Here and There in Barcelona

By Hannah Jang

As you may already know, there is a lot to do and a lot to see in Barcelona, and the features of the city facilitate your travel from one place to the next. The great thing about Barcelona is that you have many options regarding travel, and you have the liberty to choose how you want to get around the city. 

Barcelona Bus Turístic

The Barcelona Bus Turístic is the official tour bus that takes you to all of the main attractions across the city. There are three lines for the Bus Turístic—the red, blue and green—and each takes you to a different part of the city. If you are in Barcelona for a short period of time, it is highly recommended to take advantage of the Bus Turístic because these busses take you to all of the places you will want to visit. You can choose the 1-day or 2-day pass to visit as many of the 44 stops as you want. All you have to do is hop off at a stop that you want to see, and after your visit there, you just hop right back on the bus to get to your next destination. The busses run every 5-25 minutes so if you miss one bus the next one is already on the way. There are a few stops that coincide among the different lines, so you can even hop from the red to the green to the blue to see all 44 stops! If you choose not to hop off at certain stops, don’t worry because throughout the whole trip you can learn about the city through the audio guide provided on each seat, and this guide is offered in 10 different languages. The Bus Turístic runs in both rain and shine, and gives you the option to sit inside the bus or climb upstairs and view the city from up top. For more information, visit http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/home

Public Transportation: Metro and Bus

If you want to plan out your own itinerary and travel around the city throughout a time span of over two days, the metro or public bus would be your solution. The metro and bus system in Barcelona are extremely efficient, so traveling from one part of the city to another is not difficult at all. You can get to all of the main attractions and even more via metro or bus, and you will be surrounded by native Catalonians as opposed to tourists from all around the world. Take caution though, because the busses and metros get crowded, and it is in the metro stations and trains that tourists get a taste of Barcelona pick-pocketing—this is something you will want to avoid! If you plan on taking the metro or bus various times, get the ticket for ten rides instead of one because you can save some money this way!
For a copy of Barcelona’s metro map, visit http://www.tmb.cat/img/genplano.pdf
For information on Barcelona’s bus lines, visit http://www.tmb.cat/en_US/barcelona/moute/planols/planols.jsp#