Barcelona

My top tips for visiting Barcelona. If your cruise departs from Barcelona its a great city to spend a few nights before joining a cruise ship.

We stayed in a great little hotel called Barcelo Raval. This was a great location just off Las Ramblas, this is the main street down to the port area. If you dont mind walking Barcelona is also fairly easy to navigate on foot.

If you are only in Barcelona for the day and want to see as much of the city as possible I highly recommend the hop on hop off city bus tour. It stops off at all the major sights including Nou Camp, Sagrada Familia, Picasso museum, olympic port area, guell park and the zoo and aquarium.

Another great offer is the shuttle bus from the cruise port that will take you up to the Christopher Columbus statue. From here you can walk up Las Ramblas the main shopping street. This bus just costs a few euros.

If you are travelling with kids and only have the day in Barcelona, maybe you are on a cruise? my top tip is Barcelona Zoo. We walked there from the port, it was easy to find and the zoo was fantastic. We even hired a golf buggy to get around the zoo which Charlie loved! Another great place to visit for any football lovers in the family is Camp Nou the home of FC Barcelona. They offer a variety of different tours depending on how much or little you might like to see. The hop on hop off bus will also stop off here too.

If sightseeing is a bit too much though and you just want to relax there are some great beaches close to the center of Barcelona so there really is something for everyone.