Barcelona Specialty Tours
Private, Customized Barcelona Tours and Experiences
Your Personal Shopper in Barcelona
Turn yourself over to a fashion connoisseur.
Personal Shopper
Among Barcelona’s never-ending must-see’s and do’s, visiting the city’s unique shops should also be high on your list. In a world in which items sold in far-off lands are increasingly the same as what you’d find back home, Barcelona stands out as a place where you can still stumble upon an original piece. Throughout its diverse neighborhoods, from Gràcia, to Sarrià, to the Eixample, Raval and Ribera, you’ll encounter every type of shop: high-end designer, artsy boutique, centuries-old specialty, family-run, mainstream commercial and mom-n-pop hole-in-the-wall.
Take the hassle out of deciding where to go, when, and in what order, and leave it all to our personal shopper
Be efficient: take the hassle out of deciding where to go, when, and in what order, and leave it all to our very own experienced professional. Mallika is not only an expert at navigating the ins and outs of Barcelona’s shopping districts, but is also a successful clothing designer; her sense of style and personalized recommendations are worth their weight in gold. She’ll look you up and down and instinctively guide you in terms of colors, materials, brands and budget, whether you’re looking for clothing, shoes and bags, or something else entirely: antiques, artwork, chocolates, cosmetics, handicrafts, gourmet food and gift items, or Barcelona souvenirs, … With Mallika’s help, and the guidelines you provide, we will tailor the perfect itinerary for you, making sure you take full advantage of Barcelona’s atypical shopping alternatives. You’ll likely visit different types of establishments in distinct neighborhoods, however, routes depend on individual clients’ needs and requests.
We’ll ask you to provide us with as many hints as possible: Are you looking for anything in particular? What types of things to do you normally like? What’s your price range? Do you prefer name brands or boutiques? For clothing, what types of styles, brands, materials, colors, and sizes do you tend to look for? Do you know your European size?
As you can imagine, with such a busy professional, tours are subject to availability.
There are various ways to enjoy this experience
Let us know which works best for you
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
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Getting Around
On foot* -
Duration
Half-day, Full-day
You will enjoy this experience with your own Personal Shopper / clothing designer and will not be accompanied by one of our regular historical guides. Although your Shopper knows Barcelona well and can offer her own anecdotes and unique perspectives on city life, if you’re looking for a more detailed overview of Barcelona’s history, culture, architecture and politics, we recommend you check out our walking tours, in the section “Barcelona: Day & Night”.
*There’s a chance that this tour will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.
Tour Jewish Barcelona with an Expert
Learn about the complex past and present
Jewish Barcelona
Before the Spanish Inquisition and the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews in the 15th Century, Spain had one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish populations the world had ever known. Medieval Barcelona was approximately 15% Jewish, with most living in the ‘Call’, or historic Jewish quarter.
This once thriving community, unfortunately, left behind little tangible evidence of their existence after their annihilation with the decisive “pogrom” of 1391. Those few remnants that survive – some having been uncovered only recently – and the historical anecdotes that surround them, provide clues and insights into a fascinating past. However, without the help of an expert, most of these stories will likely elude you as you stroll through the medieval alleyways of one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. In Barcelona today, with four active synagogues, the opening of the odd kosher store, and the gradual influx of foreign Jews, Judaism is more present now than it has been in over 500 years. Some modern-day Spaniards have investigated their families’ pasts only to discover their own Sephardic roots!
In order to help you live and breathe Barcelona’s compelling Jewish history, we have teamed up with a dear friend: a Jewish architect and self-made expert on Jewish Spain & Heritage issues, who has become one of the most influential voices on Jewish Barcelona. Active in the Community today and with over 15 years of experience in her field, she will not only teach you little-known historical facts, but also share useful information and entertaining tales for anyone hoping to be exposed to, or participate in, Judaism in Barcelona today. You will also visit the remains of the historic Major Synagogue, claimed by some to be the oldest in Europe. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
As you can imagine, such an expert guide is a hot commodity, and therefore, tours are subject to availability.
There are various ways to enjoy this experience
Let us know which works best for you
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
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Getting Around
On foot -
Duration
2.5 Hours
This tour concentrates on a small area and is highly specialized in Jewish history and points of interest. For a broader experience of Barcelona’s historic neighborhoods – which can include information on and a stroll through the Call – we recommend you check out “Undiscovered Corners of the ‘Barrio Gótico’”.
Picasso Museum Tour
Get up close and personal with a rebellious, adolescent Picasso and his works.
The Intimate Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived to be 91 years old, dividing his time between Spain and France. He took the world by storm wherever he went with his persistent non-conformism and steadfast anti-fascist beliefs, notorious womanizing, and above all, his rule-breaking approach to the oldest existing art form. Pablo spent only eight brief years in Barcelona, from 1895 – 1903, yet somehow, couldn’t quite shake the city from his mind: “This is where it all began…where I learned how far I could go” he once remarked. In fact, Barcelona was the witness to many of the young artist’s “firsts”: as an art student, meeting well-known established painters, painting in his own private studio, not to mention putting on his first gallery shows!
Turn yourself over to our resident Picasso expert, an art critic and professor living and teaching in Catalunya.
It was no accident that an innovator like Picasso got his start in turn-of-the-century Barcelona, one of the most creative, exciting and ground-breaking decades in the city’s history.
Turn yourself over to our resident Picasso Expert, an art critic and professor originally from Vancouver who has spent over 20 years living and teaching in Catalunya. Not only will you enjoy a guided tour, room by room, of the legendary Picasso Museum, but you’ll also zigzag through the historic back alleys where Picasso lived, painted, and studied throughout his teenage years. You’ll also walk by settings that appear in the artist’s earliest works and hear little-known anecdotes from the painter’s extraordinary life and his short, but eventful stint in the murky depths of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. Half of this experience will be strolling through the streets, and the other half will be in the museum.
These tours are subject to the availability of our art critic. We also run this tour with other highly qualified and experienced guides from our regular team.
There are various ways to enjoy this experience
Let us know which works best for you
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot -
Duration
Half-day
This tour is highly specialized and concentrates primarily on Picasso, his life, his works, and points of historical interest. For a broader experience of Barcelona’s historic neighborhoods – which can include information on Picasso and a stroll by these points of interest – we recommend you check out “Undiscovered Corners of the ‘Barrio Gótico’”.
Barcelona Architecture Tour
A finely tuned day on the town for architecture lovers and experts.
Architecture: Past to Present
Barcelona’s architecture is unrivaled anywhere else in the world. Nowhere can you admire ancient Roman ruins, Gothic cathedrals and palaces, dream-like “Modernist” creations unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and slick contemporary constructions, all within minutes of each other. The distinctiveness of Barcelona’s buildings, the city’s rare union between old and new, and the intelligent urban layout are fascinating to all, especially those who understand architecture and urban planning. There’s a reason those who do, will travel any distance to witness the phenomenon for themselves and, if they’re lucky, to contribute with architectural gems of their own! Today, no big-name architect’s repertoire is complete without at least one work in Barcelona.
If your desire is to discover, decipher, and interpret the architecture of Barcelona, in an in-depth and intelligent way, then this tour is for you.
Barcelona’s buildings are diverse in style, vast in quantity, and often dispersed throughout the city’s different neighborhoods, as are the masterfully-designed urban spaces. And their constructions span a continuum of over 2000 years, with important landmarks left behind in each era. So, the clearer you can be with us about your specific tastes and the types, styles, and time periods you’d like this tour to include, the easier our job will be. We’ll tailor the experience to you.
Personally designing this type of itinerary is a task that takes time and thought. The further in advance you contact us, the more time we’ll have to organize and customize your route.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot.* Bicycle, Car & Driver. -
Duration
Half-day, Full-day
For an architectural tour concentrating solely or primarily on Barcelona’s “Modernist” architecture – the city’s most famous attraction – please see “A Modernist Fantasy”.
*With us, there’s always a chance that your walking tours will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.
Barcelona Design With an Expert
Experience the most groundbreaking trends in design, from vintage to contemporary.
Barcelona Design
For centuries, Barcelona has been known for its revolutionary thought, behavior and creativity. Hosting the Universal EXPO of 1888 and the World Fair of 1929, the city earned an international reputation for innovation in Design – expressed most visibly through its architecture. Barcelona today remains dynamic, cosmopolitan, and at the forefront of the world’s artistic breakthroughs in everything from fashion and furniture design to graphic arts and interior decorating. The scope of styles, materials, textures, and technologies is staggering. It’s no wonder artists, architects, designers of all breeds, and all who seek to bask in the imagination of the world’s creative visionaries, make Barcelona a priority destination.
Join our Design Expert on an exciting journey through Barcelona’s most avant-garde showrooms and noteworthy interiors and exteriors – of contemporary design or from throughout the past century – including bookstores, cafes, office buildings, hotels, and more. Encounter creative gadgets, clothing, jewelry & accessories, and home ware & furniture, all displayed originally in sleekly-designed spaces.
Barcelona’s designer elements are vast and varied, meaning that each tour will be unique, depending on your interests. To help us plan your perfect route, please give us a good idea of your specific tastes and the types, styles, and time periods you’d like this experience to include.
Personally designing this type of itinerary is a task that takes time and thought. The further in advance you contact us, the more time we’ll have to organize and customize your route.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot.* Bicycle, Car & Driver. -
Duration
Half-day, Full-day
For an architectural tour concentrating solely or primarily on Barcelona’s “Modernist” architecture – the city’s most famous attraction – please see “A Modernist Fantasy”.
*With us, there’s always a chance that your walking tours will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.
Tour Barcelona’s Contemporary Art
Delight in the works of the greatest artists of the past 20 years, in galleries and in the streets.
Contemporary Art
Barcelona has a long-running reputation as a city where avant-garde architects and artists work, live and find inspiration, each indelibly leaving his or her mark. Over the past century, Picasso, Gaudí, Miró and Dalí have become household names, and have helped in paving the way for the onslaught of contemporary artists who would later tackle large-scale projects of their own in this remarkable city. Known particularly for its “urban art,” many consider Barcelona to be an open-air museum, complete with countless whimsical, larger-than-life sculptures, mosaics, murals and graffiti. Walking through the streets, you can stumble upon works by many of the Greats: Botero, Lichtenstein, Chillida, Oldenburg, Mariscal, Brossa, Oteiza & the list goes on.
In addition to the widespread public art, there are innumerable museums, galleries, and private foundations; enough to satisfy all tastes and styles, from traditional to cutting edge… Barcelona has it all.
We invite you to turn yourselves over to our art connoisseur for a day, and discover Barcelona’s wonderfully eclectic collection of contemporary art. Please let us know what types of art you’d like to see, so that we can tailor the perfect route for you.
You’ll want to let us know things like… Are you more interested in modern art? Or contemporary? Would you like to roam the streets discovering urban masterpieces? Or, would you prefer to go through galleries and museums? Are you hoping to find something to take home, or just looking? What types and styles of art would you like your tour to include?
Personally designing this type of itinerary is a task that takes time and thought. The further in advance you contact us, the more time we’ll have to organize and customize your route.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot.* Bicycle, Car & Driver. -
Duration
Half-day, Full-day
*With us, there’s always a chance that your walking tours will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.
Discover Arts & Crafts Workshops in Barcelona
For those fascinated by hand-made products and the process behind their creation.
Artisan Workshops
Barcelona stimulates the imagination. Today, artists, crafts-makers, and creative people of all breeds flock to this city for inspiration. Just walk through its streets, and you’ll feel the creative pulse, vibrant energy, and innovation. And, tucked away beneath the flaps and folds of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, are the geniuses who make it all possible: the trusty artisans, who busily chisel, paint, meld, bind, forge, weave and whittle away in their ateliers, as they have done for over a millennium.
Artisan craftsmanship plays an important role in the history, culture, and traditions of Catalunya. The Arts & Crafts of Barcelona are like a bridge between Past and Present: studying the practices and techniques of medieval guildsmen provides a tool for understanding the processes of modern-day artisans, and the workings of Catalan society in general.
In our years of touring clients through Barcelona’s diverse neighborhoods, we’ve come across many a magical little workshop, where skill and craft come together to create. The process itself is mesmerizing. If you’re interested in the tools, materials, and methods behind the creation of things, then this is the experience for you! You’ll be surprised at how much can still be done by hand in today’s machine-dominated world.
This is an extremely open-ended touring experience, whose route and duration depend heavily on the availability of the artisans and types of workshops you’d like to visit. Some possibilities are: fabric weaving, knitting or stamping; book binding; furniture restoration; glass blowing; metal forging; leather treatment; ceramics; production using recycled materials; and the fashioning of musical instruments, jewelry, tiled tables, and sweets & confections. There are often interesting examples of artisan craftwork and process on display in local design schools and exhibition spaces as well.
Personally designing this type of itinerary is a task that takes time and thought. The further in advance you contact us, the more time we’ll have to organize and customize your route.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot.* -
Duration
Subjective
*With us, there’s always a chance that your walking tours will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.
Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.
Visit Barcelona’s Trendy Born Neighborhood
The Day You’re Born Again
The ‘Born’, or ‘Ribera’, is a perfect example of how new and old elements in this city collide. Over 1000 years old, the Born is Barcelona’s second-most historic district, and now, a “hot spot” for anyone in search of designer clothing, shoes, food or drink. Nestled into medieval building facades, avant-garde shop and restaurant interiors draw you in as you stroll by. Glamour and Couture strut along the “Passeig del Born” promenade, once a knights’ jousting pitch! The faithful Old becomes impregnated by the daring New, and a harmony is born.
If you choose this experience, be prepared to traipse over age-old cobblestones and through charming parks and ‘plazas’, all the while discovering magical nooks and imposing monuments, perhaps even finding a minute or two for some designer shopping, or a chance to meet Barcelona’s own benevolent fortune-telling witch! Even if you’re not Born Again, and no matter how many European churches you’ve been dragged through, we think the Ribera’s immense yet elegant 700-year-old ‘Santa Maria del Mar’ – about which epic novels have been written – might provide that little push you need to convert 😉
And, since no newborn is complete without the proper nourishment, we’ll often stop during or after this tour to sample the fine selection of ‘tapas’ and wines for which the Born is known.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot. -
Duration
Half-day
Customize Your Perfect Barcelona Tour
Private Barcelona Tours
Tailor-Made Barcelona
We’re sure you have your own ideas on how you’d like to experience Barcelona, and we’d LOVE to hear them!
Tell us about yourself:
- Who are you?
- How do you like to experience a city for the first time?
- What are your personal interests?
- Have you been to Barcelona before?
- What aspects of Barcelona excite you the most?
If you’re interested in proposing a twist on one of our existing routes, getting further “off the beaten track”, or trying something entirely new, just say the word!
We look forward to the challenge.
This experience depends greatly on you and your interests.
Please let us know what you’re looking for…
We highly recommend you read our General Touring Guidelines before booking. We want you know exactly what to expect. Please feel free to propose your own personal twist on any existing route or guideline!
-
Getting Around
On foot.* Bicycle, Car & Driver. -
Duration
Half-day, Full-day
*With us, there’s always a chance that your walking tours will include rides on the ‘metro’ or other forms of public transport. If so, this is included in the tour price.