Hoho Bus after cruise

[crusing4fun]

Hi, my husband and I will be staying in Barcelona after our cruise and I'm wondering if it is worth it to get tickets for the HOHO bus since we only have one day or should we just see a few things on our own. La Sangrada Familia is a must but what else is not to be missed?

[English_in_Spain]

Hi, my husband and I will be staying in Barcelona after our cruise and I'm wondering if it is worth it to get tickets for the HOHO bus since we only have one day or should we just see a few things on our own. La Sangrada Familia is a must but what else is not to be missed?

 

Have a look at 'What to see' and 'HoHo buses' in my Barcelona Information pages (link in my signature).

 

Get a rough idea what you want to see and do, look at the HoHo bus routes and then decide if you want to do that or not.

 

The advantage of the HoHo buses is that you get a good overview of the city. The disadvantage is, to get from one place you want to see in detail to another, it is much slower than the metro or a taxi.

 

[Ashland]

It was worth it to us during our 1 1/2 days post cruise. The HOHO gave us a wonderful overview & commentary. We easily hopped off at La Sagrada Familia, spent some time there seeing the outside & inside..A full day well spent...Enjoy !!

[Keith1010]

I would make a list of what you want to see first.

 

For us we didn't need the HOHO as we preferred to see the sites on foot.

 

Keith

[mskaufman]

We thought the HOHO bus was a great option. However, if there are only 2 - 3 sites you want to visit (La Sagrada, Ramblas, Parc Guell) taxis might be just as good an option. What the HOHO bus gives you in addition is an overview of the city (get off when you want or don't get off). Since it is post cruise you don't have to worry about getting back to the ship and the HOHO bus runs into the evening.

[fredflint]

We have a new thing we do the HO HO and ride around once then the next loop get off the Sagreda Family is nice to look at from the outside the line to get inside can be pretty crazy you could easily spend 2 hours in line!

[Northern Aurora]

We just returned from Barcelona where we spent several days post cruise. We had a specific list of attractions we wanted to visit, and found that Barcelona's wonderful metro was easy and fast. Quite frankly, we didn't bother with purchasing HoHo tickets.

 

We purchased our Sagrada Familia tickets on-line, so spent absolutely no time in line. When we arrived about 10:15 AM the line to purchase tickets was very long, and we wondered how long some of those folks were going to be standing there.

[FiggyWig]

Question - can you take luggage on the Ho Ho buses. ?

 

We will be dragging our heels to disembark at Barcelona on a Sunday in August, our flight is not until 3pm so we dont want to rush off ship too early. Ideally would want to find a way of spending 3 or 4 hours before heading off to the airport, no we don't want to do a ships tour '£$£$£$' :cool:, so the Ho Ho may be the answer even if we have seen most of the sights before.

 

So this will only work if we can bring out luggage on too, does anyone know if this is possible ?

 

Thanks

Fig

[English_in_Spain]

Question - can you take luggage on the Ho Ho buses. ?

 

We will be dragging our heels to disembark at Barcelona on a Sunday in August, our flight is not until 3pm so we dont want to rush off ship too early. Ideally would want to find a way of spending 3 or 4 hours before heading off to the airport, no we don't want to do a ships tour '£$£$£$' :cool:, so the Ho Ho may be the answer even if we have seen most of the sights before.

 

So this will only work if we can bring out luggage on too, does anyone know if this is possible ?

 

Thanks

Fig

 

HoHo buses are not really suitable for luggage.

 

For a couple of alternative options have a at "What to do with your luggage" here.

 

[Editrix]

Normally I don’t recommend ship’s excursions. We rarely take them ourselves, but in your case, with luggage in tow, it might be the best option. It worked out beautifully for us last month, when we took a $50 pp city tour of Barcelona through Royal Caribbean. The tour lasted four hours, and included an English-speaking guide, a stop for photos at Montjuic, a walking tour of the Gothic quarter, and a drive to all the famous sites, including Sagrada Familia, where it slowed down to show different views of the exterior but didn’t stop. (This may be a deal-breaker for you but wasn’t for us because we had purchased tickets to tour it the following day.)

 

Most importantly, we didn’t worry about luggage. We rolled it from the baggage carousel in the cruise terminal to the bus waiting right outside. All of our belongings were stored below by the driver and then removed when we left the tour at Plaça de Catalunya, three blocks away from our hotel.

 

Everyone else was driven to the airport at no additional cost.

 

For us it was the best choice: affordable price, no worries about luggage, no fighting others for a good seat, great commentary, air conditioned comfort, and helpful service at the drop-off point.

 

My husband and I have taken a lot of HOHOs in Europe. We didn’t take one in Barcelona, and therefore can’t specifically compare a Barcelona HOHO to the Royal Caribbean excursion, but we were very satisfied with our experience. My husband especially was, because in his opinion, the HOHOs are always too crowded (and depending on the city, too hot).

[mskaufman]

Normally I don’t recommend ship’s excursions. We rarely take them ourselves, but in your case, with luggage in tow, it might be the best option. It worked out beautifully for us last month, when we took a $50 pp city tour of Barcelona through Royal Caribbean. The tour lasted four hours, and included an English-speaking guide, a stop for photos at Montjuic, a walking tour of the Gothic quarter, and a drive to all the famous sites, including Sagrada Familia, where it slowed down to show different views of the exterior but didn’t stop. (This may be a deal-breaker for you but wasn’t for us because we had purchased tickets to tour it the following day.)

 

Most importantly, we didn’t worry about luggage. We rolled it from the baggage carousel in the cruise terminal to the bus waiting right outside. All of our belongings were stored below by the driver and then removed when we left the tour at Plaça de Catalunya, three blocks away from our hotel.

 

Everyone else was driven to the airport at no additional cost.

 

For us it was the best choice: affordable price, no worries about luggage, no fighting others for a good seat, great commentary, air conditioned comfort, and helpful service at the drop-off point.

 

 

Last summer we did the same thing but went to Montserat. It was just as described above. A great use of time (we got started early in the morning) and a way to deal with our luggage until we checked into our hotel (walking distance from Placa Catalunya) when they let us off. After checking into the hotel we went to La Sagrada and then to the Gothic Quarter

[Cindy1972]

Have a look at 'What to see' and 'HoHo buses' in my Barcelona Information pages (link in my signature).

 

Get a rough idea what you want to see and do, look at the HoHo bus routes and then decide if you want to do that or not.

 

The advantage of the HoHo buses is that you get a good overview of the city. The disadvantage is, to get from one place you want to see in detail to another, it is much slower than the metro or a taxi.

 

 

Good summary. Our first visit we went on HoHo bus and after that felt confident to use the metro.

[Tara Jane]

Editrix,

I am helping friends with their trip, they will be arriving in Barcelona on Serenade of the seas, with a 2.30pm flight to Rome with vueling. I had suggested doing what you did, however on the RC site it says suitable for flights after 3 pm. They will be travelling with hand luggage only so no need to check in any luggage. Could you please tell me what time you arrived at the airport?

Any other suggestion? They are not physically up to the hop on hop off.

The RC site has it about AUD $52 per person. Does anyone know roughly how long a tour they could get if they got into a taxi at the port, asked for a basic drive around only of the city and then dropped off at the airport? would they get that for around AUD $100 approx 70 euro? that way they would be able to get to the airport in time.

thanks in advance, their 2nd cruise but first time on their own.

[Editrix]

Editrix,

 

I am helping friends with their trip, they will be arriving in Barcelona on Serenade of the seas, with a 2.30pm flight to Rome with vueling. I had suggested doing what you did, however on the RC site it says suitable for flights after 3 pm. They will be travelling with hand luggage only so no need to check in any luggage. Could you please tell me what time you arrived at the airport?

 

Any other suggestion?

 

They are not physically up to the hop on hop off. The RC site has it about AUD $52 per person. Does anyone know roughly how long a tour they could get if they got into a taxi at the port, asked for a basic drive around only of the city and then dropped off at the airport? would they get that for around AUD $100 approx 70 euro? that way they would be able to get to the airport in time.

 

thanks in advance, their 2nd cruise but first time on their own.

 

My husband and I left the tour at Plaça de Catalunya at noon or so. I don't know what time the others arrived at the airport, but it's generally a 40-minute ride. The cruise lines pad their schedules to account for unforeseen delays, which means that in normal circumstances, your friends should be to take the tour and arrive at the airport in plenty of time to make their 2:30 flight. (FYI, we were on one of the last tour buses to leave the cruise terminal, because my husband's luggage did not arrive on the carousel on time and we had to wait. I believe the scheduled tour was supposed to end at noon at the airport.)

 

I'm guessing that a private taxi tour followed by a ride to the airport would be vastly more expensive. A ride from the center of Barcelona to the airport alone is approximately 35 euros. That's without a city tour. Someone else here would know better than I.

[Tara Jane]

Thanks Editrix, might be worth contacting RC and see if they might "bend" the rules particularly as the friends wont be needing to check luggage.

thanks for your help.