I will be traveling to Barcelona in February and would like to take a city tour when I first arrive. Once there I would like to take a day trip on a tour bus to a nearby city. So far, the tour companies I have looked at are very expensive. Does anyone have a reasonable priced tour company they can reccomend?

I believe that Barcelona, like Madrid, has a double-decker, open-top hop-on-hop-off cirucular or multi-route touristic bus tour of the city but I don't recall the name. Anyone?

Saludos, MadridMan

MadridMan writes: Do the name Bus Turistic ring a bell??

I'm not sure if it operates during the winter months.

The "Bus Turistica" operates year round except for Dec 25 and Jan 1. It is a hop-on hop-off bus with live, not prerecorded, audio guide. The bus hits the main Barcelona sites and gives you the "lay of the land" so to speak. More information can be obtained from http://www.tmb.net/eng/fes_turisme/festurisme_bus.jsp

As for guided tours, you can compare the prices that you found with that on this web site http://www.shop.viator.com/brochure/ed_PRODUCT_results.jsp;jsessionid=aK9S6CkJ0498?CITY=BARCELONA&L=MOSTPOP
I have used VIATOR in many trips to Europe and have found them to be very reasonable though not necessarily the cheapest. They usually subcontract with reputable local tour operators.

Eddie wrote with heavy sarcastic overtones: And what is the bus turistic called in Madrid? Answer: It's NOT called the "Bus Turistic" but rather it has a proper name - it's called Madrid Vision. Probably the bus turistic in Barcelona had a proper name too and maybe a website. And thanks to Cornelio's link above, I see its proper name is Barcelona Bus Turistic. Thanks for that, Cornelio.

Sheesh, Eddie! Did you eat some bad leftover turkey or something? Man-oh-man!

Sorry if I offended you, MadridMan. You 'dropped your guard' (i.e., left yourself wide open) so I thought I would 'Zing' you. :p

Gotcha!

"Zingers" always welcome and accepted. This proves that we cannot always read the faces of those typing the words. Sorry if I, in return, jumped down your turkey-neck. hehehe...

Saludos, MadridMan