Barcelona was on our Bucket list forever. Finally, we made it to the first on the list. We already knew so many things about it and heard excellent impressions from many people. The plan was to stay only in the city because there were so many things to see.
To visit all the places we chose to see we needed at least 5 full days.
accommodation in Barcelona
To start searching for accommodation the first thing we do is choose the dates and duration of travel. We like to search on Booking.com because we can make a choice much earlier when the prices are better. The accommodation has to be near the centre and public transport with an easy connection to the airport. Then we choose several places that suit us with an option of free cancellation and no payment in advance
BCN Urbaness Hotels Del Comte room
The final choice is done after making an itinerary. The priority is that location of the accommodation makes it easy to wonder about the city and be able to get back if feeling tired.
We decided to take a room in BCN Urbaness Hotels Del Comte. The hotel is 100 m from Barcelona’s Urgell Metro Station and 15 minutes walk from the Rambla and Plaza Espanya. The transport with the Metro line from the airport to the city and back was easy. Only one line change. It was an excellent choice. The room was modern, simple, and very clean. And the price was reasonable because we reserved it a couple of months in advance.
Public transport
Barcelona’s public transport consists of a very good metro network, lots of buses, 2 tram lines, funiculars, and cable cars. Public transport operates as an integrated fare system. It allows you to transfer for free within 75 minutes of validating your ticket to different means of transport. The entire city of Barcelona is within Zone 1, so 1-zone tickets will do for most of the trips.
There are different types of tickets:
Single ticket for 2,40 € that we do not recommend because it is the most expensive.
We chose the T-casual card which cost 11,35 € for Zone 1 and is valid for individual 10-journeys and also as an integrated fare system. It is the best choice ticket for a short visit.
Both options are not valid for going to the airport.
From The Airport To Barcelona By Metro: L9 Sud
Metro line L9 Sud connects the airport terminals T1 and T2 with the city of Barcelona, every 7 minutes. There are three stations in this line where you can transfer to other lines of the network. The journey from the airport to Barcelona city centre by metro takes you 32 minutes.
There are various ticket and travel card options valid to travel between Barcelona and the airport.
We used the Airport ticket, valid for a single journey between the airport and the rest of the metro network. The price for 1 zone (the entire city of Barcelona) is €5.15.
More information on the official transport site:
Special Transport
Going around Barcelona can be more amusing and comfortable with the use of some special types of transport. Like funiculars and cable cars.
There are two funiculars:
Montjuïc Funicular Railway gives you quick and easy access by public transport to Montjuïc from the centre of Barcelona in just 2 minutes. The funicular of Barcelona (FM metro line) operates like a metro with two stops. The funicular is part of the integrated fare system and the ticket is the same price as a trip by metro or bus.
Tibidabo funicular (from Plaça Doctor Andreu) up till the Amusement parc.The full price (only of the Funicular, including the TibiBus T2C) is €12 (reduced rate for seniors €3.50). More reduction prices and info on:
https://www.tibidabo.cat/ca/planifica-la-teva-visita/com-arribarhi/transport-public
There are two cable cars:
The Montjuïc Cable Car is offering panoramic views of Barcelona. It carries you as far as the Castle of Montjuïc, passing over the city’s most impressive gardens and lookout points. An adult one-way ticket costs €10 and a return €15. If you buy online is -10% only for return tickets. https://www.telefericdemontjuic.cat/en
The Telefèric del Port from Torre Sant Sebastià (in Barceloneta Beach) crosses Barcelona’s old harbour called Port Vell to the Miramar Gardens viewpoint in Mount Montjuïc. The price of a one-way journey is €12,50 and a return ticket is €20. https://www.telefericodebarcelona.com/en/telefericodebarcelonaen/
Attraction Tickets
A very important part of planning the budget for desired travel is the cost of the various tickets. Tickets for museums, churches, attractions, and other places of interest.
While planning the trip we collect the pieces of information (mostly online) about the place we are visiting. We make a list of all places worth seeing and put them on our Attractions table. Next to each site, we put a notice of what type it is. And in the next column, if we need the tickets for that or not. If yes how much do they cost and if there is a reduction for +65.
That gives us an approximate amount of money to plan for tickets and entrance fees.
In Barcelona, there are lots of things worth paying for the entrance. On the other hand, fortunately, many of them are free.
For very famous attractions you need to reserve tickets in advance. It is because there is a limit of people who can be inside at the same time. The good thing is that you can reserve it online and pick the time for the entrance.
More about it in our next post What to see in Barcelona in 5 days.
Extras
Our every budget plan has the amount predicted for extras.
There will always be things you cannot predict. Or you choose to do something out of planning. It is always good to have a sum for that. The amount is up to you. With time and experience, the amount for that will get smaller.
In the end, you can put the amount of money you are willing to spend on souvenirs.
Itinerary for Barcelona
Our preparation for the travel includes building the itinerary to see how it all fits together. Along with the planning and researching it turned the initial 5 days in Barcelona into 7 days of travel. That was because we took the plane to Barcelona via Milan as the cheapest way. Going to and from airports took us about half of the day.
Very helpful in making an itinerary are online apps like Visit a city or Wonderlog. There you can pick and add attractions. It calculates how far they are from each other and show you the way on the map. And many more features. And they are completely free.
travel budget plan
At the beginning of every travel, we try to find out how much the travel could cost. It is too good to know the figure you can use as a starting point for the budget plan. Very helpful is to check with different travel agencies on how much would similar tour cost per person. Knowing that the goal is to get more and better for less money.
Planning our travel includes making a budget plan. For that, we use our budget planning table.
The planned figures come from investigating how much could it cost and the amount we are willing to spend. Then we put the estimated round figures in the sections.
We calculate the amount for the food based on the average daily cost at home and add an extra 20%. On the trip, we make a light breakfast in the room. The main meal we eat in the local restaurants and other meals are usually fast food or takeaways.
More tips you can find in our post on How to plan a travel budget.
On our page Tables, lists you can find our planning tables as free templates to print or download.
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