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Spain
Share information and ask questions about accessible travel in Spain.
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Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
I travelled to Barcelona for a weekend a couple of months back and was pleasantly surprised how wheelchair friendly it is. The Metro is about 90% wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately some of the inaccessible stations are those that you change from one line to another so you may need to go a slightly longer route, check in advance. There is a map of the Metro that shows wheelchair accessible stations, there is a link to it in my blog. I am told by other people that the buses are also very wheelchair accessible too but I tend not to use them overseas preferring rail, underground, tram.
Being my first proper trip for some years I chose a hotel chain that I am very familiar with, Travelodge. (Different places on the interweb say Travelodge have either 4 or 6 hotels in Spain but I can find 5. 2 in Barcelona, 2 in Madrid and 1 in Valencia.)
The one I chose was in Fira, somewhere near that famous Barcelona football team that I can’t recall, my game is rugby union. 🙂 This is about an hours trip in to the city centre on the Metro. The other Travelodge is in the area of Barcelona’s beaches so has higher prices. The next time I go there I will probably stay in a ‘proper’ hotel as I now tend to book from the Accor website for foreign trips.
My main reason for this trip was to visit Barcelona zoo and I was not disappointed, it was very wheelchair accessible and you get a 75% discount on entry.
More details are in my blogs, https://www.weekender.blog/category/spain/
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Does the Accor site let you book accessible rooms?
Please show us your favorite pictures from the zoo as well!
We started a group for sharing travel pictures –Â https://www.tabifolk.com/groups/on-vacation/The Accor site tells you if the hotel has accessible rooms but I haven’t seen any of the hotels have a specific option to book an accessible room though the Novotel I stayed in Berlin listed one of their type of rooms as being particularly suited for people with reduced mobility. They also say that 37 of their rooms are accessible. This is the one that I wrote about on my Germany blogs.
I have only used Accor for three bookings so far, for the two that had a long lead time I just booked a room and put in the notes I needed an accessible one and in Berlin it was super accessible, in Venice I haven’t yet travelled…
With Brussels I only organised the trip the day before travel and my first choice hotel said they had accessible rooms but didn’t indicate how many so I emailed to ask if they had accessible rooms for that weekend and after more than 12 hours received a reply that didn’t really answer my question…
Their reply was that they had accessible rooms but they are not accessible because they have a bathtub?!?!? A bathtub wouldn’t be an issue for me because whether at home or in a hotel I find it more convenient to wash at the sink, but they failed to answer the question about availability for that weekend. My second choice hotel I then decided to telephone Accor about room availability, they said they didn’t know that but transferred my call to the front desk at the hotel who confirmed they did have.
I only have a couple of pictures from Barcelona Zoo, I took my ‘I am a photographer’ Nikon dSLR and found it very inconvenient for travel/blogging photography, before my subsequent trips I bought a pocket sized Sony HX60V (the version with GPS that tags your photos with the location most of the time). This camera can transfer your photos directly to your mobile phone for instant posting to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. I don’t know how well it works as I am the only person I know (other than my 10 year old nephew) that doesn’t have a mobile phone!
@Weekender – Interesting about Accor. Thanks. The bathtub remark was … interesting as well. But a different kind of “interesting”.
@Blumil, thanks for the link 🙂
Hi,
some time ago I visited Barcelona and fell in love with this city! Below you can find my piece about the trip with some information about accessibility in Barcelona: hotels, shops, pavements etc.
https://blumil.com/blog/2017/02/23/falling-in-love-with-barcelona-part-i/
I believe that it can be helpful for someone planning to visit this lovely city. Personally, I really recommend it because Barcelona is definitely one of the most accessible and fantastic cities I’ve visited ?
Hi, I’m Núria from Barcelona. It’s very nice to read all these good comments of my city! I’m blind and it’s also an accessible city for blind people. You can travel with your kane or with your guide dog, there are laws in Spain that allows us to move everywhere with our guide dogs.
I just wanted to say hello and if you come to Barcelona and need some help or anything, don’t hesitate on contacting me.
Have a nice day!
We recently stayed in Barcelona after cruising from Venice. We found the city very easy to negotiate with a wheelchair; using mostly the buses and metro. We purchased a T10 ticket at the Place Espanya station, unfortunately that station is one of a few that do not have a raised platform enabling wheelchair uses to enter the train. However, it is only a short walk to Tarragona or Poble Sec stations which are accessible. We stayed at the Ayre Hotel just off the square on Gran Via Corts Catalanes, which has a wheelchair accessible room with a roll in shower. The hotel was very convenient to catch the wheelchair accessible aerobus to the airport.
We visited Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, prebooking for both is necessary but Sagrada Familia allows you to book a free disabled ticket and I contacted Parc Guell via their facebook page and was sent the link to book their free disabled tickets, plus they also sent me directions to get to Parc Guell by public transport, avoiding pushing a wheelchair up the hill. As a carer I was either free or entry was at a greatly reduced rate to both places. We also were able to gain free entry to Casa Mila, and although my husband could view all the apartment using a lift and their narrow wheelchair, he could only get to the entrance to the roof.
We also were able to visit Castell Montjuic travelling via metro, the funicular and the gondola. It was great to be able to view the whole of Barcelona from the top of the castle and visit the many exhibits in the castle documenting the history of Barcelona.
We found Barcelona a great city to visit, the people were very helpful and the transport systems were brilliant.
I love Barcelona specifically because of this! It is really comfortable to travel here on a wheelchair. Been here many times and would come more. First I used to stay at hotels and than I started to rent different apartments just because I feel more like at home like this )) and it is cheaper…
Find great accessible accommodations in Barcelona here:
https://www.handiscover.com/en-GB/spain/barcelona/
Choose the icons based on your mobility and the search result will reflect your needs. Also, scroll down for more information regarding accessibility in Barcelona!
It’s wonderful to see these comments about Barcelona. I wanted to visit it last year, but unfortunately, I’ve been scammed by someone an acquaintance introduced to me. It was supposed to be an assisted tour, but a few weeks before the trip, I never heard from that person again. After that, I’m more careful with unofficial travel agencies. They should follow regulations in the services they offer, as stated by laws (a sample read here).
But anyway, there’s still another chance to visit Barcelona. Sorry for ruining the mood with my story, but I hope to finally go sometime in 2020!
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