{"id":63562,"date":"2016-03-11T09:22:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T08:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/?p=63562"},"modified":"2021-10-13T18:08:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:08:30","slug":"getting-around-with-bla-bla-car-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/getting-around-with-bla-bla-car-in-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Around With Bla Bla Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have heard that Uber<\/a><\/strong>\u2014banned from operating in Spain in 2014\u2014has returned to Barcelona<\/strong> in the form of a food delivery service. So while you might not be able to summon a lift from your smartphone you can,\u00a0at least, snag a hot meal. Getting around Barcelona\u00a0isn’t difficult\u00a0as there\u2019s no shortage of traditional taxis, but that doesn\u2019t help much if your destination is in a completely different city. Enter Bla Bla Car<\/a><\/strong>, a cheap ridesharing<\/strong> service that\u2019s as unique as it is convenient. Today in this article from ShBarcelona<\/strong><\/a>, we’ll be talking about the popular Spanish rideshare service,\u00a0Bla Bla Car<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Related Article: Save Money Traveling Around Spain Sharing a Car<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Bla Bla Car: how it works<\/h2>\n

\"Bla<\/a>Let\u2019s say you\u2019re planning a weekend trip to Girona. You\u2019d like to find the cheapest transportation<\/strong> available, immediately ruling out car rentals and the fastest trains. You don\u2019t mind carpooling<\/strong> as you\u2019d rather split the cost of petrol instead of shelling out Euros for the AVE, but instead of resorting to hitchhiking, you jump on the Bla Bla\u00a0<\/strong>Car<\/strong> website or app, choose your dates and destination, and find a driver selling a seat in their car. You get a cheap ride<\/strong> to Girona while your driver gets someone to help foot the travel expenses. Both of you get a travel companion to (hopefully) enjoy the ride with. Think of it as AirBnB<\/span><\/strong> for car sharing<\/strong>. Drivers and passengers can raise their experience level by having a complete profile and receiving positive feedback from other members. A higher experience level means that you’re a trusted member of the Bla Bla Car<\/strong> community and are thus more likely to find a passenger\/driver for your next trip. Drivers with more experience can generally charge a little more for a seat in their car. What\u2019s more, drivers set their preferences to show if they allow smoking, if they’re okay with pets and even how chatty they are (hence the name). All payments are handled on the app or website via bank transfer or PayPal so cash is never exchanged between passengers and drivers, just conversation and the occasional playlist.<\/p>\n

\"Carpool\"<\/a>After hearing about\u00a0Bla Bla Car<\/strong>, Shbarcelona<\/a><\/strong> still wasn\u2019t convinced. Too many questions remained: How much are he rides? What if you get a creepy travel companion? Just how safe is it? We caught up with a student in Barcelona who\u2019d recently used this\u00a0car-sharing<\/strong> service for the first time and asked about her trip.<\/p>\n

ShBarcelona<\/strong>: How did you hear about Bla Bla Car<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n

My Catalan roommate suggested we use the service after we couldn\u2019t find affordable train and bus tickets from Barcelona to Madrid over a holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

ShBarcelona<\/strong>: What was the booking process like?<\/em><\/p>\n

The app shows all available rides for the day, according to when and where you want to go. You\u2019re able to see the model of the car you will be riding in, how many seats are available and the approximate time of arrival. Once you select a driver they can accept or reject your request for a ride. We were able to choose an agreed upon pick-up destination by messaging back and forth on the app.<\/p>\n

ShBarcelona<\/strong>: How much did it cost?<\/em><\/p>\n

I paid about 32 Euros, one-way, from Barcelona to Madrid, but that was during a holiday weekend. It might be cheaper during other times.<\/p>\n

ShBarcelona<\/strong>: Would you do it again?<\/em><\/p>\n

Absolutely. It was a lot more affordable than taking the train and our driver was friendly. We made the trip with his dog, but my roommate and I didn\u2019t mind. I\u2019d definitely try Bla Bla Car\u00a0<\/strong>again.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n 5<\/strong>\n \/<\/span>\n 5<\/strong>\n (<\/span>\n 1<\/strong>\n \n vote <\/span>\n )<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have heard that Uber\u2014banned from operating in Spain in 2014\u2014has returned to Barcelona in the form of a food delivery service. So while you might not be able to summon a lift from your smartphone you can,\u00a0at least, snag a hot meal. Getting around Barcelona\u00a0isn’t difficult\u00a0as there\u2019s no shortage of traditional taxis, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":63566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4597],"tags":[3530,3531],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63562"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106793,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562\/revisions\/106793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shbarcelona.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}