Hop on the Bus Turistic

You can see them frequently and almost everywhere in Catalan’s beautiful capital Barcelona – the red hop-on hop-off buses, called Bus Tursitic, taking you around the city and helping you to explore all angles of Barcelona. I actually never thought that I will ever go on such an engine that is only taking curious tourists and non-locals around. I prefer to explore any city by myself and with the help of insider tips from locals I meet during my trip.

bus-turistic-barcelona-800pHowever, I figured out that sometimes you should overcome your fear of getting around in a city the “non-hipster” way. When you only have two days in Barcelona and you want to combine a day at the beach, culinary specialties like Paella plus various tapas and extensive sight-seeing combined with a little shopping – there is just no other way! And let me clarify this: Bus Turistic is actually the perfect chance of getting everything that has been panned done. Without a hassle.

An audio guide (available in many different languages) explains important facts all around Barcelona and supports you in getting an overall overview about the city in general. As you can hop-off and hop-on on many stations all around Catalan’s capital,  you are enabled to go and explore things more in detail if you wish so. Moreover, the bus has several stops along the beach promenade.

So, even for backpack-travellers it’s a great opportunity to see most of a wonderful city like Barcelona within a short period of time.

Barcelona with a Boost

Riding a bicycle is a lot of fun. Discovering a city by bike is even more fun. But it can be admittedly pretty exhausting after a while. Especially during the hot summer days when the sun is burning on your shoulder and when the sweat production just doesn’t want to come to an end. Imagine now you are in Barcelona in the hottest month August and you would like to explore the whole city, including the city’s highest point “Tibidabo” with approximately 500m above the sea level. Puuuh, that’s impossible you think? No! We did it. And we are proud of it. Afterwards we felt amazing!

ebike-sagrada-familiaOne little detail we should mention is…we were riding electronic bikes, so called ebikes. What a great invention! Those bikes are equipped with an electric engine and a battery back and you can ride them without any driver licence up to 25km/h. It’s rather a supportive bike as it helps you out when going uphill but doesn’t speed up more when you are going downhill. Therewith it is the perfect choice if you want to cover larger distances without being a professional biker. Thumps up for this great invention!

There are two different possibilities: either you rent an ebike for a couple of hours (or even days) and you go on your journey of Barcelona experiences yourself or you let yourself  be guided by friendly and local tour guides that have much insider knowledge. In any case we are pretty sure that you gonna like this unique and not too exhausting summer bike experience!

Steel Donkey Bike Tours

“…kick ass rides in Barcelona”

Sounds interesting, no? And I have to say – it definitely is!

The Steel Donkey Bike Tour is the first and only alternative bike tour in Barcelona, Spain. After exploring and discovering Catalan’s beautiful capital with this tour I did not feel like a tourist but rather like real local. I found out so much about the city’s street art culture and I dived into a world of interesting facts that no guide book will ever tell me. Our tour guide was super nice and personally attached to his route, it was fun for all of us. He took us to a vivid journey through whole Barcelona.

DSCN3777Moreover, he told us that not one single tour is the same and that every guide has a special and personal itinerary prepared for small groups with a maximum number of 8 participants. With some anecdotes of our tour guides’ personal experiences and his unique route on our steel donkeys (in this case our bikes!) he didn’t bring us to the main touristic attractions but far deeper into the city’s vibrant heart. It’s basically up to the group whether you would like to stroll through some vintage second hand shops or if you rather want to taste delicious churros with hot chocolate sauce. We tried the latter plus the best tapas in town in a little cosy restaurant with our group and it was more than delicious!

So, if you are in Barcelona you should not miss to be part of this amazing bike tour. I would highly recommend to everyone!