Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Follow the success of its pilot experience last Christmas, the Barcelona Christmas Tour is back on the road this year with tours on offer from 27 November to 27 December, to present iconic areas lit up and decorated for Christmas 2020 in Barcelona.

Barcelona City Council, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) and Turisme de Barcelona are putting the Barcelona Christmas Tour back on the road, offering a night-time double-decker bus tour for discovering the city’s nooks and corners decorated with Christmas lights.

The Barcelona Christmas Tour will be up and running from 27 November to 27 December, providing excursions along the city’s most iconic big streets, avenues and buildings, especially decorated and lit up for the festivities, such as Passeig de Gràcia, the Cathedral and Plaça Catalunya.

This is a bus tour for enjoying the city’s newly lit up streets, from the comfort of a tourist bus’s upper deck, and discovering Catalan Christmas traditions explained in Catalan and Spanish by the guides on board throughout the 90-minute journeys.

Barcelona Christmas Tour buses will be setting off twice an evening, one at 6 pm and the other at 7.45 pm, on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (except for 24 and 25 December), from the Barcelona Bus Turístic bus stop at Plaça de Catalunya (Besòs-facing side, opposite the El Corte Inglés).

The route will cover Passeig de Gràcia (Casa Batlló, Pedrera), C/ Rosselló, C/ Marina, C/ Indústria, C/ Independència, C/ Sant Antoni Maria Claret (Hospital de Sant Pau), C/ Sardenya (Sagrada Família), C/ Gran Via, C/ Castillejos, C/ Casp (Encants, Torre Glòries), Av (Teatre Nacional), C/ Almogàvers, Passeig Lluís Companys (Arc de Triomf), Ronda Sant Pere, Plaça Urquinaona, Via Laietana (Barri Gòtic), Ppasseig Colom, Portal de la Pau (Columbus monument), Passeig Josep Carner, Plaça Drassanes, Paral·lel, Ronda Sant Pau, C/ Urgell (Mercat Sant Antoni), Gran Via, Plaça Universitat, C/ Roger de Llúria, C/ Aragó, Balmes and C/ Pelai, ending back at Plaça Catalunya.

As with all other forms of public transport, the Barcelona Christmas Tour will be subject to hygiene and infection-prevention rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19: it will be mandatory for passengers to wear face masks and clean their hands, which they can do with the hydro-alcoholic gel available to them at the setting-off stop, before boarding and leaving the bus.

Following the first pilot experience during the Christmas period of 2019, this special Barcelona Bus Turístic tour is back on the road in 2020 with a new night-time itinerary along streets decorated and lit up for Christmas. Last Christmas, during its 17 days of service, the tour transported over 2,100 passengers, mostly local residents (90%) who took advantage overall of the early ticket purchasing service and booked their seats in advance.