Does anyone know if you can hire a guide for the day, with a car, in Barcelona to see some of the outlying areas that aren't on the train or bus routes? If so, would you make arrangements through one of the large hotels or some other service?

Reading the posts has about convinced me that I might need to wait to actually rent a car until the day we are leaving Barcelona.

A good start may be to visit the website

www.viator.com

Click on "Barcelona" and you will notice that they offer private half/full day tours of Barcelona city, private tours to Sitges and Bodega Torres, private tours to Costa Brava, and others. They will even pick up at your hotel. Once you have booked a tour, you can ask the guide about other private tours that you may be interested in.

Thank you. I checked the site and the information is going to be quite useful.