Barcelona Tips

yeah, already googled that park, looks ace!

Ah I tell you what else would be ace for kids. There's a mountain near the city called Tibidabo, with a cathedral and amusement park thing on top of it. You can get there by getting off the Metro and getting on a special old tram funicular railway thing that kids would really like.

A pretty short walk away is a TV tower designed by Norman Foster with a glass lift on the outside, facing the city and then really good views. It only costs about €4 to go up as well

I recently stayed at this Hotel:

http://www.grupotel.com/hoteles.php?idh=&le=en&id_orgien=&id_ref=grupotel.com&id_noticia=&idh=45

Was within walking distance of all central places,including the bus station that takes about 20 minutes to get to and from the Airport.

I also managed to stumble across this shop whilst going to the food shop,it's called Espai Bici sold alot of nice modern parts and a suprising large range of BLB components nice shop.

barcelona is highly recommended , lots to see and very easy to get around even on very limited spanish. stayed one street away from sagrada familia in an 'aparthotel' which meant we could walk to most places including the beach, the tube is very easy to use and is a lot cheaper especially when you buy a t10 (a single ticket you can use 10 times). the equivalent of the boris bikes were everywhere but i didnt have time to ask how to access them or ask how much it costs. didn't get to any bike shops though.

Absolutely love the city and will be going back in June for Sonar, thinking about taking my bike with me, but if I could hire one out there that would be great, so, anyone know of a place that rents out fixed gear bikes?

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187497-i44-k2734160-Normal_Bike_rental_s-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Stay on your feet. They'll go down without being touched.

'My Beautiful Parking' hire out fixie wixie bikes. In the gothic district bit.

Perfect, ta. And they have city bikes so my girlfriend will be happy.

They have a pretty awesome shop upstairs too.

I meant to add to this - got some great hire bikes from my beautiful parking, decent price as well. They've split the shop from the rental place now, though only a street or two apart. Get a tube to Jaume 1. The shop had some ridiculous pron for sale.

Currently found myself in Barcelona, any shouts apart from my beautiful parking? Seen a l

*ot of mtb's, but not many fixed. May be out of season?

You could always go buy one of these: http://www.dosnoventabikes.com/

We saw quite a lot of fixed riders down at the beach, some really nice bikes cutting about.

there's a little restaurant next to Aloha tattoos, Pasaje del Crédito 8 - amazing Vegan food - check it out

Cheers, will take a look. Maybe not at the frames though... Can't afford the double spokk so no point really. Ha.

Any tips on apartments to rent for a week or so in March, for four people? Doing the marathon with some friends.

Airbnb, any day. Plenty of affordable places in good locations

And tell us about the Barcelona Velib type hire bikes. How do you pay for them? When I was there last that was the bit I didn't understand.

The bikes are easy enough to hire and certainly look better than ours

If you have time the Picaso museum and the FC Barcelona museum are both well worth a visit

I don't think you can hire the Bicing bikes without being a resident, that's how it was a couple of years ago at least.

Headed to Barcelona in June with a group of friends and I'm very keen to use the early mornings during that week as some sort of training camp.

Any recomendations for hilly/mountainous rides that can be done in about 3hrs starting from central Barcelona?

There are some great mountains just north-east of Barcelona round Collserola park and behind. I don't know of any routes but there's sure to be good riding as the city is surrounded by bumpy stuff, you could see if Ridewithgps has anything round there.

Alternatively, it would be well worth taking a train to Girona one day, a lot of pros use the area as a training camp and there are some stunning scenic rides between there and the coast. When I went to Cadaqués by car there were so many roadies going up and down the mountain towards the coast, I was so jealous.

take a train towards Montserrat and cycle up to the monastery. From the city its about 120km round trip so just take the train as far as you need to cut the ride down to a suitable length for your time constraints. Collserola is worthwhile, or if you're short for time you can make laps around Montjuïc. For group rides there are some english language cycling clubs too (eg www.meetup.com/The-Barcelona-Road-Cycling-Group). If you have club experience they'll probably let you tag along.

Barcelona-Castelldefels-RatPenat-Castelldefels-Barcelona 70km
Rat Pentat: 6.2km Average of: 9.3% Max: 23%. The rest of the route is flat.

You have here more options, the blog is in Spanish though:
http://1001puertosdemontana.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Barcelona

I love Catalonia. I'm hopefully taking my bike to Girona for a few days in summer, I've got a friend there who spontaneously took himself from there to Puigcerdà (c.140km) a few days after getting his first road bike, hopefully we'll have some similar adventures.