible in that time frame and came away from the tour with so much new knowledge of Barcelona. I hope this answers some questions about BDT's, we would definitely use them again.

[Safari Sissy]

Ronnie Lyn, we had Marta also and agree she was wonderful! Very thorough, very helpful, and so very knowledgeable! She took great care of us while we visited the beautiful city of Barcelona.

[Turtles06]

My spouse and I have just returned from a westbound TA that had a port call in Barcelona. Eight of us on our Roll Call had a fantastic full day tour with Barcelona Day Tours that I had organized; thanks to BDT, it was definitely for my spouse and me one of our best shore excursions ever and a highlight of our entire trip. Here are the details.

 

Since my spouse and I had been to Barcelona before but not to Montserrat, we wanted to go there and then spend some time back in Barcelona at a couple of important sites. Well in advance of our trip, I emailed Barcelona Day Tours about customizing their Montserrat/Barcelona highlights full day tour so that we would visit Montserrat and then, back in Barcelona, visit La Sagrada Familia, including inside, and Parc Guell. (We had been to LSG before and were looking forward to seeing the progress.)

 

Isabel at BDT set this up for us and was always promptly responsive to my email inquiries. She also proposed something that no other private tour operator has done when I've put together a tour with "strangers" from a Roll Call: she had the others joining the tour secure their own reservations with their own credit cards, so that I would not be on the hook for the entire price if someone were a no-show at the last minute. That's always a concern when you organize a private tour with people you have never met, and I thought it was terrific that BDT off the bat took that concern off the table.

 

Our tour guide was Dolça, and she was hands down one of the best tour guides we've ever had. She was knowledgeable, well-educated, and fluent in the language she was guiding in, and she capped all of this off by having the perfect personality for a guide. (I see that btvp in the post above loved her as well.) I can't underscore what a great day we all had.

 

I happily join the long list of folks who highly recommend Barcelona Day Tours.

[Shawnino]

Hey Turtles,

 

what was your rate, if you don't mind me asking? When I got ahold of them they wanted EUR 740 for four of us and I was rather shocked. Mail me at gmail if you want to take this off the board. On the one hand you and I are used to Lindblad rates so perhaps I shouldn't blanch at EUR 740 here, but on the other I was pretty shocked because in other ports we are paying EUR 300-500 for a private day out. I found another operator in Barcelona proper, bhere's a dearth of non-walking tours in Valencia so the whole thing is pretty frustrating.

[Turtles06]

Hey Turtles,

 

what was your rate, if you don't mind me asking? When I got ahold of them they wanted EUR 740 for four of us and I was rather shocked. Mail me at gmail if you want to take this off the board. On the one hand you and I are used to Lindblad rates so perhaps I shouldn't blanch at EUR 740 here, but on the other I was pretty shocked because in other ports we are paying EUR 300-500 for a private day out. I found another operator in Barcelona proper, bhere's a dearth of non-walking tours in Valencia so the whole thing is pretty frustrating.

 

That price does seem oddly high -- were you asking for something very special? We paid 99 euros per person (8 folks total) for our full day tour; BDT's rates are posted on their web site.

 

http://www.barcelonadaytours.com/barcelona-montserat/

 

(BTW, I am not "used to Lindblad rates." That was a trip of a lifetime. :) )

[Shawnino]

That price does seem oddly high -- were you asking for something very special? We paid 99 euros per person (8 folks total) for our full day tour; BDT's rates are posted on their web site.

 

http://www.barcelonadaytours.com/barcelona-montserat/

 

(BTW, I am not "used to Lindblad rates." That was a trip of a lifetime. :) )

 

I did find that on the website. We are doing Montserrat with another operator.

 

The issue with Valencia as I've ranted about already on this board...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2107960

is that pretty much everything in Valencia proper is a walking tour. (Or scooter, or Segway.) As I'm sure you've come across in my notes, I don't walk well. Joining such a tour would only slow others down and I don't want my slow walking to curtail others' experiences. So we asked Spain/Barcelona/Top Day Tours (one company, many names...) what a private tour for four would be where my party would amble along with me and we'd see what we could see. The answer was EUR 740.

 

Even your 99/head for 8 seems quite big compared to what I'm booking elsewhere in Europe. All well-rated operators on trip advisor, so far I've got for full days:

Olympia 160/4

Athens 450/12

Istanbul 450/6 incl admissions

Amalfi Coast 400/8

Siena 550/8

Monaco 430/8

Provence 600/8

Montserrat 500/6

Sardinia 360/4 (day in a 4x4)

Palermo 325/8

 

... so as it sits, in Valencia, I'm feeling "stuck". May end up just taking a cab to the aquarium, or staying on the ship.

 

I'm very, very frustrated and in need of ideas.

[CCM]

My husband and I just returned from a HAL cruise during which we visited Barcelona for two glorious days. We hired Barcelona Day Tours to take us to the Dali Museum about an hour from the city ... and, oh, what a day it was!

 

The driver knew a great deal about Dali and regaled us with stories about him, the town (Figueres) where his museum is, and on the return trip to the ship, added more stories about Barcelona. All in all an excellent experience!

 

Have put all of Barcelona Day Tours info in our vacation folder so we can use them again on our next trip to Barcelona. Can't recommend them highly enough!

 

Catherine

[4774Papa]

We used Barcelona Day Tours for a city tour and they were great.

 

You can DTY Monserrat. The train leaves from the Plaza de Espana. I think on about 40 minutes on the hour. There is a great post on cc that I did manage to find in my email folders. It is a few years old, but it may help.

 

you have a full day to do Montserrat I would propose the following schedule in order to always be one step ahead of the crowds:

Take the 7:36 train to Montserrat-Monistrol

Catch the 8:48 rack rail up to the monastery, arriving about 9:08

View the monastery, including Black Madonna (probably takes about 45 minutes to see all the monastery at a leisurely pace)

View the audiovisual presentation and displays (allow about 30 minutes)

Take the Sant Joan funicular up, see the nature center, and hike a bit if able to see the impressive views (head right out of the funicular for a good hike about 45 minutes round-trip) - this funicular is more popular so do it first before the lines get long

Take the Santa Cova funicular down, and walk the remaining Holy Grotto Path which is lined with beautiful artistic monuments - about 45 minutes round-trip from the base of the funicular and is fairly steep

Return to the monastery to hear the boys' choir

Lunch and perhaps sample the honeys and cheese for sale in the stands just past the cafeteria

Museum

Any additional hiking, if of interest - there are tons of trails and the tourist stand can provide maps of the trails

Return downward by cable car (or rack rail) and then train to Barcelona

When you return to Barcelona, nap a bit before dinner since you had an early morning!!

 

Tour buses started dropping people off around 10 which is when things started to get busy. By noon, the place was crazy! But almost everyone followed the order I presented above, so if you start earlier than everyone else then you will always be ahead of the crowds.

 

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

If you aren't interested in seeing everything, add up what you want to do and see if it's cheaper to buy a la carte or to buy the combo ticket even without using some portions of it.

 

Also, something I didn't think to try until AFTER I left Barcelona was to get to Montserrat from Plaza Espanya using the T-10 transportation ticket I had already purchased for the rest of our trip; it's valid on metro, RENFE cercania trains such as the train from the airport, and the FGC trains such as you take to Montserrat - 7,70€ for 10 rides and can be shared by multiple people! According to the Barcelona transport website it will work, but I have no personal experience to confirm. If you have a T-10 anyway (which it's a great value if you will be in Barcelona for a day or more and plan on using the metro anyway), try it at the Plaza Espanya train station. I am 99% positive it will allow you entry to the train, but make sure you're there early enough to buy alternative tickets just in case. If it works, once you arrive at the Montserrat-Monistrol or Montserrat-Aeri station, you can buy the combination ticket listed above WITHOUT the train portion. The cost is 14,90€ for the smaller combo ticket or 31€ for the larger ticket.

 

The train to/from Barcelona leaves only once per hour. The first train leaves Pl. Espanya (in direction: Manresa) at 7:36, and then every hour after that - always on the :36. If you take the rack rail up, get off at station Monistrol de Montserrat (arriving at 8:44) where you will catch the rack rail up to the monastery area. The rack rail leaves at 8:48am. You will see a little green train - that's where you are heading for the transfer If you want to take the cable car up, the first train from Barcelona you can take is the 8:36 train (getting you to the cable car about an hour later) - the cable car does not start running until 9:40am so if you want an early start, you HAVE to take the rack rail. The cable car leaves from a different train stop: Montserrat Aeri. Make sure you get off at the right stop!!

 

Coming back, the train departs the Monistrol de Montserrat station at the bottom of the mountain on the :44 past the hour. That means, if you are taking the rack rail down, you must take the rack rail that leaves the top of the mountain on the :15 past the hour. If you are taking the cable car down (just purchase a one-way ticket if you took the rack rail up), you need to catch the train to Barcelona from the Montserrat Aeri station, which leaves on the :48 past the hour. It is just a 5 minute ride down, so you could take the cable car down on the :30. However, since there is limited capacity on the cable car, if it looks like it's busy that day, I would aim for the :15 cable car just in case you have to wait for the next one. Is this clear as mud??

 

It's unfortunate the trains don't run as often because it really puts a damper on your flexibility.

 

I can't speak for the cable car, but the rack rail station is in the same place as the train to Barcelona. The transfer simply involves walking off one train and onto the other. At the top of the mountain, both the train and the cable car will drop you off near the cafeteria, gift shop, and audiovisual area. Within a 5 minute walk, you can hit either funicular, the monastery, some farmers' stands, the museum, the post office, a little cafe...nothing is very far, unless of course you want to hike! There are an endless amount of trails, but the ones that start from where the funicular drops you off are the most popular (for good reason) and also of reasonable length - about 45 minutes each.

 

One last thought (and sorry for the long reply): You can buy the combo tickets from either the Plaza Espanya train station or the Montserrat station (note the price differences above since from Pl. Espanya it will automatically include your train fare). Both stations, if you pay via the automated machine - which is easy and has an English option - you can pay with credit card, debit card, or cash. If you pay by credit card, you will need to enter your credit card PIN. This is the PIN you would need if you wanted to use your credit card for a cash advance at an ATM, for example. I don't normally need that number, so make sure you know it before you leave. Also, neither my credit card or my debit card was approved by the machines at any subway/train station in Barcelona, but we had no problems elsewhere. You can certainly try to pay by card, but have cash as a backup just in case...we needed it. For a family of 5, that may add up to a lot of cash so be prepared!

[JimAOk1945]

My husband and I enjoyed our Barcelona Day Tour of Barcelona and Montserrat on 15 Nov 2014 immensely! Highly recommended!

 

It sounds like a wonderful experience. Did you see everything listed on their website for the 8 hour tour or did you change the itinerary for your private tour?

[JimAOk1945]

Hi' date=' Jim:

We did the full 8-hour tour as described on the website and found it a great introduction to Barcelona. We especially enjoyed visiting Montserrat. The next day my husband and I did the Hop On Hop Off bus so we could spend more time at some of the places we had seen the first day.

Our tour was not private --- we were 12 plus a 3-month old baby (strangers to each other) --- and that all worked out fine.[/quote']

 

This tour sounds like something my wife and I would enjoy doing next year since we will have a few days before our cruise.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Edited December 11, 2014 by JimAOk1945

[LolaGlobetrotter]

Has anyone used Barcelona day tours? If so what did you like them and do they have English speaking guides? We will be in Barcelona 2 days pre cruise and want to see as much as we can.

 

I did Montserrat tour and Hop On Off tour..I was satisfied with both tours..

this hop on-off tour is perfect if you're not staying in Barcelona for a longer period..It's opportunity to see all important things in one day..whole day though..there are some agencies which offer even discount..

I used one which is places in carrer moles

[ezstreet]

After seeing Barcelona Day Tours mentioned on Cruise Critic, we booked two tours with them for two of our post cruise days in Barcelona. The first was a Highlights Tour on the half-day of our arrival in Barcelona. We were a group of six traveling together so I recruited another couple to join us through Cruise Critic. The transport that day was a large bus, since their smaller vehicles were in use, it was large and comfortable and the tour guide outstanding! We got a wonderful overview of the city. The day of disembarkation, we again had another couple with us that we found on Cruise Critic, they picked all eight of us up at the dock and took us and all our luggage in a large van to Montserrat and to a wonderful Cava winery. Following the tour they dropped us off at our place of lodging. That tour is not to be missed! Both guides spoke wonderful English and provided a lot of history and information on the sights we were seeing. Both had such sweet, fun personalities that it just added to our enjoyment. I have nothing but praise for this company, highly recommend, and will certainly use them again if we are ever back in beautiful Barcelona!

[maw1953]

We used Barcelona Day Tours for our airport pick up to our hotel, half day city tour and hotel to our cruise ship. They were excellent. They were always on time for us and very professional.

[freddy penguin]

The website shows this tour is 8 hours. I noticed a lot of people who've posted in this thread did their tours either pre or post cruise. I was considering doing this tour during a port stop (5am-6pm) on the Epic. Does anyone know what time pick up from the ship would be? And if you've done it during a port stop were there any issues getting back to the ship on time? Thanks.

[Turtles06]

The website shows this tour is 8 hours. I noticed a lot of people who've posted in this thread did their tours either pre or post cruise. I was considering doing this tour during a port stop (5am-6pm) on the Epic. Does anyone know what time pick up from the ship would be? And if you've done it during a port stop were there any issues getting back to the ship on time? Thanks.

 

We did it as a private tour on a port stop last October on a TA. I organized the excursion for a total of 8 of us on our Roll Call. We'd been to Barcelona before, and we customized the tour so that the Barcelona part of the day (in the afternoon upon our return from Montserrat) consisted of an inside visit to La Sagrada Familia and a visit to Parc Guell. On the way back to the ship, there was still some time for driving past other "highlights" of the city.

 

The guide met us at the ship at about 9am, and we were back about 8 hours later, and that included being stuck in a traffic jam on the way back from Montserrat.

 

As I posted somewhere in this thread after we returned, we had a fabulous day. BDT was easy to deal with in terms of the arrangements, and our guide was absolutely one of the best we've ever had.

 

Happy to answer other questions if I can.

[Theredofshaw]

I imagine someone on here has done the 8hr Montserrat tour? What's the difference between that and the 5hr? Wife and I are thinking of doing that when we get into BCN since we can't check in to the hotel until early afternoon. Do they put you with other people when they schedule these airport pickups?

[minaco]

We are doing the 5 hour Montserrat tour with BDT. I believe the difference between that and the 8 hour option, is that the latter includes a visit to a Cava winery.