Day trips from Barcelona
8 h route4 stopsBest: Montserrat on a weekday. The Costa Brava, outside AugustUpdated July 2026
Behind Barcelona sits an entire region you can visit in a day: the mountain of Montserrat, medieval Girona, the coves of the Costa Brava and Roman Tarragona. All under two hours, with a direct train from the centre and no car needed.
If you can only do one, make it Montserrat: it’s the strangest and the closest. If you’re here in summer and want a real beach rather than a city one, the Costa Brava. Trains leave from Sants or Passeig de Gràcia depending on the destination.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Montserrat
A mountain of conglomerate eroded into round vertical forms (hence the name, "serrated mountain") with a Benedictine monastery wedged halfway up since the 11th century. It’s Catalonia’s sanctuary and keeps the Moreneta, the black Madonna patron saint.
You go up by rack railway or cable car, and at the top there are hiking trails among the rock needles with views over half of Catalonia.
If the timing works, the escolania (the boys’ choir, one of the oldest in Europe) sings daily in the basilica.
- 02
Girona
A medieval stone city 40 minutes away by high-speed train, with coloured houses hanging over the river Onyar and 9th-century walls you walk along the top of, tower to tower, overlooking the whole old town.
It has the Call, the best-preserved Jewish quarter in Spain, and a cathedral with the widest Gothic nave in the world, reached by 90 steps.
Game of Thrones fans will recognise that stairway.
- 03
Sitges and the south coast
A whitewashed beach town 40 minutes away on the commuter train, with a church on a rock facing the sea that is the postcard. It sheltered the Modernists and is today one of the Mediterranean’s landmark gay destinations. It’s the easy escape: no booking, a day on the beach, back to Barcelona for dinner. At Carnival it’s bedlam.
- 04
Tarragona
Tarraco stood here, capital of Roman Hispania, and left a World Heritage archaeological ensemble: an amphitheatre set right over the sea, the circus beneath the medieval town, the walls and an aqueduct outside the city.
The amphitheatre with the Mediterranean behind it is one of the finest Roman images in Spain, and there’s almost never a queue.
It also has a beach, so history and a swim fit in the same day.
Frequently asked
How do you get to Montserrat from Barcelona?
By train from Plaça Espanya to the foot of the mountain, then up by rack railway or cable car to the monastery. It’s the most popular day trip from Barcelona and needs no car.
Which day trip from Barcelona is most worth it?
Montserrat, for the mix of landscape and monastery, if you can only do one. Girona is the best if you prefer a medieval city, and it’s 40 minutes by high-speed train. Both are day trips.
Can you reach the beach from Barcelona by train?
Yes: Sitges is about 40 minutes on the commuter train from Sants or Passeig de Gràcia, with no booking needed. Barcelona also has its own urban beach ten minutes away by metro.