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This edition of Barcelona Travel Newsletter will cover 5 top stress busting tips to help optimise your relaxation on your visit to the city. You’ll also find some information on two big fiestas (holiday festivals) happening in Barcelona and, as always, some useful links to articles on how to find your accommodation.

Barcelona Holiday Stress Buster 101

You’re supposed to be on holiday, a time for relaxation, so I think you will agree that anything that can help you achieve that objective has got to be good. I’ve listed 5 top stress points that site visitors have when visiting Barcelona and given a few solutions to help ensure you ease through your holiday with optimal relaxation.

Stress Buster 1 – Forget the car and use the public transport system

If you want to avoid major stresses then don’t bring your car to Barcelona. Why? Because the traffic is heavy, parking is expensive and there are stress-free alternatives to driving when you need to make your way around the city.

Using the public transport system in Barcelona is an excellent, low cost and efficient means of getting around the city. The metro (underground) system will enable you to travel around to most of the attractions of interest. Then there are the buses and tram system (TranVia) which also enables you to go to locations that may not be serviced directly by the Metro.

Click here for the Barcelona Metro Map

Click here for our Barcelona metro guide

Stress Buster 2 - How to avoid the hassle of buying transport tickets.

If you don’t want to be stressed by figuring out how to use ticket vending machines or trying out your pigeon Spanish with the ticket vending clerk every time you have to use the public transport system then consider getting the Barcelona Card. With the Barcelona Card you can say goodbye to your transport ticket purchasing problems. You can select a Barcelona Card travel pass for the duration of your stay which will give you unlimited free travel on the Barcelona public transport system in the Zone 1 area (Zone 1 covers the main area of the city with most of the main attractions. Zone 1 accounts for the primary area visited by tourists ). You can use the Barcelona Card on the metro, bus and tram systems. You can also use the Barcelona Card on the RENFE train to and from Barcelona airport to the city centre. In addition the Barcelona card will entitle you to a host of discounts off many of the main Barcelona attractions saving you money, and making your visit even more stress free.

Click here to learn more about the Barcelona Card Transport and Attractions Discount Card

Stress Buster 3 –How to get around and see all the main attractions with no advanced planning

A great way to get around and see many of the major attractions in Barcelona without any stress is to take one of the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus services. The tourist buses take you around carefully planned routes in Barcelona that have most of the main attractions of the city built into their routes. Then, when you see an attraction you want to visit, you simply “hop off” the bus and take a look around. When you’re ready again you can go back to the bus stop, wait a while, and another bus will arrive to take you to the next attraction.

The hop on hop off tourist bus services are great for anyone either new to Barcelona or for anyone who wants to quickly find all the main attractions without having to figure out how to get there. The tourist bus is also useful for visitors that have limited mobility where it may be difficult to use the Metro system (the Metro still requires a lot of modifications to be completed before it will be accessible enough for limited mobility visitors). The tourist bus is also invaluable for the visitor who wants to be chauffeured around without doing any planning or organizing and is the ideal “lazy way” to see the main attractions in the city centre.

You can purchase the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus tickets from the main tourist office in Placa Catalunya. Alternatively to avoid the queues at the tourist office and reduce your stress levels even further (if that is possible) you can purchase your tickets online before you go with the hop on hop off tourist bus service operated by Pullmantur:

Stress Buster 4 – How to avoid getting lost in Barcelona

One major stress busting tip is to ensure you take a quality Barcelona street map for your visit. Yes, the Barcelona tourist information office gives out free street maps however the free maps lack detail and miss out many important streets and landmarks. I found it quite confusing to find my way around using the standard free street map dished out by tourist office. Barcelona tourism also offer a paid-for version of their street map which is well worth the money. I promise you lost time and more stress comes from “skrimping” and using the free maps! Don’t be stingy spend a little on a quality map to help you fully enjoy your holiday.

I have reviewed one excellent Barcelona map by Lonely Planet on the following page. Yes, you do have to pay for it but the reduction in stress that you have from being able to find your way around first time is worth it!

Click here for a review of one quality Barcelona Map

Stress Buster 5. How to guarantee your place on the Barcelona FC Stadium tour

We’ve received a number of emails from site visitors saying that they could not take the popular Barcelona FC stadium tour because it was full up when they visited the stadium. This can be very disappointing and stressful if you’ve travelled all that way to go on the most popular tour in Barcelona only to be refused entry.

What can you do to ensure you take the Barcelona FC tour every time? One solution is to book your Barcelona FC Stadium tour tickets in advance of your visit. That way your place is guaranteed before you arrive, saving you all the stress, disappointment and lost time being refused entry. Yes, it does mean that you will have to go at a fixed time, however the other option is to “wing it” and hope that the tour is not full when you arrive.

Click here to find out how to book your Barcelona Stadium tour in advance online

I hope you enjoyed those stress buster tips. You will notice that some of them require a little advanced planning and possibly spending a few more euros to take advantage of these solutions but, perhaps it’s worth it, after all you are supposed to be relaxing on your holiday!

Barcelona Festivals:

There are two big festivals (fiestas) coming up in Barcelona these are the Gracia Festival and La Merce.

Gracia Festival 15th to the 21st August

The first festival is in the district of Gracia, Metro stop Fontana (Green Line, L3). The Gracia festival takes place each year in Barcelona and there are a host of celebrations planned including: The Giants Parade (Gigantes), fireworks, human castles (Castellers). In addition to these there will of course be the street theme decorations which is the most characteristic event at the Gracia Festival.

Many tourists don’t know about this festival because it is localized to the Gracia Barrio (neighbourhood). Be prepared for a noisy event with lots of colours, action and things to do all through the streets of Gracia.

Click here for more information on the Gracia Festival

La Merce Festival: Merce day 24th September

The biggest festival of the year is the La Merce Festival which takes place all over Barcelona. There are hundreds of events at this festival and many main roads will be closed to traffic. The city centre is converted into one big entertainment centre. There will be the staple favourites of the Giants, The Firerun (Correfoc), Devil Parades along with musical performances in the main squares such as Placa Jaume.

The town council release the events roster for the La Merce festival closer to the date so we’ll keep you posted when that events calendar is released. The actual day of La Merce is 24th September however there will be events on either side of that date.

Click here to see photo from the 2006 La Merce Festival

Click here for an outline of the main events at the La Merce festival