Barcelona cruises – city takes top spot among European ports

More than one million cruise ship passengers visit Barcelona every year, making the city the most popular in Europe for cruise ships and, incredibly, the second most visited cruise destination in the entire world.

It’s easy to understand why, of course. Geographically, Barcelona is situated near the entrance to the Mediterranean so it can serve as an ideal starting point for cruises around those beautiful waters from March through to the end of October. Additionally, the port itself is right at the heart of the city – an important point when contrasted with places such as Rome and Florence where the so-called ‘port’ is at least an hour’s drive away. In Barcelona, you are little more than a five minute walk from the monument to Christopher Columbus and the southern end of Las Ramblas.

The closeness of El Prat airport, Barcelona’s international airport which has developed its international traffic so much in the past two decades, has also encouraged many people to consider beginning their cruises in the city. The prospect of spending a short time exploring everything that Barcelona has to offer before cruising off on vacation is an enticing prospect which draws increasing numbers of people. The development of the city’s hotels, especially around the port area itself, has, of course, been hugely beneficial here.

Another significant factor in the growth of Barcelona’s popularity as a cruise port has been the work of the port authorities themselves to both develop and promote their facilities. Usually mooring alongside the Moll d’Adossat, a high bridge has been constructed to take people straight to Las Ramblas and the facilities themselves make the city ideal for both the cruise ship lines and their passengers. By helping found the Medcruise Association in 1996, which promotes the ports of the Mediterranean as tourist destinations, the authorities also helped raise the industry’s profile in the city.

The consequence of all this is that, at the height of the season, it is quite common to see a dozen or so ships docked in the harbour – ranging from the enormous new cruise ships that dwarf everything around them to the more specialised, smaller ships such as the Seabourn Legend, that travels the Mediterranean with only about 200 guests. Part of the beauty of Barcelona is that this number of tourists can be absorbed into the city, without totally overwhelming it; there is so much for visitors to see and so many places to go.

Indeed, all of the major cruise lines now regularly call at Barcelona, with most of them actually choosing the city as a major point of departure. It’s possible to find Barcelona in the itineraries of all the following companies – MSC Italian, Holland America, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Pullmantur, Costa, Louis, Norwegian, Oceania, Crystal, Island, Princess, Seabourn, Windstar and Azamara.

And nowadays, not all cruises restrict themselves to the traditional Mediterranean routes. Some journeys head northwards to northern Europe or the Baltic Sea, whereas it is even possible to find trans-Atlantic cruises, often stopping off in the Canaries or the Azores. For this reason, what the trade knows as ‘re-positioning cruises’, when ships change from their summer to winter schedules, often start in Barcelona.

Cruises are becoming more popular each year and they do offer a wonderful way of visiting many of the Mediterranean’s finest cities. When you can combine this with a visit to Barcelona, it might well represent a near-perfect holiday experience.

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