Suzanna

Did anyone use the "All Montserrat" ticket that includes everything that the Trans Montserrat ticket mentions and in addition you have free entry into the Montserrat museum (which I might not be interested in) plus a free buffet lunch at the restaurant at Montserrat? It sells online for 42 EUR vs. the Trans Montserrat Ticket that sells for €26.60. Is the lunch worth 16 EUR?

Described at: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...OptionalExtras

Thanks.

adrienne

If you're talking about the cafeteria in Montserrat then the lunch is not worth E16. It also won't cost you E16 to eat lunch. From that web site it looks like the museum is E6.50 so for both lunch and the museum you could spend the additional E16.

I would just buy the tickets for the train and funicular/cable car and buy your lunch separately. It may come out to about the same price or you may spend a bit less buying lunch separately.

I would see the museum there; it is small and I enjoyed it.

BTW - that web site has great directions so follow whatever it says. There's a desk at the train station selling Montserrat tickets and all the people I encountered in Barcelona stations were so helpful.

It is true that if you take the cable car you might not get a seat on the train for the return journey. There were a lot of cable car people standing on our recent trip.

Suzanna

Thanks, adrienne. The website doesn't tell you where lunch would be provided but it seems that I cannot go wrong by leaving it open as you suggest.

Christina

I just bought it, it was convenient. Actually, the Monserrat museum is very nice, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it. If that is the difference, no, it isn't worth 16 euro. It's basically cafeteria food. It's fine for lunch, but I probably wouldn't have spent that much if buying it myself as I don't eat a lot. But it did include everything, so not a terrible deal.

FYI the cable "car" isn't really what I would call a cable car (to me, that is like the ones in San Francisco). It is really like a ski gondola, if you've been in those, but a bit bigger and you can't sit down. In other words, it is a big roundish box thing hanging down from a cable.

PalenQ

Too bad it don't include some glasses of the potent alcoholic elixir the monks at Montserrat brew up - or does it?

Cowboy1968

So far I have not bought any of those two "super combos" but just the regular RT ticket to Montserrat with FGC trains from Pl. Espanya and either the gondola or the cog wheel train. Which costs €20 or 21.
This does NOT include any of the gondolas (or cable cars?) which start from the monastery to go further up, nor lunch or museum!
As I did some moderate hiking from the monastery I did not find the extra rides to go to the mountain top necessary. But they would be handy if you planned to go up there.

Cowboy1968

and, sorry for being anal and irrelevant.. but that website in OP's post makes an error in capitalizing the last "T" in "Tot Montserrat"

Suzanna

Thanks for the additional info. I plan to use the additional cable cars to go to the top and based on the feedback visit the museum. With that in mind I will most likely buy the Tot package.Hopefully the weather will be nice mid September(and not too hot) to make the trip enjoyable.

adrienne

I thought I would take the funicular to the top until I saw the incline. I knew I'd never be able to do the 5 minute ride.

Here are some tips from my recent trip. The church fills up quickly because people want to hear the boys choir. You need to be seated by about 12:30 otherwise you'll either be looking for seats or standing.

There is a huge line to touch the black madonna and the line closes down for lunch. People stand and wait until the line starts moving again. If you don't want to touch it, you can see the statue from inside the church. It's over the altar.

We took the 9:41 train from Barcelona and went to the museum first. Then went and got seats in the church. In addition to the regular choir (which only sings for 10 minutes) there was another school group singing at 12:30. I don't know if this is typical to have 2 groups singing. We ate lunch after the choir; a bit past 1:00. Looked in the shops and then went back to Barcelona.

The shop has some chocolate - I forget what the brand is called but it's something to do with Montserrat (perhaps that's the brand). There are all sorts of flavors. DON'T buy it. It's dreadful. I bought one bar and had a couple of squares and got rid of it. My friend didn't like the flavors she bought either.

Christina

They don't have any choirs in July when I went, so no singing. There are no gondolas at Montserrat to get from the monastery up higher. There are funiculars, which are actually pretty much the technology of what I think of as a cable car (cables on the ground pulling the cars on tracks). But there they call them funiculars and call the gondola a "cable car". Technically, I think there is some distinction in that a funicular has one car going up while the other goes down on the other side, maybe they balance each other, not sure.

IN any case, what goes to the top are cars on the ground, not gondolas in the air. And they are very very steep, I didn't take them because it scared me just looking at them, actually. I'm not interested in any icons or religious stuff, though, actually, except from historical viewpoints.

TheSauls

montserrat info