Some help and answers from a Barceloner

[Upgradefairy4u]

I just want to thank you for all your information. You are priceless. You have me so exicted to visit your city! We are a family of 4 staying at the Petite Palace Opera Garden for one night, and my husband is a Chef that would like to experience a wonderful Spanish dinner (within a budget :-0) and I have 2 teenage girls that want to do nothing but SHOP! Any suggestions you may have, I will be truely grateful for. If you are ever in Florida, I will be happy to repay you with all the information you will ever need!

[Longtime Cruiser]

I tried to book Angie's Taxi for transfers from the hotel to the port and from the port to the airport. She had the confirmation so wrong, that now I am concerned about using her service.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Steven

[BCNlady]

[quote name='PURTYPAT1'][B]Need car service Barcelona airport hotel to port[/B]
Hi There BCNLady,

I have been reading your posts for the last year, & enjoying them.

I have a question, maybe you can help us with. There is 5 of us, 3 Single women & 2 children.We are staying at the Renaissance Barcelona Airport Hotel. Anyone stay there??? reviews???

We need a van to pick us up at the hotel, & drive us to the port. I have been searching the web for 2 days now, with no success.

Does anyone have any links or know of any car service companies?

We are going on the Disney Cruise Magic June 16 2007

Any information would be great.

Much thanks

Patricia[/quote]

If you have a look in my posts, last summer I gave the link to Transbuca. We always use them when we are in large family group. Always efficient (even with flight arrival delay...)

[tazzmacd]

Bea,

Thank you for taking the time to answer all our questions and for the advise on the locations. This has helped with my planning of our 2 days in Barcelona. I do have one of my own, I have found this hotel, Aparthotel Napols, Napols, 116, 08013 Barcelona to stay at when we visit. I am wondering if you can tell me what the area this hotel is located in. I have a family of 4 and was wondering if this would be somewhat safe location to walk and explore your city from.

Thanks again

Pat

[tazzmacd]

Sorry Double Post

[BCNlady]

[quote name='tazzmacd']Bea,
I do have one of my own, I have found this hotel, Aparthotel Napols, Napols, 116, 08013 Barcelona to stay at when we visit. I am wondering if you can tell me what the area this hotel is located in. I have a family of 4 and was wondering if this would be somewhat safe location to walk and explore your city from.



[/quote]

Good done! I didn't know this one, well located to explore town, safe place.
An appartment is always a good option for a family group.

Bea

[tazzmacd]

Thank you for your help. Looking forward to visiting your city

[Monterey Girl]

I just booked Barcelona Taxi Van company for our October cruise and requested Aurelio to be our driver. I have read many many favorable posts for this company and driver. A poster named "Parrot Mom" has personally emailed me with high praises and solid recommendations. I believe she used this company on two separate occaisions. I emailed them (him?) and received a prompt reply with prices and info. It is good to know up front that they need to be paid in cash in Euros so I'll be sure to have some when we arrive at the airport ! We are staying in BCN 2 days pre cruise and have arranged for Aurelio to meet us at the airport and take us to our hotel. Two adults, four suitcases and two carry ons will be 35 E. You can contact them at :
[EMAIL="info@barcelonataxivan.com"]info@barcelonataxivan.com[/EMAIL]
I have also read that it is not far from the airport to BCN and there are plenty of taxis available to take people to their hotels or the ship. SO, I have a back up plan if something goes wrong, we will just grab a taxi.Definitely do NOT want to get stressed out our very first day of our much anticipated vacation !!!
MG :D

[Longtime Cruiser]

Monterey Girl

Thanks for the info. We plan on a taxi from the airport to the hotel. But then my daughter and husband will join us the end of June. At that time, we are four adults and I dont want to hassle a taxi with four adults and suitcases. Besides, we have an early flight the day we disembark--I want to make sure a car is waiting for us to the airport.

Thanks for the info, I will email them.

Steve & Rose Marie

[Funcouple]

Will be reading this post since will be visiting 2 nights Sept 29 Pre Cruise. Looking for reasonable hotels and things to do.

[KathiB]

Longtime cruiser,

You may have already made your arrangements but I wanted to let you know that my family of 4 used Angie's taxi service for our Med cruise last summer and they were wonderful. Not only ontime but early, spoke perfect English and were freindly and professional. They picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel in Barcelona. Three days later they picked us up and took us to the ship. When we got back to Barcelona 12 days later they were waiting to take us to the airport. I highly recommend Agie and her drivers.

KathiB

[kb4683]

[quote name='KathiB']Longtime cruiser,

You may have already made your arrangements but I wanted to let you know that my family of 4 used Angie's taxi service for our Med cruise last summer and they were wonderful. Not only ontime but early, spoke perfect English and were freindly and professional. They picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel in Barcelona. Three days later they picked us up and took us to the ship. When we got back to Barcelona 12 days later they were waiting to take us to the airport. I highly recommend Agie and her drivers.

KathiB[/QUOTE]

How does one contact Angie? Do you have their e-mail?

Thanks!

[belacar]

many thanks for the informations,we are staying 2 nights in Barcelona,after our Oceania cruise,13 and 14 of november,could you suggest some nice hotels close to ramblas,or catalunya place,thanks again

[MrsJobba2]

I just want to thank everyone especially BCNlady for a wonderful and informative thread.

I am really looking forward to visiting Barcelona at the end of July 07. I am spending 4 nights at the Hotel Cram for sight seeing before my husband and myself board the Disney MAgic.

Once again thank you

[mytime53]

Belacar, By the time we planned our trip last fall, all the reasonable rates at hotels mentioned on CC were gone. A little searching on our own turned up Hotel Montblanc, a little hotel one or two blocks over from Las Ramblas. Convenient to transportation, shopping, and sightseeing, we loved it, and paid less than $175 American/day (I don't recall how much the breakfast buffet was ...expensive, though... but the 175 includes both of us having that the first day we were there).

[Lqqieee]

Hi BCNLady! Your information here is priceless and I am finding your posts very valuable! Thank you!

My husband and I are sailing from Barcelona this June on a 11 night Disney cruise. We are staying one night in Barcelona before the cruise takes off. We're staying at the AC Barcelona. We couldn't find too much on this hotel on the interest. Do you know much about it? Is it near any Barcelona attractions, good or bad reviews of the hotel?

Thank you in advance!

[belacar]

MYTIME53,
i won't wait too long,I appreciate:)

[Creeks]

To BCN lady and others who have posted such great information:
We will be in BCN this May 6-8, and after reading all of the
posts, can't wait to enjoy our 2nd visit!
Thanks for all the info.

We expect to spend some time at the Marine Museum
and ride the HOHO bus again, with several stops.....
Tapas and wine, mmmmmmm

[Lainetique]

Hi to the wonderful BCNlady! To you or anyone else who might know - is ANYTHING open on Easter Sunday? We're flying in to Barcelona on Saturday am on April 7. Our ship, the Oceania Insignia departs the next day on Easter Sunday at 7 pm. We were hoping to do a little more sightseeing on Sunday. Is there anything we could do?
Thanks so much for anyone's help on this.

[CruisinGerman]

Greetings from our home city of Barcelona. While BCNLady is always more specific and thorough than I am, I just wanted to tell you that you will have no problem in seeing Barcelona on Easter Sunday. Most of Barcelona can be seen in the open-air, and it doesn't really matter if certain sights are open on Easter Sunday.

Have a walk on Las Ramblas. Have a walk along Paseo de Gracia and admire the Gaudí architecture of Casa Batlló and Casa Mila (La Pedrera). Go to the Sagrada Familia -- it's basically a construction site on the inside (unless you are keen on going up to the towers) and can be admired perfectly from the outside. Go up to one of the roof terraces of the main hotels on Paseo de Gracia (Majestic, Casa Fuster) and from there you will have a view all the way down to the sea and all the way across to Montjuic and on the other side you will see Sagrada Familia itself.

Have a walk through Parc Guell.

You will have a great time in Barcelona even if certain museums and indoor attractions are closed.

Kind regards,

Gunther and Uta

[Lainetique]

CruisinGerman - thanks so much for your reply! I really really want to see Parc Guell & was concerned that it might be closed. Also, of course, the Sagrada Familia.
Do you think there will be any street performers on Las Ramblas that day?
(Can you tell - this will be my first visit to Barcelona ?) :)

[cruising forever]

Now that our next countdown is for the Med cruise out of Barcelona in October, we are REALLY appreciating all of your valuable information ; keep it coming! :)

[BCNlady]

I've read in the newspaper about an interesting new business in Barcelona. It has been inspired on the "lowcost" air companys.
A known family of hotel managing in BCN is buying and refurnishing old hostels in town.
They offer cheap but comfortable accomodation with nice and modern decoration
Have a look on their link:
[URL]http://gataccomodation.com[/URL]

With a similar idea you can find many apartements at:
[URL]http://feelgoodapartments.com[/URL]

[traveld]

Is someone familiar enough with Barcelona to provide some advice? There are 2 Hiltons in Barcelona, one in the financial district and one near the convention center. Which one is recommended? Either because the location is more accessible, or the hotel is better, or any other reason to choose one over the other? Please help.

Also since neither of these is nearby the plaza where the Airporter bus stops, what is the easiest and most economical way to get to the hotel from the airport and from the hotel to the cruise pier? We will be arriving in October 07.

:confused:

[CruisinGerman]

Greetings from our home in Barcelona. If you are a tourist visiting Barcelona, you probably won't want to stay in either Hilton. The one you call the "financial district" is on the upper Diagonal avenue in an area that is absolutely of no interest to tourists.

The one you refer to as near the convention center is actually called "Hilton Diagonal Mar". Diagonal Mar is a recent multi-use development past the Olympic Village making use of a seafront tract of land that was previously undeveloped in Barcelona. It houses some new residential projects which, in a few years, when they become consolidated, will be a fabulous neighborhood (high-rise, high-tech condominium apartments with seaviews) but right now is still in its somewhat desolate feeling stage. There are also several hotels, a convention center, and a huge shopping mall.

The Hilton Diagonal Mar gets rave reviews as a hotel (huge rooms, seaviews, next to shopping center and convention center), but it is also known for being away from where a tourist wants to be in Barcelona.

That being said, Barcelona is still a relatively small city and all areas of the city can be reached relatively quickly with a good mass transit system.

However, most tourists prefer the Paseo de Gracia/Ensanche, or Las Ramblas/Plaza Cataluña areas, or for more of a self-contained upscale resort atmosphere, the Arts hotel on the beach in the Olympic Village.

Hope this information helps.

Kind regards,

Gunther and Uta