With a household of football crazies, a Camp Nou Tour was always on the list of things to do in Barcelona.
At this point I should also mention that I’m not so mad about football as the rest of my family. So, I really didn’t know what to expect from the tour, or whether I should even go. Should I just leave the boys to it and use it as an excuse to hit the shops, alone? A rarity in my world. But there was something about the excitement and passion that surrounds Spanish football that ignited my curiosity to give it a whirl.
Getting there is fairly straight forward. The closest Metro stations are on Line 3: Palau Reial or Les Corts or Line 5: Collblanc or Badal. Alternatively you can catch a bus, depending on where you are coming from. If you have a car, free parking is available during the tour opening hours.
The excitement levels began to grow as we walked down the hill and the stadium gradually came into view.
Buying tickets on the day was very straightforward, there were no queues, but this may of course be a different story in the height of summer. Tickets can be bought online in advance directly from FC Barcelona. The current prices for adults are 23 Euros and 18 Euros for children (6-13, under 6’s are free).
The first part of the self led tour takes you through the Camp Nou museum. I wasn’t especially looking forward to this part of the tour as I imagined endless information boards to read, detailing every goal and statistic relating to the club. I wanted to fast forward to the exciting bits where we would see the pitch, players tunnel and changing rooms.
But, I was very wrong with my assumptions. The museum part of the tour turned out to be fascinating, even for a ‘non footie fan.’ So, you can imagine the effect it had on the football crazies? Rows of trophies, shirts and incredibly well done interactive media. Whereas I was ready to allow them to skip on through the museum (because it suited me), we spent a very enjoyable 1 hour + checking out the history and accomplishments of FC Barcelona.
A boy can dream…
Interactive touch screen highlights of FC Barcelona. Transfixed…
The next part of the tour takes you out for your first glimpse of the pitch. I don’t know if it was because I had only been to 1 or 2 football stadiums before this visit, or because of the sheer wow factor of Camp Nou, but the first sighting pretty much made my belly flip. You know, that exciting butterfly feeling usually reserved for really special experiences. I never dreamt I would feel like that seeing a football pitch. But, it was impressive. Very impressive.
The tour allows you to sit in the stadium seats for as long as you wish (with some sections closed off), before moving on to experience the pitch on ground level. Pitch side is understandably one of the busiest parts of the tour with cameras clicking away for that perfect shot.
After walking through the player’s tunnel you are taken to the changing rooms where you can see the massage tables, jacuzzi, showers and lockers.
The tour finishes with the obligatory shop – and this really is a shop you can’t distract your kids from. It is set over 3 floors with every piece of merchandise relating to FC Barcelona that you could ever possibly imagine. Fortunately we had already pre warned them that we wouldn’t be buying anything, but that didn’t stop them from spending a further half an hour dreaming of the football boots they should be buying 🙂
And so, the conclusion. Well, the FC Barcelona website recommends you allow 90 minutes for the tour. We spent over 3 hours in there, on a fairly quiet day. So perhaps that tells you all you need to know. The Camp Nou tour really is an experience for everybody – even those with only a mild case of football fever.
The shops can wait.
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