Barcelona Biking

Barcelona Biking gives you the freedom to discover and enjoy this lovely city. It's oh so easy and not expensive!

Renting a bike in Barcelona and many other European cities like Paris, Stockholm and Valencia is a very popular way to get around town.

The Ajuntament de Barcelona positively encourages the newly found bicycle culture by providing a public bike service called BICING.

In March 2007, Barcelona's public bike program, BICING had 14 stations. On 1 May 2007 there were 750 bikes and 50 stations and as of July 2007 there were 4,500 bikes and 100 stations.

As you can see the program is an astounding success! It not only keeps the lovely city of Barcelona pollution free but keeps you in good shape.

The program is aimed towards those who live here as it's intended as a new form of public transport to complement the traditional transport of the city of Barcelona. Its purpose is to cover the small daily journeys that are made on the inside of the city.

How it Works...

All you have to do is book online and order a BICING card from www.bicing.com (website is in Catalan and Spanish). The cost is €24 per year or €1 per week (available only from July). You must provide your credit card number and then your card will be mailed to you. If you keep the bike for more than 24 hours, BICING will charge you €150.

You can use it for up to TWO HOURS and the first 30 minutes of use are FREE, then each additional half-hour will cost you €0.30.

All you have to do is collect one of these lovely red and white bikes from any bike station (you don't have to drop it off at the same one) and then return it to a BICING station before the two hours is up.

On Your Bike...

To use a bike all you have to do is swipe your BICING card at any of the bike stations around Barcelona and you will be told which bike to take.

You have a maximum of two hours use before returning it to any station in the city. There are bicycle lanes by the waterfront and in the medieval streets of Ciutat Vella.

The photo above is of a BICING station near Via Laietana in El Born next to the lovely Palau de la Musica Catalana.