The end of January promises to be very busy for Barcelona hotels and restaurants because in a few days two important events in the city calendar will take place: The Brandery and Opportunity Week.

The Brandery will open its doors from January 27th to January 29th, this is the sixth winter edition and the biggest urban fashion fair in the sector. New styles and trends will be showed and most of them will be the stars of next season collections.

One of the new things this winter is that the tradeshow is on the weekend so a greater number of public are expected to attend. The fact that the fair is open to the general public every day and the combination of fashion shows by renowned designers and concerts, make this show a great opportunity to catch up with everything happening in the world of fashion and trends.

This year, the fair will also deal with some solidarity proposals as well as exhibitions and workshops which will explore the relationship between art, cinema, eroticism, music and fashion.

If you are interested in getting to know the fashion and brands that dress Barcelona, contact us and we will design a tour to suit your needs and you will enjoy a visit with all sorts of special attention.

Spain’s biggest international tourism trade fair is back in Madrid for its 32th edition.

Fitur is a special annual event for all professionals who want to take advantage of visiting many clients in a short space of time. This fair also helps arrangements to be made or pending business closed. Furthermore, the show is the forum for many events: training and technical seminars, conferences, discussions and other activities related to tourism, all run at the Ifema premises from 18th to 22nd of January .

Last year’s fair had the following results: more than 10.000 exhibitors from 166 countries or regions attended the fair and over 200,000 visitors between professionals and the general public, were registered.

Barcelona Guide Bureau will attend the fair. See you there!

Next Thursday January 5 from 06.00 pm the Three Wise Men will arrive to Barcelona.

This annual event gathers thousands of people who approach to the places where the famous cavalcade passes through. This parade, the most important of the year in Barcelona, begins in The Old Port, El Moll de la Fusta, and finishes at the Magic Fountain in Montjuic, passing through Via Laietana and Ronda Sant Antoni, along  3miles plenty of families with children who have been waiting the whole year to enjoy this beautiful experience.

The Three Wise Men, Melchor, Caspar and Balthasar, will cover the itinerary inside of their gorgeous floats, greeting and distributing  12.000 kg of sweets and candies to the public. The parade may last around three hours and more than 1.200 extras among whom dancers, actors, giants and fairies will participate and will make possible this 0.5 miles long travelling spectacle.

Regarding one of the peculiarities of this year we can mention that the cavalcade will count on a float decorated by Custo. This float will be heading the parade to promote the city and to enhance The Barcelona Tourism brand.

Something may interest to the new technologies lovers is that the cavalcade can be followed in real time by Twitter through the hashtag #cavalcadabcn.

Barcelona Guide Bureau is happy to enjoy the cavalcade from the first raw as our head office faces to Via Laietana  ¡We wish you will enjoy this event too!

Si acceptem que el turisme es una de les poques industries que funcionen en el nostre país malgrat la crisi, es lògic pensar que aquest serà un dels sectors on la demanda de persones qualificades  s’haurà de incrementar.

Des de el Centre de Formació de Barcelona Guide Bureau donem una capacitació d’alt rendiment a aquests professionals, tant en coneixements culturals com pràctics, gràcies a la combinació de sortides als escenaris reals on es desenvolupa l’activitat turística amb sessions teòriques a l’aula a càrrec de formadors especialitzats de solvència contrastada.

La formació consisteix en curs intensiu de tres mesos que facilita als alumnes les eines necessàries per desenvolupar amb èxit la activitat de Guia de Turisme de Catalunya.

En aquest curs, es donen pautes que permetran als futurs guies, a més d’aprovar l’exàmen, ser capaços de transmetre la informació de manera clara i amena, considerant en tot moment la dinàmica del grup que s’assisteix, utilitzant les tècniques de comunicació i harmonitzant-les amb una correcta coordinació de tots els elements que intervenen en la prestació del servei Turistic.

Si vols fer de Guia de Turisme de Catalunya, el nostre curs, avalat per deu anys d’èxit és la millor opció.

Informa’t sense compromís.

Like many other cities in Europe, Christmas is about to come to Barcelona and this year the City Hall has made a great effort to send a message of hope and joy to both citizens and visitors.

Many activities have been planned throughout the city to make it look splendid over Christmas and, in addition to the shopping that goes with these festivities, to allow people to celebrate the Catalan traditions and other social activities.

This year the city will have more Christmas lights and they will be lit more hours:  more than 300 streets, over 60 km altogether,  will be lit with LED lights. Today, the 30th November they will be turned on at 6 pm.

They have also decided that each district will have a 6 metre (20 foot) fir tree this year, in addition to the 12 metre (40 foot) fir tree in Plaza Cataluña.

The traditional “Pessebre” (Nativity scene) in Plaça de Sant Jaume, to be inaugurated on December 1st, will be inspired by Romanesque art and will include models of a ruined chapel and cloister in a Mediterranean landscape.

In addition there will be a gigantic “Tió” at the open air Santa Llucia market from 3rd to 20th December. “Tió” means log and is part of a Catalan tradition where a log is brought in from the forest, dressed and given a face and fed over the weeks before Christmas. On the 24th  the children sing and hit the log and it gives them gifts. You will also enjoy an exhibition of “Angels, Shepherds and Kings” from the Barcelona Museum of Ethnology which will be displayed in the lobby of the City Hall (from 1st to 29th December) and a carol concert performed by the Orfeó Català (December, 28th).

The Magic Fountain of Montjuic will also offer a  light and water show to the sound of classic and modern carols, from December 2nd  to January 1st. “l’Home dels Nassos” (Man of the Noses) shall be seen in the city markets on December 31st.

Another Christmas activity is being organized by the Barcelona Commerce Foundation: they will install a temporary ice rink of considerable dimensions in Plaça Catalunya.

These efforts are aimed at imbibing the spirit of Christmas in citizens of and visitors to Barcelona to make the city an enjoyable place to spend Christmas. They would like to establish Barcelona as an international Christmas shopping city and are organizing a late night shopping on 30th of November, coinciding with the day they light the streets, when the shops around Paseo de Gracia will remain open until midnight.

Whether you already know the city or have not yet been here, this will be a great time to come to Barcelona. Would you like to go around with us? Barcelona Guide Bureau loves Christmas.

For some time ago, BGB have been working closely with the Miró Foundation providing the experience and professionalism of our guides to do the guided visits of the museum. One more time, the Miró Foundation and the BGB have joined forces to offer their customers an enhanced experience related to the atmosphere that surrounded the artist.

Referring to this, and taking advantage of the temporary exhibition “The Ladder of Scape”, which was opened last week, we have designed a new concept of visit which includes the relevant points that connect our city with the artist, in addition to the Foundation.

This visit aims to provide a broader perspective on the works and the life of the artist in our city. For this reason, we have created a guided walking tour through the most significant places related to Miró’s figure and Barcelona. This tour can be complete with a guided visit through the Foundation Joan Miró, including the permanent exhibition as well as the temporary one.

Discover an itinerary which gets close to the life and work of this Catalan artist who was born in Barcelona in 1893 and later installed his studio in Palma de Mallorca where he died when he was 90.

The walking tour route goes along the following locations: Cataluña Square> Las Ramblas> Pla de l’Os> The Lyceum> Ferran Street> Passage of Credit> Gothic quarter and Sant Jaume Square> Colón Hotel > Official College of Architects of Catalonia> Boters Street > Cucurulla Street and Cucurulla Square > Montsió Street> Portal Angel Street and Artistic Circle of Sant Lluch> Cataluña Square.

If the tour concludes with a visit to the Miró Foundation, then the itinerary will continue by bus through: Paseo de Gracia Avenue> Aragón Street > Tarragona Street > Joan Miró Park> España Square > Miro Foundation.

If you are interested in this tour or in some other, we will be pleased to organize it for you.

If you come to the Colonia Güell between the 14th and 16th of October, in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, you can enjoy the eleventh modernist party which will be celebrated there, complete with short theatrical and musical performances.

This year, in which the controversial theme of using Catalan in classrooms has re-emerged, the underlying theme in the Colonia will be education in schools. Eusebi Güell, who was a very paternalistic employer and also a person ahead of his time, created the first twentieth-century Catalan school. If you pass by Ca l’Ordal you will see photos from the first days of this modern school.

In addition to education , you will find a street market with handmade products, lots of entertainment in the modernist “taverna” and even a romantic wedding in Ca l’Espinal. Throughout the weekend, many activities will take place for both children and adults, including the opportunity to experience what it was like to live in a colony, just as the original employees of the Colonia Güell once did.

Do not forget to visit the Güell Crypt, a modernist church designed by Gaudi which was never completed, with a surprising futuristic image that emphasizes the way that light filters through the windows and the large number of symbols masterfully embodied in every detail of this building. This particular construction is perceived as special as only so singular an architect could have completed.

If you want to take advantage of this festive atmosphere in the colony, join us for a guided tour and let us help you discover the magic and majesty of this unique locale.

The 24th of September approaches and as every year the air becomes infused with a party atmosphere and no wonder, because the last celebration in Barcelona before autumn is its grand festival: La Mercè.  A festival rooted in the history of the city and in the will of its people to share Catalan culture with anyone who wishes to get to know it.

Barcelona becomes the scene of the most popular festival in the city’s calendar, that occupies many public spaces and offers all types of activities: street art, concerts, traditional dances, human towers, circuses, parades, fireworks displays… not forgetting to mention performances by guest stars/artists who want to demonstrate that Barcelona is an international meeting point, where the most brilliant artistic expression of the moment converges

This year’s extensive program promises to make it difficult to choose from the wide range of activities which to attend, as there are options for all ages, from 8 am until 4 am, all around the city.

The festival of La Mercè is a festival by and for the people, Barcelona’s citizens are happy to share their space with locals and foreigners and to who come out to the streets to enjoy the city at its best moment.

Music, humor, fire, dance, colors, theatre, light, magic … La Mercè is synonymous with tradition and Catalan identity.

As every four years, the most important textile and garment machinery exhibition comes back again to gather the leading names in the textile industry and lots of innovative purposes for the whole textile-making process.

This International Exhibition of Textile Machinery has been held every four years since 1951. It is the world’s largest international textile event, recognized as the Olympics of the textile and garment machinery industry.

The current edition will take place in Barcelona, from 22 to 29 September 2011 at Fira de Barcelona Gran Via. The Gran Via venue, is designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. It features state-of-the-art trade fair technology. It currently has a gross exhibition area of 200,000 square metres in the six pavilions.

This year, coinciding with the sixtieth Anniversary edition, are organized a wide range of activities during and around the dates of the fair. The deals compresses expert presentations and interactive panel discussions designed to offer a global perspective on the textile industry.

If some people still question whether it’s true that literature and fashion fit together perfectly, we propose you come to this exposition to clear any doubt.
The exposition puts together these two artistic fields, showing the creations of 20 designers that have “dressed” 20 different characters from Russian and Hispano-American literature, coinciding with the Dual Year which brings these two cultures together. The unification between fashion and literature materializes through the personal interpretation of some of Spain’s most prestigious designers: Loewe, Victorio & Luchino, Hanníbal Laguna, Duyos, Roberto Verino, Ana Locking, Juanjo Oliva, Lemoniez, Devota & Lomba, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Jesús del Pozo, Davidelfín, Miriam Ocáriz, Ailanto, Custo Barcelona, Miguel Palacio, Roberto Torretta, Amaya Arzuaga, Lydia Delgado and Ángel Schlesser.
Thus we can find Loewe dressing Dulcinea, Duyos dressing Ana Karenina or Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada interpreting, in a different way, Mario Vargas Llosa. It is indeed an opportunity to enjoy these special creations.
The exposition, organized by Roca and the association “Creadores de Moda” (Creators of Fashion) in collaboration with  ICEX, the Ministery of Culture and the Instituto Cervantes will be shown at the Roca Barcelona Gallery until 16th October.
If, after visiting the exposition, you feel like going shopping at the most idiosyncratic shops in Barcelona or its art galleries, BGB offers you a “Personal Shopper” to design a tour to satisfy your needs and tastes.