Barcelona Card or Hola Barcelona: which card is worth it

The Hola Barcelona card is unlimited public transport and nothing else. The Barcelona Card adds free entry to more than 25 museums and cultural venues, and costs roughly twice as much. Whether it pays off depends on one thing: how many paid museums you would have visited anyway.

Hola Barcelona: transport only

Run by TMB, it covers the metro and TMB buses, the NitBus night buses, the Montjuïc funicular, the tram, FGC trains in zone 1 and Rodalies trains in zone 1, for 24 to 120 consecutive hours from the first validation. A 24-hour card costs €12.50.

It includes one metro trip from the airport and one back on the L9 Sud, which on its own is worth €11.80 at the €5.90 airport-ticket price. The Montjuïc cable car is not included. Children under 4 travel free on public transport anyway.

Barcelona Card: transport plus museums

Sold by Turisme de Barcelona, the version with transport covers the metro, TMB buses, the tram, Rodalies zone 1, the Montjuïc funicular and the metro or train to the airport. It does not include night buses. Child prices (ages 4 to 12) are €27, €37, €46 and €54 for 48 to 120 hours.

It gives free entry to more than 25 museums and venues, among them the Museu Picasso, the MNAC and the Fundació Joan Miró, and discounts elsewhere: €7 off at Casa Batlló and La Pedrera. The Sagrada Família and Park Güell are not included. There is also a cheaper Barcelona Card Essential without transport.

The sum: when the Barcelona Card pays off

Over 72 hours the Barcelona Card costs €31.70 more than the Hola Barcelona. The three best-known museums it includes cost €12 (MNAC), €12 (Museu Picasso, online) and €17 (Fundació Miró, online): €41 in total. Visit all three on paid tickets and the card wins by about €9; visit two and the Hola Barcelona plus tickets is cheaper.

Two things tip the balance back. Several of these museums have free slots (the Picasso on Thursday afternoons in winter and on the first Sunday, the MNAC on Saturday afternoons), and under-18s enter the Picasso free and under-16s the MNAC free. If your plans fit those slots, the card's museum value shrinks.

What neither card includes

• The Aerobús shuttle (both cards include the airport metro, the Barcelona Card also the train).
• The Sagrada Família and Park Güell, which sell their own timed tickets.
• The Montjuïc cable car.

Which one to buy

• Mostly walking, beaches and the Gaudí sights: Hola Barcelona, or even a T-casual if you make fewer than ten journeys.
• Three or more paid museums in a short stay, on dates without free slots: Barcelona Card.
• Arriving by air: both cover the airport metro; with Hola Barcelona that is one trip each way.

Keep reading

• Which Barcelona transport pass to buy
• Free museums in Barcelona
• Sagrada Família, Park Güell and Casa Batlló tickets
• Barcelona airport to the city centre