The Best Barcelona Bike Tours For 2021
/Power to the pedal. Why a Barcelona Bike Tour is the best way to see the city. Walking the city is good, but you are limited by time and distance. A bus tour is good, but your guide is a disembodied pair of earplugs. On a bike tour, your guide is like a buddy who happens to know the city backwards, someone who can not only tell you all about Barcelona’s amazing history, but take you down the side streets to the real city behind the tourist façade.
Barcelona is a great city for biking as there are bike lanes everywhere and more are being created every day. You don’t have to be a cycle enthusiast to enjoy a bike tour because the bikes are easy to ride and most tours will take children as young as twelve.
Photo: Driftwood Journals
There are a variety of different bike tours on offer in Barcelona, some of them group tours and some private tours, some stay within the city boundaries and some go beyond, such as tours of the vineyards or road tours along the coast. In fact, there are so many bike tours on offer, finding the right one can be tricky. Going by the TripAdvisor rankings is misleading because they are dominated by big corporations that have been around for 20 years and have enough reviews to stay on top. But these guys care more about their income then their output. So we have put together a list of “The Best Barcelona Bike Tours” to help you select the right one for you.
The 5 Best Barcelona Bike Tours
Note: All bike tours in the list are conducted in english, though many have the option for other languages.
1. Buena Vista Tours
The key to the Buena Vista tours is small groups. This means you are safer in busy traffic, nobody gets lost, everyone is more relaxed, and you get a friendly, laid-back experience. With Buena Vista, your guide is like a buddy who happens to know the city backwards, someone who can not only tell you all about Barcelona’s amazing history, but take you down the side streets to the real city behind the tourist façade. In addition to tours running twice a day during the summer (11am & 4pm), Buena Vista also have the option of a private tour, which means you can organise a route that suits you, maybe skipping places you’ve already seen, or including a stop for tapas, or a swim at the beach etc. A private tour is also ideal for small groups or families who just want to see the city at their own pace. Everyone enjoys a Buena Vista Bike Tour and it is a perfect introduction to the city of Barcelona.
PRICE: €22 - €24
DURATION: Approximately 3 hours
WHEN: Daily Tours at 11am & 4pm
BIKES: City Bike
ITINERARY: Plaça Reial, Gothic Quarter, La Sagrada Familia, Borne, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barceloneta beach, Palau de la Musica, Arc de Triumf, plus some bonus hidden gems.
More information on Buena Vista Tours - Barcelona Bike Tour
2. Montjuïc E-Bike Tour
The effortless option. If you want to enjoy the panoramic vistas of Barcelona and the Mediterranean, but don’t like the idea of working up a sweat to get to the top of the hill, this is the option for you. E-bikes are great fun and make the journey up to Montjuïc effortless. The route follows bike lanes and nature trails through parks and gardens with minimum automobile traffic. Along the way you’ll stop at the 17th Century Montjuic Castle, the Palau Nacional, the Olympic Stadium, several museums and some beautiful manicured gardens with ornate statues and fountains.
With more than a decade of experience, “Excursions Barcelona” have designed a tour specifically for e-bikes. And, if you are interested in an e-bike tour with no fixed itinerary, they offer private tours as well.
PRICE: €33
DURATION: 3 hours
BIKES: Electric Bikes
GROUP SIZE: Maximum 10 per group.
ITINERARY: Castell De Montjüic, Christopher Colombus Monument, MNAC and Panoramic views of the city and sea.
For more information contact us
3. Montefusco (for the cycle enthusiasts)
If you’re reasonably fit and you feel like a workout at the same time as touring Barcelona (or Catalonia), then a Montefusco Tour could be the thing for you. Claudio Montefusco is a mad keen cyclist and he organises long tours all around the city and the state. His most popular tour is a 60-80km haul which he calls “The Hills Around Barcelona Tour”. It takes in a ride along the river Besos followed by a climb up to Tibidabo (500 meters), the mountain that looks over the city. From here, you get the most spectacular views of Barcelona. Claudio’s bikes are professional road bikes, all carbon and built for serious riding and long distances (there is a six-day tour to Girona). So if you want to keep fit while doing your sightseeing, get in contact with Claudio Montefusco.
PRICE: The “Hills Around Barcelona Tour”: €130 for 1pax, €90 per person for 2pax.
DURATION: 4 hours
GROUP SIZE: Max 5 guests
LANGUAGE: English, Spanish, Catalan and Italian.
ITINERARY: Hotel pick up, River Besos, Forum, Tibidabo mountain and hills of Collserola park
4. Bike Tour Of The Penedès Wine Country
If you have an interest in wine and would like to get out of the city for a day, a mountain bike ride around the Penedès wine country could be the perfect alternative. There are several different tours available depending on how far you want to ride and how much wine you want to drink. (Don’t worry, its legal to ride a bike under the influence on private property!) The Penedès is a beautiful region and cycling among the vineyards could not be more relaxing. The cycle tracks through the vines offer spectacular vistas of Montserrat, Catalonia’s sacred mountain, and you will visit vineyards where you can see how Catalonia’s emblematic drink, Cava, is elaborated. You can take an electric bike as opposed to a regular bike if you want to make the journey easy on your legs and you can join a group or organise your own private tour if that’s your preference. Salut and Bon Viaje!
PRICE: €59 (2 wineries), €49 (1 winery)
DURATION: 4 hours
WHEN: Daily 10:30am
5. Brightside Sidecar Tour
This is three wheels, not two, so there’s no effort involved and it’s a hilarious way of seeing a fun city. This is a tour for two people, one in the sidecar and one pillion passenger, on a vintage Norton motorbike. There are several different tours you can take in the sidecar, such as an ‘Earlybird’ tour , a ‘Sunset’ tour and they even do a ‘Night Crawler’ tour among others. Another great thing about these tours is they’re private, so you can go where you want, even to places outside the city such as Montserrat. You might think it would be noisy and uncomfortable on a motorbike, but it’s not! The helmets are all equipped with wireless intercoms so you can talk to each other and hear what the guide is saying. And a final bonus with the Sidecar Tour: the pick up/drop off point is at your hotel door!
PRICE: €160 (1pax), €100 per person (2pax)
DURATION: 3 hours
WHEN: Optional
WHATS INCLUDED: Private Guide & Driver
Some Other Options!
A Segway Tour
Its still technically seeing Barcelona on 2 wheels, only this time the wheels are not one in front of the other, but side by side. Not perhaps the coolest way to be seen getting around the city, but a lot of fun. You do get some initial training on how to operate the Segway before the tour starts and there is an expert guide to make sure you are comfortable during your two hour tour. There are different routes you can take, but they all cover approximately 12 kms, so you get to see plenty of the city have a bit of a laugh in the process. Remember to wear comfortable shoes – not flip-flops!
Go-Cars
Another alternative for a tour of the city are these funky little open-top yellow cars.These two-seater, three-wheelers have in-built GPS systems to guide you around the city, with a commentary delivered through your crash-helmet telling you about all the sights you see along the way.There are many routes to choose from such as the Gaudi route or the Beach and Shopping route. They even have routes which go all the way out to Camp Nou, the home of the Barcelona Football Club.A valid driver’s license is required to use these vehicles as you will be on the road and driving them yourself. The Go-Cars have proved to be a popular activity for businesses as a team-building exercise for their staff.
Bike Rental
If the idea of a guided Barcelona bike tour doesn't do it for you, but you would still like to see the city by bike at your own pace, you can rent a bike without the tour. If you do, we recommend Green Bikes. They are reliable, comfy and very easy to ride. And the deal is cheap. €10 per day.
Walking Tours
At the last count there were more than 35 different walking tours in Barcelona and they cover themes as different as a tour of Camp Nou and the Barcelona Football Club, to a Game of Thrones Tour in Girona. In between those two extremes there are walking tours of the Gothic Quarter and the Jewish Quarter, there are tapas tours, a Picasso tour, there’s even a walking tour that combines a helicopter flight and a boat trip. So if you want to travel on two feet rather than two wheels, you have plenty of options to choose from.
There are some companies who offer free bike tours. Don’t be fooled; they’re not free. You have to pay a ‘booking fee’ and then you’re asked to ‘tip’ the guide. And then you’ll end up in large, chaotic group which is a nightmare in Barcelona’s busy traffic.
