When you’re visiting Barcelona it’s an absolute must to pay a visit to the Montserrat mountain range as well. It’s just 45 minutes on train from the Barça center. At Montserrat, which literally translates into sawtooth mountain, you can find the Benedictine Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat. Skip to the video below if you want to see all the beautiful views straight away!
HOW TO GET THERE?
It all starts at the trainstation Espanya in the center of Barcelona. The first step is to find the line R5 direction Manresa. Once you found where to get on the train, look around and you’ll see that there are machines to buy tickets. Now you need to choose how you want to get up on the mountain of Montserrat. This is very important because for each option you’ll need to get off at a different train station, prices are for both tickets 22 EUR.
DIFFERENT TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS
- You want to experience the most scenic views and are not scared of standing up for about 15 minutes in a cable car? Then this option is for you. You need to get off at Aeri Montserrat, this is one stop earlier than for option 2. You will see a lot of people getting off there. In our case I think about 40% of the people chose this option. Be careful that, if you chose this stop, you don’t get off at the trainstation for option 2 because your ticket is not valid there.
- You prefer to sit down on a train that has a bit less scenic view (but still nice) that takes a bit longer to go up (+/- 25 minutes)? Then choose this option. You need to get off at the Monistrol station and from there you’ll need to take the Cremallera (green rack train) to go up the mountain. Make sure you don’t get off 1 stop too early because your ticket will not be valid there!
- For the adventurers an alternative route would be to take the exact same train from trainstation Espanya in Barcelona (R5) and buy a normal ticket to Monistrol (price = xxxxx EUR). You will be on the same train as all the other people that are going to Montserrat but you will have to hike up (and down). Because we are only half-adventurers we took Aeri cable car up and hiked back down. The hike down took us about 1h all the way to the Monistrol trainstation. As we didn’t hike up I don’t know exactly how long it would take but some people along the way told us about 1h30. They looked pretty trained so probably 2h is more realistic. We saw the trail and I can tell you that it will not be an easy hike. Rocky trails and single-tracks are not an exception. Especially when it has rained this might be a bit more difficult.
MONTSERRAT MONASTERY
Once you arrive at the monastery you arrive at a ‘small’ village. There’s an information desk, a restaurant, a hotel and of course the monastery. It is also possible to get on the top of the mountain with another cable car. When we were there they were not in use probably because it was outside peak season (January). I do, however, saw some people on the top so hiking is probably possible also.
Enjoy your trip!
