Tour Options from Barcelona to Montserrat

Enjoy this popular day trip in style on a private excursion with Welcome Pickups and your own English-speaking driver. From the centre of Barcelona, you will be picked up and after a warm greeting and initial introduction, you will be on your way through the stunning Catalan countryside to Montserrat. Welcome drivers are hand–picked to be ambassadors for their city and have a high standard of English speaking, so your experience will be like travelling with a friend. The Montserrat-Barcelona tour has four recommended stops, as well as a number of opportunities along the way for some amazing photos suggested by your driver. Your driver will also be knowledgeable about the area and the destination, providing you insight into the history and cultural significance of the Montserrat Abbey and national park.

• Montserrat
• Museum of Montserrat
• Sant Miquel View Point
• Segura Wineries Wine Tour

The total time length of the Welcome Pickups tour is 8 hours and you can choose to include or exclude whichever stops you prefer during that time limit. Just let your driver know at the beginning of the ride. The tour has capacity from a single traveller up to a 8-passenger group.

Your Welcome driver can pick you up from anywhere you wish to begin your journey in the centre of Barcelona. While this may be at your accommodation, you may also want to be picked up from a central sight or café. When you book your tour you can nominate where you will be picked up from and what time. On your return, you may also be dropped off at a location of your choosing.

Welcome Pickups tailors its services to be the most convenient and enjoyable option for popular day trips. It is therefore, the most convenient option to get to Monserrat from Barcelona. The service is door-to-door, your driver is a local ambassador and your guide and schedule is flexible to accommodate all your needs.

A popular way to enjoy a tour to Montserrat from Barcelona, particularly for large groups traveling together, is to take an organised coach trip. There are many companies offering tours via large online travel agents, as well as opportunities for exclusive, private bookings of particularly large groups or specialist language requirements. These tours include a licensed tour guide who will provide information en route, as well as guide passengers around the site itself. They are often half-day tours lasting 4 hours, but some are longer lasting 5 or 6 hours. Tours typically leave from 10:00 for a morning tour or 15:00 in the afternoon.

Coach Tour

Costs for organised coach tours vary in price depending on a number of factors, including the company that provides the tour, the time of year, the time of day and if there are any extras included such as lunch. The general price is around €55 per adult passenger or €40 for a child.

As this is a popular tour it runs throughout the year, at least once per day. There may be some religious holidays that tours do not run on, but these are few. Some companies offer both an afternoon and a morning trip to Montserrat, so there can be twice daily tours.

Overall this is quite a convenient way to visit and experience Montserrat, particularly if you have specific language needs or are booking for a very large group. The price is reasonable per ticket and there is a licensed guide that will take around the site. The drawback is that the length of the tour is often quite short, including transport time. It also doesn’t allow for a lot of freedom to follow your own schedule, as you will most likely want to stick with the rest of the group and the guide.

The train system across Barcelona and throughout Catalonia is well organised and there is plenty of easy access throughout the region. There is a single train route that runs from the centre of Barcelona at Placa Espanya to the bottom of the mountain. From there, visitors may either take a rack railway or cable car up the mountain to the Montserrat Monastery and museum. There are 10 trains running per day to and from Montserrat, making it highly accessible to visit this way.

Train Station in Spain

The Barcelona to Montserrat train is the R5 from the Placa Espanya, towards Manresa. This is very clearly signposted at the station and there are plenty of tourist information points to help you. The cable car and rack railway are located at one stop after the other. For the cable car, you should alight at Aeri de Montserrat and the Monistrol de Montserrat is for the rack railway. Placa Espanya is 4 stops on the metro L1 (red line) south of Placa de Catalunya.

The train from Placa Espanya runs 10 times per day, every day at 36 past the hour, starting from 07:36 until 16:36. For more information regarding the railway schedule, you can check their website. 

A public transport option is to take a bus. The Barcelona – Montserrat bus is run by the company Autocares Julia and is a less crowded way to get from the centre of Barcelona to Montserrat. The journey takes just less than 1 hour and a half and there is one bus per day to Montserrat and 1 returning. This is the cheapest option to get to and from Montserrat.

Bus Station in Spain

The operation of buses is throughout the year, but it only goes once per day at 09:15. There is also a return once per day only, which is at 17:00 in the winter months (Oct-May) and 18:00 during the summer season (Jun-Sep).

Buses leave from the bus station close to the central Barcelona train station Barcelona Sants. The exact name is ‘Estacion de autobuses de Sants’. It arrives at the Monasterio de Montserrat and it picks up passengers to go back from the same location.

This is a very cost-effective way to get from the centre of Barcelona to the Montserrat Monastery and it is directly from point to point, making it very straightforward. It also has a set number of seats for tickets, meaning the journey will not be crowded and is more relaxed compared to the train. However, there is only a single bus running daily, making it important that you catch that one and have your tickets in advance.

Getting to  Montserrat from Barcelona can be really enjoyable in your own car rental. Explore the Catalan countryside and see the whole of the Montserrat national park on your own schedule. Barcelona has many car hiring companies operating in the city as well as the airport. With the car it takes less than an hour to drive to Montserrat and the route is very scenic, particularly if you drive through the Serra de Collserola natural park.

This can be relatively cheap, depending on when you book, which model you choose, your age and if you pay online or at the pick up point. Starting from €25 per day, this can easily rise to €60 per day. However, rental companies will also require a deposit on the car, which may begin from €200 but could be as much as €3000, depending on the model. You will also need to pay for petrol, which will cost around €30 each way, plus tolls on the National Highway add up to €7.15 each way. If you wish to have a private Delphi tour of the archaeological site, this will add an extra cost. Entrance fees to the archaeological site and museum will also incur an extra cost.  

It is an easy process to hire a car, particularly if you are over 21 years old and have had your license for at least 2 years. Cars can be picked up easily in the city centre and the route to Montserrat is pretty straightforward, particularly if you have Google maps or GPS on board. The downside is that it may be a bit stressful driving through Barcelona if you are not used to the city streets.