Barcelona airport (Barcelona International Airport (BCN))

Member Name: promos_123

Product:	Barcelona International Airport (BCN)
Date:	04/12/08 (466 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Close to downtown

Disadvantages: you should speak spanish. Not everyone here speaks english.

How to reach Barcelona
From the Airport

In This article I want to provide you info about the airport of Barcelona, and how to travel from his airport to the central town. We will concentrate on providing information about transferring and about getting around Barcelona too, once you are in town. The airport of Barcelona is called El Prat and is situated about 12 km (about 8 miles), south-west of the town. There are a few options for transferring between the airport and Barcelona centre, and to the other main destination in town. There are no particular web pages to indicate for this, but I may indicate www.spanish-fiestas.com a site plenty of info, or also www.tripadviso.com or www.barcelona-turist-guide.com, all the pages are avalaible in English too.

At Barcelona airport you may catch the a1 Airbus that is a great service to reach the city, so I will explain you in details; I hope you read for being of an importance.
As you walk through the sliding doors at the airport, turn left and you will see a few people queuing for the Airbus. The service is done every ten minutes and reaches the very central Plaza Catalunya, passing over Plaza D'Espana, with two stop in the way. IT is very cheap due the short journey, at a single one way ticket is Euro 4, 05. You may buy the ticket as you get on the bus. Remember that the last journey is about at midnight.

On the other side, you may catch a train of the National train service; a RENFE train line 10 runs between the airport and the town with a stop at Estaciò Sants and Passeig de Gracia, where the train arrives after 25 minuts from departure. At Passeig de Gracia you can join the Metro to continue your travelling, where as I will advice you again later, to buy a t-10 multiple journey tickets, rather a single one.

I want add now a new service in Barcelona, which is a pre-booked private transfer from the airport. It is a new born service, one of the innovation arrived after Barcelona Olympics of 1992 and international expò.
Go to www.shuttledirect.com, choose your language and then choose your ticket, inserting the destination and the transfer date, and you may buy a return ticket, if you are sure of your day of return. In this site you may also find, interesting facts about Barcelona, so it's worth a visit.

If you are travelling for business, and you have not time to waste you may catch a taxi; taxi are parked just outside the airport, and you can't miss this black-yellow cab. Consider you have to pay more if you travel with large luggage, there is peculiar taxes added from the airport to central Barcelona, and always check the meter,
for being Barcelona cab driver not so immaculate...

At your surprise, and mine when visited the city, the Barcelona metro system does not serve the airport directly, and to access the metro network you need to take the RENFE train from the airport to Barcelona Sants or Passig de Gracia, then take the metro network. When travelling in the metro it is cheaper to buy a multiple ticket called T-10. It is on sale at the airport train station and it is valid for the airport train and for the city's metro. The best value is to buy the so called Barcelona Discount Card in advance, at the airport. This give you free transport on the airport train, on all metro journeys and offers great discount on entrance fee during your stay. You may get a quickly idea of what's going in Barcelona, during the days of your staying, and you will get the info to reach the places of interest.
On this regard, I suggest you to visit: www.spanish-fiestas.com/barcelona/metro-map.htm. Here you may find a detailed map, that you may copy and paste, or save and print out.

To travel by the metro is the best way to visit Barcelona, but remember trains are not so much, especially during the weekends, so take time when you decide to travel by the metro, and be patients if trains seems never arrive at the station you are waiting the train. But as I said before, the metro does not go everywhere, so if you did plane to visit Tibitabo, and Park Gaudì, you have to take the bus. And buses run along most city routes every few minutes. I suggest you to buy the multiple trip T-10 city transport ticket, that will cost you just euro 7,20 but it will give you ten journeys within the zone one that is the central area, offering worthwhile savings. Consider a single one way ticket costs euro 1,30. The ticket is valid on metro and bus journey in the central area and can be used on the RENFE airport train (but not the airbus bus). You can leave a metro station then catch a bus provided the journey is completed in 1h 15 minutes.

There are a few multi journeys travel tickets I wish to talk about. The Targeta T-10 provides for ten journeys on any of RENFE trains, city buses and FGC suburban trains.
The travel should have a maximum length of 1h 15 minutes.

There is a similar ticket valid for all the day, and it is called Targeta T-Dia, and it is similar to the last one but least just a whole day.

There is a monthly travel pass available for longer term visitors to Barcelona.

When travelling around Barcelona, you may see taxis swarming the street of Barcelona. There is a basic charge as you get in the taxi then a charge meter per kilometre as well as additional charges for putting luggage in the boot. The major taxi rank is at Placa de Catalunya and at the bottom of the Ramblas near Placa de Colom.
Prices are about euro 1, 80 basic charge, plus euro 1,00 per kilometre, plus euro 1,00 per piece of luggage in the boot and an extra euro 3,00 if you catch the taxi at the airport, or until the airport.

Summary: Easy to get in or get out.