Barcelona

Barcelona has come up trumps in a social media poll in which travel juggernaut Lonely Planet asked its hundreds of thousands of Facebook and Twitter followers to determine which was the "World's Best Summer City". It was an impressive victory for the Catalan capital, triumphing as it did over such heavyweights as Cape Town, Sydney and London.

Transport

The city of Barcelona is less than two hours drive north, or if you prefer not to take your car it is very easy to take train with its many daily connections to and from Tortosa or a cheaper, though less frequent, option from Mora La Nova at a return price of about €25.

Depart Mora La Nova

06:41    08:.26     12:15    14:37     17:56     19:16  

Arrive Barcelona

09:22    10:55     14:53     17:22    20:24     21:52

Depart Barcelona

06:17    08:47     12:47     15:47     17:17     20:18    

Arrive Mora La Nova

08:47    11:14     15:19     18:16     19:44     22:46
See Renfe

Hife bus or Hispano Igualadina will also take you to Barcelona from Mora d'Ebre or Gandesa for around the same return price of €25 but is less convenient with only 3 or 4 departures a day during the week and only 2 or 3 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Times and prices subject to change.

Once in Barcelona you should buy a public transport ticket for sale at metro, interurban bus and rail stations, newsagents kiosks, lottery shops and Servicaixa.

If you are going to be using public transport a lot then you may want to consider one of the Hola BCN cards which start at €13.40 per person for 2 days unlimited public transport; metro, bus FGC and Renfe train within Zone 1 (which includes the airport). It is non transferable.

If there are a few of you and you are going to be walking a lot, only using public transport to get back to your starting point, you might want to opt for the T-10 to share between you. It costs €9.80 and literally covers 10 journeys using all public transport within Zone 1 (which includes the airport).  You are able to use different modes of transport within the same journey.  You just valid your ticket each time you change over and as long as you are within a time limit of 1 hr 15 min's between the first and last validation, and you are not “returning”,  it will only count as one journey.  The beauty of the T-10 is that it is transferable, so if there are two or more of you using the same T-10 you just hand it back to the next person for them to validate another journey.
For more information click here.

Explore the city

Barcelona is a very easy city to explore on your own but there are many and varied options for those wishing to join a guided tour.

The double decker Barcelona Bus Turístic ticket costs €23.40 for one day and €30.60 for two days if you purchase them online. There are three routes covering all the major tourist spots, you can get on and off as often as you want and they run up to every 5 minutes in the summer and every 25 minutes in the winter. For more information click here.

"Know" the city

2 hour Guided Walks are available at a cost of between €13 and €19 but for those interested in wandering the interesting and delightful streets at your own pace here are some recommended itineraries for one day, two days or three days.

Guided bicycle tours are also available from €22.

For discounts and details of guided walks, tickets for Barça football matches, operas, flamenco, Spanish guitar concerts and much much more click here for a great website to browse.

The main Barcelona tourism site is here.