The Rough Guide to Barcelona 8 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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in cycle lanes and bike schemes, notably the
Bicing pick-up and drop-off scheme
( W ), which is touted as
Barcelona’s new public transport system.
You’ll see the red bikes and bike stations all
over the city, but Bicing is aimed at locals
rather than tourists (you need to register as a
user, either online or at the office at Pl. Carles
Pi i Sunyer 8–10, Barri Gòtic, between
c/Canuda and c/Duran i Bas).
In any case, there are plenty of bike-rental
outfits more geared to tourist requirements.
Rental costs around €15–20 a day with one
of the companies listed below, and many
bike tour companies (see “City tours”) can
also fix you up with a rental bike. For more
on bike paths and cycling, see Chapter 16,
“Sports and outdoor activities”.
Bike rental
Barnabike Pg. Sota la Murralla 3 oBarceloneta
T 932 690 204,W .
Biciclot Pg. Marítim 33–35, Port Olímpic,
o Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica T932 219 778,
W .
Un Coxte Menys/Bicicleta Barcelona
c/Esparteria 3, La Ribera o Barceloneta T932 682
105, W .
City tours
The number of available tours grows at a bewildering pace, and you can now see
the city on anything from a Segway to a hot-air balloon. Bike tours in particular
are hugely popular — at times it seems as if every tourist in the city is playing
follow-my-leader down the same old-town alley — while other operators offer
tapas-bar crawls, party nights and out-of-town excursions. Highest profile are the
open-top sightseeing bus tours, whose board-at-will services can drop you
outside every attraction in the city. Otherwise, Barcelona has some particularly
good walking tours, showing you parts of the old town you might not find
otherwise, while sightseeing boats offer a different view of the city.
Bike tours
Bike Tours Barcelona T932 682 105,W www
Find the red-T-shirted
guides in Plaça de Sant Jaume in the Barri Gòtic,
outside the tourist office (top of c/de la Ciutat) – tours
last three hours (daily 11am, plus April–Sept Fri–Mon
4.30pm; €22), no reservations required.
Fat Tire Bike Tours T 933 013 612, Wwww
Four-hour bike tours
(€22) with genial guides to the old town, Sagrada
Família, port area and beach – where there’s time for a
swim and a drink. Tours meet at the c/de Ferran side of
Plaça de Sant Jaume, Barri Gòtic (twice daily mid-April
to mid-Sept, once daily rest of the year; no tours mid-
Dec to end of Feb). Reservations not required, but you
can check details at the rental shop at c/Escudellers
48. No credit cards.
Bus tours
Barcelona Tours W The
orange-coloured rival to Bus Turístic; buses make
twenty stops on a circular three-hour sweep through
the city from Plaça. de Catalunya (daily: 9am–8pm,
May–Sept 9am–9pm; departures every 10–20min).
Tickets available on board and online: one-day €21,
two-day €25 (under-14s €13/16 respectively). No
credit cards.
Bus Turístic W , W www
. Sightseeing service
(departures every 5–25min) with over forty stops on
three combined routes, linking all the main tourist
sights. Northern (red) and southern (blue) routes
depart from Plaça de Catalunya (daily 9am–7pm,
April–Sept 9am–8pm), and a full circuit on either
route takes two hours. The green Forùm route (daily
BASICS
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City tours