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Tours to Barcelona
Barcelona is a fascinating Spanish seaside city with a wonderful sense of history and culture, remarkable architecture, numerous museums, theatres and live music venues, and of course its vibrant and lively drinking and dining scene.
Our coach holidays to Barcelona and the Spanish coast offer you the chance to take in the sights of this wonderful city, see Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, the mysterious Gothic Cathedral, visit Picasso Museum and stroll through the charming Park Guell.
Have the best of both worlds and make the most of the Mediterranean climate with its warm summers and mild winters to spend time on Barcelona’s closest beach, Barceloneta which is just a 20-minute walk away from the city centre.
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More about Barcelona
Coach tours to Barcelona provide the opportunity to visit a wide range of attractions and places of interest
Things to do in Barcelona
La Rambla
La Rambla is 5 separate streets strung end to end of Pedestrian Boulevard, packed with buskers, living statues, mimes, and salespeople selling everything from lottery tickets to jewellery. Places to stop off at include the 18th-century rococo mansion Palau de la Virreina which contains information on arts and entertainment and has a ticket office. Next door to that is the Mercat de la Boqueria, La Rambla's most colourful market. Walk on the Mosaic de Miró, and see if you can find the tile signed by the artist, and see the world famous opera house Gran Teatre del Liceu. La Rambla stops at the lofty monument to Columbus, but don't let your visit stop there, as you can ascend the monument by lift, and there are also the royal shipyards which house the fascinating marine time museum.
Picasso Museum
This is Barcelona's most visited museum showing numerous works that trace the artists early years and features canvases such as 'The Defenceless' and ceramics and his early works from the 1890's. The museum itself is housed in three beautiful stone mansions, which is located in what was an approach to the port in medieval times. On the second floor there are works from Barcelona and Paris 1900 -1904, and the portrait of 'Senyora Canals' is also on display.
La Sagrada Familia
The work of Antoni Gaudí, the unfinished cathedral has been under construction since 1882, and it is considered Gaudí's life work, as he eventually devoted the last fifteen years of his life entirely to this endeavour. The cathedral is an absolutely magnificent building and one of the most visited attractions in Barcelona. The church was intended to be the 'last great sanctuary of Christendom' and it's most striking feature is its spindle-shaped towers, there will eventually be eighteen towers, representing the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the tallest tower, Jesus Christ. You will be able to visit the Nave, Crypt, Museum and shop, and will be able to go up some of the towers via a lift.
Aquarium Barcelona
The aquarium in Barcelona is home to 35 different aquariums, 11000 animals of 450 different species, from giant conga eels to seahorses, and an underwater tunnel that runs for 80 metres, letting you get close and personal with some jagged-tooth sharks. The aquarium of Barcelona is one of the most important marine leisure and education centres in the world concerning the Mediterranean, a definite must-see when you visit Barcelona.
The Magic Fountain of Montjuic
The magic fountain was built in 1929 as part of the 1929 Barcelona World Fair and Universal Exposition, and to this day remains one of the most famous spots in Barcelona. It is a spectacular display of colour, light, motion, music and water acrobatics, all of these elements added together in the right combination is pure magic!.
Barrio Gotico
The gothic area is the heart of old Barcelona, a jumble of narrow pedestrianised streets and squares that are full of charm and character are home to hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants as well as some fantastic medieval buildings such as the Gothic cathedral, the Ajuntament, Plaça del Rei and the Palau de la Generalitat. Not to be missed if you want to have a real taste of old Barcelona
Park Guell
Another of Antoni Gaudí's creations. Park Guell is a garden complex containing amazing stone structures, stunning tiling, and fascinating buildings. The park also contains a small house that Gaudí lived in for a short period of time, this has been turned into a museum and features some of the interesting furniture that Gaudí designed. The park is developed around a central square that is used for cultural and popular meetings, and there is a large network of serpentine paths that allow you to walk quietly and enjoy nature and look at the Gaudí artwork.
Some History
People have been taking coach trips to Barcelona for a few decades now but the city started its life a few years before this. There are two different legends that the foundation of Barcelona is the subject of. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules, 400 years before the building of Rome. The second attributed the foundation of the city directly to the historical al Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC. Around 15 BC, the Romans used the city as a military camp centred on a little hill by the current city hall. It is mentioned as one of the smaller towns of the district in Mela, but it gradually grew in wealth and became favoured as it was in a beautiful location and had an excellent harbour. The city minted its own coins, and some of them from the era of Galba (the sixth Roman Emperor) have survived. Some important roman ruins still exist today and are exposed under the Placa del Rei entrance by the city museum, and the typical roman grid planning is still visible in the layout of the historical centre, the gothic quarter. Some of the remaining fragments of walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early fifth century and Barcelona temporarily became the capital of the whole Hispania. After that the Arabs took over in the early eighth century, but Barcelona was reconquered again in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis, who made Barcelona the seat of Carolingian, a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. The counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include the whole of Catalonia. Barcelona then merged with Aragon to and was known as 'The Crown of Aragon', which ruled the western Mediterranean sea. A dynastic link between the crowns of Aragon and Castile was forged and this marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline. The centre of political power became Madrid and the Americas ruled the financial importance of Mediterranean trade. Barcelona was always the stronghold of Catalan separatism and was the centre of the Catalan revolt against Philip IV of Spain. The great plague of 1650-1654 halved the city's population, and the Napoleonic wars left the province ravaged, but the post-war period saw the start of industrialisation. Today Barcelona remains the second largest city in Spain which is relatively industrialised. It retains the however, the reputation of Spain's most happening city, and seems set to remain that way.