Barcelona is a fabulous weekend destination, definitely one of Europe’s top cities for a reason! However, it’s definitely a heavily, heavily urban environment that can be a bit overwhelming, especially during peak season. If you’re craving something a bit quieter while you visit Catalonia, we have great news– lush mountaintop monastery Montserrat is a totally doable day trip from Barcelona!
With stunning views in a serene and peaceful environment, Montserrat is the anti-Barcelona in the best way, and it’s easy to visit both places on a long weekend.
The cherry on top?
The journey to get there is one of the best parts, and it’s all public transit friendly. We definitely recommend taking a day trip out there, and bringing your own lunch– the food there is limited and not really anything to write home about, so an easy way to save money is to bring your own sandwiches, water, and snacks with you.
We had a marvelous time in Montserrat, definitely one of our favorite places in Spain by far. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to this dreamy mountaintop escape, with a wee bit of history, tips for your visit, and some photo locations to check out.
It’s super easy to get to Montserrat from Barcelona. You can choose if you want to take the funicular as the last step or the cable car– both have amazing views but are quite different. We had a really hard time choosing, but ended up choosing the funicular.
Note (really important!) that the type of ticket you buy matters. Despite costing about the same (the joint ticket costs 24€ or so round trip, as of the writing of this article), the tickets are not interchangeable. If you buy the funicular transfer, you must take the funicular, and if you buy the cable car transfer, you must take the cable car. Conductors will check which ticket type you have, and we saw some folks forced to buy a new ticket after they missed the cable car stop in order to ride the funicular.
Here’s how to get there on the cable car:
- Go to the Plaça Espanya station in Barcelona, and follow the signs for Montserrat.
- From there, take the R5 line to the Aeri de Montserrat stop.
- Follow the signs to the cable cars– you’ll have to wait between 5 and 15 minutes to hop on.
Here’s how to get there on the funicular (rack railway):
- Go to the Plaça Espanya station in Barcelona, and follow the signs for Montserrat.
- From there, take the R5 line to the Monistrol de Montserrat stop.
- Transfer to the green Cremallera train line (which means zipper, you’ll see why…)
Lastly, you can also hike to the monastery from the Monistrol stop! Just go through town until you find the trail, and it’s about a 1.5 hour hike up to the monastery. While we didn’t have time to do this, we would love to do it if we ever get the chance to go back.
Recommended Reading
Options to stay overnight
While we did Montserrat as a day trip, it’s also totally possible to stay overnight as well, which we imagine must be a lovely experience. There are accommodations right near the monastery, and we saw several people with backpacker gear finishing the hike there.
From what we could tell, there are a few options depending on your group size and budget: Hotel Abat Cisneros, Abat Oliba Hostel, and Abat Marcet Apart-hotel.
Things to Do in Montserrat
1. The Benedictine Abbey, the Basilica, and surroundings:
Home to the Black Virgin, as well as (allegedly, at one point) to the Holy Grail, the Benedictine Abbey dates all the way back to the 9th century. It’s definitely one of those “how on earth were they physically able to build this” moments, something that happened to us a lot as we visited Barcelona’s churches.
The basilica is free to enter, but there are timed entry tickets to visit the Black Virgin, so be sure to snag those (join the line on the right hand side of the inner courtyard) right when you arrive. There wasn’t much of a line when we were there, but other blogs report lines stretching for hours, so make a beeline for this right away!
Urban legend says that the Virgin turned this color after centuries of smoke from candles being lit in front of her.
Tip: the path through the basilica to get to the statue is really beautiful, so try to walk slowly and look around as you go! We really loved the mosaics along the stairs in particular. The basilica is also really famous for their boys’ choir, L’Escolania Montserrat, which dates back to the early 1200s. They regularly perform as well.
2. Montserrat Museum
While not really about the monastery or Montserrat, there are some really surprising treasures here from famous artists like Degas, Monet, etc. at the Montserrat Museum. There are also some religious artifacts and a wealth of paintings of Montserrat from all angles. It costs 8€ to enter and we’d say it’s worth it to visit.
3. Trails to other viewpoints and exploring the views
There are a variety of other walking and hiking options available for your visit, including the Santa Cova Chapel (via a short funicular ride), the Cross of Sant Miquel, and the hike to the Sant Jeroni peak (the highest in Montserrat.) These are at a variety of activity levels and lengths, and all offer stunning views of the valley below.
If you don’t fancy a hike, just exploring the immediate vicinity of the Basilica is really special. There are gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains, as well as the architectural marvels from all angles. You definitely won’t be in a hurry to leave!
