Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Apart from your geographical orientation, you'll need to orient yourself linguistically
to a language distinct from Spanish. Although Spanish (“Castilian”/
castellano
) is widely
spoken,thenativetongueinthisregionisCatalan—nearlyasdifferentfromSpanishasItali-
an.
Barcelona's TI has several branches (central tel. 932-853-834,
www.barcelonaturisme.cat
)
.
The primary one is beneath the main square,
Plaça de Catalunya
(daily 8:30-20:30, en-
trance along southeast side of square, across from Hard Rock Café—look for red sign, tel.
932-853-832).
Several other convenient branches include a kiosk near the top of the
Ramblas
(daily
8:30-20:30, at #115, mobile 618-783-479); on
Plaça de Sant Jaume,
just south of the
cathedral (Mon-Fri 8:30-20:30, Sat 9:00-19:00, Sun 9:00-14:00, in the Barcelona City Hall
at Ciutat 2); inside the base of the
Columbus Monument
at the harbor (daily 8:30-19:30);
at the
airport
, in both terminals 1 and 2B (both open daily 9:00-21:00); and at
Sants train
station
(daily 8:00-20:00).
You'll also find smaller info kiosks in other touristy locales: on
Plaça d'Espanya,
in the
parkacross fromthe
SagradaFamília
entrance, near the
ColumbusMonument
(where the
shuttle bus from the cruise port arrives), at the
Nord bus station,
at the various
cruise ter-
minals
alongtheport,andtwoon
PlaçadeCatalunya.
Inaddition,throughoutthesummer,
young red-jacketed tourist-info helpers appear in the most touristy parts of town; although
they work for the hop-on, hop-off Tourist Bus, they are happy to answer questions.
At any TI, pick up the free city map (although the free El Corte Inglés map provided by
mosthotelsisbetter),thesmallMetromap,themonthly
BarcelonaPlanning.com
guidebook
(withbasictipsonsightseeing,shopping,events,andrestaurants),andthequarterly
SeeBar-
celona
guide(withmorein-depthpracticalinformationonmuseumsandaneighborhood-by-
neighborhood sightseeing rundown). The monthly
In BCN Culture & Leisure
agenda offers
a thorough but concise day-by-day list of events. And the monthly
Barcelona Metropolit-
an
magazine has timely and substantial coverage of local topics and events. All of these are
free.
TheTIisahandyplacetobuyticketsfortheTouristBus(describedlater,under“Getting
Around Barcelona”) or for the TI-run walking tours (described later, under “Tours in Bar-
celona”). All of the TIs (except the kiosks) provide a room-booking service.
Catalunya TI:
The all-Catalunya TI works fine for the entire region, and even Madrid
(Mon-Sat 10:00-19:00, Sun 10:00-14:00, on Plaça de Joan Carlos I, at the intersection
of Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal at Passeig de Gràcia 107, tel. 932-388-091,
