Our review of the must have travel apps and city guides for when you visit Barcelona. Find out the best places to visit and tips on moving around Barcelona with our selection of the best travel apps for Barcelona.
The use of technology when visiting cities such as Barcelona provides a great opportunity to research and find your way around. Travel apps or city guide apps provide visitors with information on all the historic attractions, family attractions, restaurants, and other interesting things to see and do. When visiting Barcelona, there are several travel apps that will provide you with useful information. It is highly recommended to download a travel app when visiting a city such as Barcelona. We take a look at some of the best travel apps for Barcelona and see what each app offer City & Travel Guide App
Among the Best Travel Apps for Barcelona
The Barcelona City & Travel Guide App is one of the best all-rounders for information and tips on visiting Barcelona. Created by City Guide Apps, who have a vast experience of Spanish travel blogs and travel apps, it is packed with hundreds of places to visit in and around Barcelona. The app currently enjoys a full 5 star rating on the Google Play Store. The best thing about this Barcelona travel app is its ease of use. The menus are easy to quickly find what you are looking for, with sub menus to then take you to the exact area or type of attraction that you need to find. The Barcelona City & Travel Guide App is also free from any the of annoying popup ads or video ads, which means you can use the app without distractions.
Another reason we believe that the Barcelona City & Travel Guide App is one of the best travel apps for Barcelona is its sheer number of places to visit. All the main and lesser known sights in Barcelona are covered. It also covers transport, shopping, restaurants, accommodation, and tips on staying safe. This Barcelona travel app also includes some interesting places to visit outside of Barcelona, such as Girona, Tarragona, Salou, PortAventura and Tossa del Mar. All the places are fully reviewed including descriptions, at times, over 1000 words long. This means that the app covers in full everything you need to know about a place before you visit. Furthermore, there is an information section in each description box. This provides even more information, such as a link to the official website, phone numbers and the nearest metro station for each place.
So, undoubtedly, the best all-rounder travel app for Barcelona goes to the Barcelona City & Travel Guide App created by City Guide Apps. A great free pocket guide for Barcelona that will keep you in the know of must about every place possible that you can visit in Barcelona. You can download the app from the Google Play Store using the following link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cityguide.barcelonacityguideapp&hl=en
The Fork Restaurant App
The Fork is a popular restaurant app not only for Barcelona, but Europe wide. As an alternative to Tripadvisor, The Fork app has, at the time of writing, over 21 million downloads and a 4.7-star rating. The app highlights some of the best restaurants around Europe with the possibility of booking a table direct from the app. Some might say a similar app to Tripadvisor, but we find The Fork app easier to navigate, and it caters to just restaurants.
Whilst The Fork app isn’t a travel guide of such, it does provide useful information on dinning out. We recommend The Fork for those travelers who enjoy trying out the local cuisine. It also provides information on certain cuisines or vegan friendly restaurants. A highly recommended app that can be viewed on the web or downloaded from app stores.
TMB APP (Metro and bus)
The TMB App is a fantastic app for finding out how to get from one place in Barcelona to the other. It also features metro lines and bus routes. Just enter the start destination and the place you wish to travel to, and the app will show you the metro lines and bus routes to reach your destination. At the same time, the app displays the route on a map, so you can see the full route to your destination.
Overall, the TMB app is a free and useful application to have. It is in English and will keep you informed of anything to do with the Barcelona metro and buses. The TMB app might be a bit confusing at first, but you will quickly get used to it. Is it one of the best travel apps for Barcelona? I would say it is one of the more useful travel apps for Barcelona, and I highly recommend you download and install it on your phone.
Fast Food Apps (great for discounts and promotions)
Fast food apps may not seem like they belong in a list for the best travel apps for Barcelona. However, if you are on a budget or love fast food, they have one important use, offers, and promotions. If you download the apps for McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Popeyes, and the rest, you can access the special offers and coupons. You can expect to save anything from 20% to 50% off the walk in prices. Some apps also have loyalty points, so if you eat enough during your visit to Barcelona you will get some gifts! Serach on the Google Playstore and Apple App store for the Spanish versions of these fast food apps.
Tripadvisor, Not the Best Travel App for Barcelona, But Useful
Most people know about Tripadvisor. I don’t think it is one of the best travel apps for Barcelona, but it can be useful. As a travel app, Tripadvisor is a great way to quickly find some good restaurants with great reviews. It popularity during the last decade or so, means that there are both plenty of restaurants with a decent amount of critical reviews. On the negative side, I find Tripadvisor user experience outdated and muddled. It has the restaurants and reviews, but can, at times, be difficult to navigate.
Travel Translation Apps
Among the best travel apps for Barcelona, and I recommend, are the translation apps. There are plenty of translation apps to choose from, each offering similar types of functions. Recently, with the advance of AI, these apps work much better than a few years ago. I, personally, recommend translation apps that have the following features.
- Speech translation
- Text to voice translation
- Text to text translation
- Photo translation
The best translation apps should have the ability for you to speak and hear the translation spoken back to you. Photo translation is where you take a photo of a sign or poster, and the app detects the text to translate. Of course, you can always use Google Translate or similar online translation tools, but installing an app is easier and with more options. Quick access to a translation app could be crucial in an emergency or to ask passer-by directions to an attraction. Either way, I would recommend having one handy on your phone to use if needed. You can find many options of translation apps on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Barcelona Taxi And Private Car Apps
Getting around Barcelona can easily be achieved using public transport such as the metro or buses. However, you may be out partying or need to get to home late at night or traveling away from the city. In these cases, a taxi or private car app would be a practical option to have. There are many taxi apps for Barcelona such as Yellow Taxi, Uber, Bolt and Cabify. Most apps will enable time bookings or the option to get a taxi or private car to you immediately. You will be able to track the ride as it approaches in real time.
These private car taxi apps are very popular in Spain. I use Bolt myself and find it easy to use. You can easily set up payment using your credit card. This saves worrying about loose change. You can download these apps again from the apps stores.
