Leisure

The Port of Barcelona, as well as being an important economic exchange point, is excellently located for a walk along Barcelona’s seafront. The Port of Barcelona occupies a large area of land and, obviously, its adjacent waters. More than 800 hectares is enough space to accommodate large cargo and passenger piers and storage of goods, but it has also left a good percentage for leisure spaces and business centres. The section that extends the central promenade of Las Ramblas, whose final point is the monument to Columbus, leaves us at the foot of the Port Vell. Here we can begin or end a magnificent route, enjoying different areas that blend in with the landscape. We find Maremagnum, a semi-open shopping centre, which integrates restoration and commerce in a delicate balance, sheltered by a very peculiar architecture and linked to the docks through an iron and wood footbridge that constitutes in itself a promenade of leisure. The Port Vell, located between Ciutat Vella and La Barceloneta, was not integrated into the city until the 1992 Olympic Games. As a result of this important event on a world scale, the whole area that was popularly known as Moll de la Fusta, a vast storage area for wood and goods in the open air that prevented free pedestrian traffic, was reconstructed. This transformation allows the Port Vell to operate as a marina, housing the Barcelona Royal Yacht Club, the Barcelona Royal Maritime Club and the Port Vell Marina for luxury yachts. Today, the increasingly reduced area for professional fishing is still in the Moll dels Pescadors, where the Barcelona Fishermen’s Guild and the fish auction market are located. In the area mentioned above, between the Columbus Monument and the Maremagnum, we find the Palau de Mar, which houses the Museum of the History of Catalonia, the World Trade Center, an important business centre, and the Aquarium, the most important centre in the world in terms of the Mediterranean sea. We cannot finish this tour without going a few metres further and visiting the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, located in the building of the Royal Shipyards of Barcelona, a space dedicated to shipbuilding between the 13th and 18th centuries, whose existence is documented since 1243. The Museu Marítim is a reference institution of Mediterranean maritime culture whose main task is the interpretation and dissemination of the culture of the sea. In order to enjoy this wide range of activities to the full, we suggest you order a Zolty, the best way to forget about parking and the inconvenience of searching for the area. Open your Zolty App and choose among all the available vehicles around you, closed rate or taximeter, easy, fast and safe. You only have to worry about having a good time.

Barcelona has a peculiarity that differentiates it from the rest of the big European cities. Its geographical location makes its expansion very difficult as it is enclosed between the sea and the surrounding mountains. Therefore, when we visit the city at its southern end, bordering the sea coast you see a majestic hill that as a natural barrier prevents visual continuity. That promontory of wide base and brief height is Montjuïc, which with little more than 170 meters high, gives us a spectacular view of the whole city at its feet. A place of pilgrimage for foreigners and locals for various recreational reasons, Montjuïc has a wide variety of recreational, sporting, cultural and natural infrastructures that make it an unmissable place to visit. You can visit facilities such as the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium (next to which is the Museum of the Barcelona Olympic Foundation), the Palau Sant Jordi, the Bernat Picornell Swimming Pools and the Montjuic Municipal Pool which hosted the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.  Its streets and accesses formed for many years the old Circuit of Montjuïc, competing for great prizes in motor racing and motorcycling, and currently used for cycling as the finishing point of the Volta a Catalunya and even some stages of the Tour de France. It also hosts a large number of cultural institutions such as the Barcelona Teatre Musical, the Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch, the Teatre Lliure, the Mercat de les Flors, the Teatro Griego, the Joan Miró Foundation, the CaixaForum Barcelona cultural center, the MNAC, the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona and the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, and at the top of it the Montjuïc Castle, a former fortress and military museum. At its main entrance, on Avenida María Cristina from Plaza España, there are several pavilions built for the 1929 International Exhibition, such as the Pavelló Alemany by Mies van der Rohe, and which constitute the current Fira de Barcelona, guarded by two twin towers that symbolize the exhibition. Finally, we would like to highlight the Historical Botanical Garden of Barcelona, which has a unique collection of cactus, and the new Botanical Garden of Barcelona, specialized in the flora of the Mediterranean areas of the world. If you are a nature lover, you can’t miss these spaces. We have only named some of the many places of interest that we encourage you to discover, just ask for a Zolty to take care of your distraction, easy, simple and comfortable. Download your Zolty App and leave your ride in our hands!

Barcelona is one of the most attractive cities in the world, attracting a multitude of tourists every year. The urban network contains authentic jewels of history both on an architectural and artistic level. And when we talk to any visitor about an emblematic artery in Barcelona, there is undoubtedly a name of its own, Las Ramblas. This great open-air walk, 1.3 kilometres long, is part of the great human showcase that we can find in Barcelona. Las Ramblas links Plaça de Catalunya with the Port Vell, and is home to a colourful succession of shops, souvenir stands, cafés and restaurants. The origin of this promenade was the riverbed that transported rainwater throughout the city as a natural drainage system, taking advantage of the slope of the mountain and sea, until it flowed into the Mediterranean. For this reason, the origin of the word “rambla” comes from the Arabic and means sand, which is nothing more than the sediments left by the water as it slides down its bed. We can divide Las Ramblas of Barcelona into five sections that are very difficult to differentiate if not for some architectural landmarks that each area treasures: Rambla de Canaletes: This is the first part of the Ramblas if we take the Plaça de Catalunya as a reference point. Perhaps the most crowded section, because it is very typical to take the corresponding photo taking advantage of the perspective of the whole sloping walk towards the sea. There is also a point of attraction, which is the Font de Canaletas, a meeting place for the football festivities and for tourists who try its water to return to the city. Rambla de los Estudios: This is the next sector, which takes its name because it was formerly the location of the Estudio General or University. Rambla de las Flores: Although it has lost some of its charm, it is the most striking because of its colour and fragrance, as it has a large number of flower and ornamental plant stalls. In this area you will find the Boquería Market, a place you should not miss. Rambla de los Capuchinos: It is the central part and here the interesting points are the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Palacio Güell, or the Plaça Reial. Rambla de Santa Mónica: This is the final part that leads to the Mirador de Colón. An area full of bars and restaurants where you can spend a lively afternoon watching people walk around. Although its location is very central and well communicated, we assure you that the best way to reach it is by asking for a Zolty vehicle. Easy, open the application, choose the car you have closest, mark your destination, and that’s it! Moreover, if you choose the closed price, you will be able to know what the journey will cost you in advance. Order your Zolty!

Barcelona, like any big city, has an important commercial offer. Large number of stores and boutiques of all kinds of products flood the streets and avenues. Curiously, the confluence of many of them in certain areas give rise to shopping centers that are called “open air”, some of which are well known such as Carrer de Sants and Gran de Gracia, where a multitude of businesses from different sectors are located side by side. A very popular alternative for a few years are closed shopping centers or malls. Only in the urban area, we have nine shopping centers located in strategic points of this great city. Although it is possible that you will find many of them during a walk around the city, there are some that require you to travel there expressly. Therefore, a good alternative is to open your Zolty App and choose the vehicle closest to your situation to take you. You simply click and in a few seconds you’ll be sitting in the direction of the chosen center. Here we list the best-known shopping centers in the city: Maremagnum. Located in Port Vell in Barcelona. Its commercial offer includes fashion stores and accessories from national and international brands: Mango, Desigual, Lacoste and H&M; and a wide range of restaurants. In addition, it’s the only shopping center in Barcelona that has permission to open 365 days a year, as it’s located in an area classified as tourist. The Maremagnum has 22,000 square meters of commercial space, spread over two buildings. The main building, with three floors, has 18,800 square meters and the rest is a garden and parking area. Diagonal Mar. Located in the San Martín district of Barcelona. It has a constructed area of 100,500 m² (87,000 m² for commerce and leisure) and 240 stores spread over 3 levels, as well as an underground car park with capacity for 5,000 vehicles. The Triangle. It is located in the Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona. It has 22 stores spread over 2 levels. L’Illa Diagonal. Located on Avenida Diagonal, between the districts of Les Corts and Sarriá-San Gervasi. It has a 35,000 m² area for the shopping center, distributed over three floors. Designed by the architects Rafael Moneo and Manuel de Solà-Morales, this shopping center received the FAD Prize for architecture in 1994. You can discover the rest in a pleasant ride in a Zolty car: Gran Via 2, Glòries, Arenas, La Maquinista, El Centre de la Vila.