An innovative social enterprise, HIDDEN CITY TOURS, is offering an alternative way of getting to know Barcelona, inviting tourists, and anyone else who is interested, to see the city through the eyes of someone who has lived on its streets.

Barcelona tour

This social project takes its inspiration from others of the same kind, such as two in the UK (Unseen Tours in London and Secret City Tours in Bath).

HIDDEN CITY TOURS will give jobs to Barcelona’s homeless (capable people who, at a certain point in their lives, have been forced to live on the street for a variety of reasons) and, in return, will offer a unique experience of the Gothic Quarter, to begin with.

The founder of HIDDEN CITY TOURS, a pioneering project in Catalonia, is Lisa Grace, a British woman who has lived in Barcelona for more than ten years. She decided to launch this timely social alternative after seeing the success of similar schemes in her own country at first hand, and realising how much potential the idea would have in Barcelona, the fourth most visited city in Europe and the only one that isn’t a national capital.

There are more than 3,000 homeless people in Barcelona (in the last count, in 2011, 870 people were sleeping on the street and 2,000 were spread between public shelters and informal settlements). And yet the city is a top-tier tourist destination, and a very important one. The number of visitors coming to Barcelona has grown enormously in recent years. ‘Taking advantage of the city’s tourism boom,’ says Lisa, ‘we are the first here to create jobs for homeless people in this way, with the advantage that they know the streets first-hand. We’ll start with a route around the Gothic Quarter, but once demand grows we’ll extend the itineraries to other parts of the city, and that way we’ll be able to provide more jobs for these people.’

Lisa, the founder and driving force behind this original initiative, says that she too, like so many others, was a victim of the crisis, as she lost her job as a marketing consultant last year: ‘When you lose your job, you realise how vulnerable you are. I was lucky enough to have my family’s support, but for those who don’t, or who for some reason can’t count on it, ending up on the street is a real and frightening possibility.’

HIDDEN CITY TOURS has selected its tour guides through a Barcelona NGO. Together with a local historian, it is training two guides – Francisco and Juan Carlos – who are currently living in temporary accommodation provided by an NGO.

The founder adds: ‘For me it’s a completely new process of managing a team, but a very rewarding one too. Our guides have an incredible knowledge of the city’s history and a unique perspective on Barcelona’s social reality. That mix makes for a really new and special way of experiencing this great Mediterranean city as a visitor.’

The tours will run in English, Catalan and Spanish from 10 October 2013 – World Homeless Day.

Tours in Spanish/Catalan, with English translation. Places are limited.

Small groups, 10 people maximum.

Price: €10 standard rate / €8 under-16s and pensioners / under-3s free.

For more information and bookings: http://www.hiddencitytours.com; or send an email to lisa.grace@hiddencitytours.com; or call 655585156.

Book your place now!