Local Transportation in Barcelona (Metro, subway, buses, taxis & driving

Overall, Barcelona offers an excellent transportation system and is easy to use able to get you aroudn the city as needed. The key to the excellent transportation is the Barcelona underground (also called metro or subway system on some countries) and it serves the city of Barcelona well. The bus services in general are also good as are the taxis. Below we look at each transportation type.

Getting around by subway

Barceona subyway and metro system must be one of the best in the world. For me personally, it is second only to the South Korean subway system, The Barcelona metro/subway map has extensive lines and will take you just about everywhere you are likely to need to go in and on the outskirts of the city. Fares are very cheap on the subway, particularly if you but a T10 (10 trip ticket) from the ticket machine. If you are in the city for a week just but a 10 trip ticket. When you start using the ticket you will know how many trips you have remaining because the numbers show on the back of the ticket in ink. Trains come very frequently, often every 3 minutes and the trains are much more spacious than those you might have experienced in a city such as London.

Getting around by bus

You have the regular city buses and you also have the special tourists Day Tour buses.

The tour buses are excellent because you can hop on and hop off the buses and they go via almost all of the main locations and attractions you are likely to want to visit. The buses also include a tour guide and stops include at the:

Bottom of La Rambla
Outside La Sagrada Familia
Montjuic
A few different stops long the full beach front

There are a couple of different tour buses, although the main one is at website here.

The local buses in Barcelona also also quite efficient. You can use your T10 ticket for the subyway or buses so the system works very well. When you board a bus you pay the driver, although most people use a multi-trip pass and simply push their ticket into the machine for it to deduct one trip. The main websites for the local Barcelona buses is website here.

Getting around by taxi

The taxi service in Barcelona is very good and you can normally quite easily find a yellow cab if you are on a main street. On Friday and Satutday evening aroudn mid-night it can sometimes be hard to get a taxi, particularly in an area such as La Rambla, when the subway closes down for a few hours in winter time.

Driving yourself around Barcelona

If you have your own car you can of course drive around the city yourself. The difficulty sometimes though is parking and with such a good public transportation system, why have the hassle? There will of course be times though when it makes sense to drive yourself and just like many big cities, you are best of trying to avoid rush hour. Be warned that Barcelona drivers can be a little wild and for a driver familiar with driving in a country such as the UK, Ireland, Germany or France, the drivign is a little more erratic and crazy in Barcelona. (If you are interested in driving, check out the Barcelona Grand Prix page.