Flying to Barcelona in a couple of weeks for our 2 week cruise. Staying a couple of days in Barcelon

Flying to Barcelona in a couple of weeks for our 2 week cruise. Staying a couple of days in Barcelona prior to cruising. Should we arrange an airport transfer to hotel? What about just getting a taxi? We'll have Euro's. Do the taxi drivers understand English (I'm thinking they do)? :) I don't want any trouble in trying to convey hampton inn suites calgary where we're going!
For Americans, Catalan is a difficult language (even for those who speak Spanish). It's similar to old Provencal. Most locals will speak Spanish. To put your mind at ease, I would suggest you either hampton inn suites calgary bring a brochure of your hotel, if you have one, or print the hotel information off the internet and carry that with you. The old saying... a picture is worth a thousand words . Tens of thousands hampton inn suites calgary of visitors go to Barcelona each year without a language problem - I think you'll get along just fine.
We had no problems getting a taxi at the Barcelona airport to transfer us to our hotel last year. Just be sure to go to the taxi stand rather than accepting a ride from someone hampton inn suites calgary in the airport. (This is true of all cities, btw.) The printout idea is a good one.... we had it with us just in case. Yes, definitely have Euro on you. Looking at my journal from that trip, the fare was 40, the equivalent of US$54 at the time, from the airport to the Hilton Diagonal Mar. I imagine it would be slightly lower the closer you were to the main part of town. This was per taxi, not per person. Enjoy your stay and your cruise!
Flying to Barcelona in a couple of weeks for our 2 week cruise. Staying a couple of days in Barcelona prior to cruising. Should we arrange an airport transfer to hotel? What about just getting a taxi? We'll have Euro's. Do the taxi drivers understand English (I'm thinking they do)? :) I don't want any trouble in trying to convey where we're going!
It is very easy to get to town from the airport and VERY cheap. hampton inn suites calgary Follow the signs to the train and then get the metro at the last stop, very easy and cheap. hampton inn suites calgary I wrote quite a bit about my trip but you will need to go to my blog and search a bit.
I agree with Bob about taking hampton inn suites calgary the train. It is called the RENFE and accepts regular metro tickets. There is a particularly excellent hampton inn suites calgary deal in Barcelona called the T10 ticket which you pay 7.80 for and is good for 10 trips that you can split between as many people as you want. So, you only have to buy one ticket, and you can share it. We used this ticket to get from the airport to a metro station near our hotel, and then for our touring around Barcelona. The stops on the RENFE which are close to the Ramblas are Santos and Passeig de Gracia. Both would require a little walking depending where on the Ramblas your hotel is. The train is clean and nice; no issues.
hampton inn suites calgary Taxis are also easy in Barcelona, albeit more expensive than the train. They are metered, so you don't have to worry about being swindled unless they purposely take a long way to get there. It should be around 30 euros, depending on how many bags you have from the airport to the Ramblas.
When we arrived in Barcelona last November we had the same concerns so we contacted a recommended taxi company hampton inn suites calgary to pick us up and give us a tour of the city before taking us to the hotel. The driver spoke perfect English and gave us lots of ideas of things to do during our 2 days prior to the cruise. While an arranged pickup is a little more expensive he did meet us inside the terminal and carried our bags to the car, we had him pick us up after our cruise as well. The peace of mind was well worth it.