HOW DO WE MOVE AROUND?
While for some tours you’ll need a dedicated official driver, for others it might not be required. There are several options available, depending on the level of comfort you need and your budget:
City Tours:
- On foot. The center of Barcelona is quite walkable, and some of our tours can be completely made on foot. However, other monuments are too far and must be reached by some other means of transportation. Client must pay for the rides, including any tickets for the guide.
- Taxi / Cab. Cabs are usually easy to find in the city, and most monuments have taxi stops nearby. They accept up to 4 passengers (3 clients + guide).
- Public transportation. Our metro network is fast and modern, and our buses are slower but let you enjoy the city landscape better. Buy 10-trips cards (they can be shared by several people) or individual day passes, and please include one for the guide!
- Your own car, or one you rented. Your tourguide won’t drive, but we’ll be glad to navigate you. However, in Barcelona it isn’t a great idea, as it is not always easy to find a place to park, and you risk wasting too much time trying to find it. Paying underground parking areas or blue parking meters can be a solution, although here some time will be wasted too walking from the parking place to the site…
- Private driver. We provide chauffeured tours in Mercedes car, luxury minivans and buses of different sizes with a dedicated driver. For that we hire the services of a driver company.
Going out of town:
- Public transportation. Taking the train or public buses is NOT an option for daytrips out of town, as the rides are often twice as long as by car.
- Your own car, or one you rented. Your tourguide won’t drive, but we’ll be glad to navigate you. It is a good idea for a day trip, although in most tourist places you must be prepared to pay for parking and possible tolls.
- Private driver. We provide chauffeured tours in Mercedes car, luxury minivans and buses of different sizes. For that we hire the services of a driver company.
WHY WON’T THE TOURGUIDE DRIVE?
(Or why don’t we offer driver-only tours – without a tourguide)
- LAW. In Spain is illegal working as an driver without a professional driving license, professional car insurance and SP plate (standing for Public Service), which most tourguides don’t have. It is also illegal to explain inside heritage sites without an official tourguide license (which we don’t know of any driver who was it). And only official tourguides are allowed to skip lines in museums and sites.
- DRIVING SAFELY. It is not safe to have your tourguide driving around while keeping a nice conversation with you and answering your questions.
- QUALITY SERVICE. If the guide doesn’t need to care about the traffic and the directions, we can dedicate all our attention to you. We can answer questions, talk about the history of the city or the next monument we are going to visit, recommend you restaurants or things to do during the rest of your stay, point at interesting things we might see passing by, use a map to show you how much of the city we are covering in our tour…
- TIME EFFICIENCY. Our official driver will be dropping us at the door of the sites, and picking us up right there. There will be no time wasted finding a place to park and walking from there to the site, and then back.
- KEEPING YOUR BELONGINGS SAFE. The driver stays in the vehicle during the whole tour time. Therefore, you can safely leave your luggage and other belongings in the car.
WHAT VEHICLE DO YOU USE?
If you are booking a chauffeured tour we usually use Mercedes Viano minivans with room upto 6 of you, plus the guide and the driver.
Occasionally and depending on availability, for solo travelers and couples we might use a Mercedes E class car.
In rare occasions where we might accept groups larger than 6 people, luxury minibuses are provided (brand depending on availability).
WHAT IF WE’VE GOT LUGGAGE?
The driver companies charge for luggage handling. If you are starting or finishing your tour at the airport, the cruise pier or train station and you have luggage, a supplement will be applied.
Your luggage will be safely stored in the trunk of the car, and the driver will stay there at all times.
(Note that our Airport Tour already includes this supplement).
