BCN Airport to Barcelona city transfers?
 

According to Frommers, it's only about 20 euros from El Pratt to the city, with some surcharges for the airport and luggage. All told, under 30 euro it seems.

Just looking around, the companies offering transfers are charging way more, like 35 pounds or more each way. Not sure if these are private transfers or shared shuttle buses like Super Shuttle.

You can get the latter in most cities for pretty cheap. I paid $17 each way for transfer from FCO to Rome and my understanding is BCN to the city is much closer.

Anyone know any cheaper options? Taxi isn't bad but prefer to prebook a flat rate by credit card.

Bump.

Anyone?

Airport shuttle bus to Placa de Catalunya is frequent (every 15-20 minutes) and costs about 3 Euro per person.

There is a train station at aiport but inconveniences are :
1.Usually you have to walk about 300 meters on a passage bridge to get to the station. But the passage bridge was closed for a construction and there was free shuttle bus running two months ago.
2.The train used to go direct to Barcelona Sants/Pasao Gracia but when I was there 2 months ago, due to another (major) construction work, you had to change once at the first station after airport and this inconvenience looked to last for a while.

Thanks for the reply.

Can you take luggage on the thing? Or is it so filled up that there's standing room only?

How early does it run and how late on Sundays?

I said there were 1. Airport Shuttle (between airport and placa catalunya - riding time about 30 minutes) and 2. shuttle for just between airport and aiport-station (this is a temporary free service only during the construction work - 5 minutes) but I suppose by "the thing" you meant no.1. That's motor coach with seats + racks for large luggage.

You can get a full info here, price and timetable. The name of the shuttle is Aerobus.

http://www.bcn.es/destibarcelona/eng/pdf/aerobus.pdf

Thanks.

I did Google around and first, I only found schedule in Catalan.

But found an English one as well.

I think it would be a good choice for the trip in but on the return, for a 7 AM flight, it might be cutting it close to try to board at 5:30 AM at the Pl. Catalunya and arrive at BCN at 6 AM.

This past August rather than using the train or the shuttle we opted for a taxi from the airport to our hotel located about two blocks from the Placa Catalunya.

Unfortunately, the combination of traffic, street construction/closed thoroughfares/rerouted traffic meant we spent over an hour getting to the hotel.

I wish we had walked to the train station but who knew this would happen.

And yes, the resultant taxi fare was considerably more than the train or the shuttle.

Just be prepared for all eventualities.

That's good to know.

I'm flying in Sunday afternoon and flying out very early Friday morning.

Hopefully not too bad at those times.

sunday afternoon can be heavy weekend return traffic, like most big cities.

i read the other day that you no longer need to do the bus to train set up.
it was announced in a local paper.

i would taxi to airport on return, but train to city sants station upon arrival if a higher than expected taxi fare would upset you due to traffic.

OK good to know.

I'm considering staying at a place near the Passeig de Gracia and Consell de Cent.

The Aerobus appears to stop at the Pl. Catalunya and also Disputacio and pg. de Gracia. So I would be only a block away.

The guy I may rent from said I should get to town by 5 or 5:30 after a 4 PM landing.

We'll see.

If you decide to train, buy the T10 tickets for 6.30Euro. These are good for the airport train and can be shared by another person and the rest used for the subway.

> i read the other day that you no longer need to do the bus to train set up.
it was announced in a local paper.

lincasanova, thanks for the info. It's good to know as I may fly to Barcelona anytime soon. Do you still have to change at the first station to get to Barcelona? I forgot the name of the station, where you alos have to change if you are heading to Sitges, Taragona, etc?

i have only used the airport train to barcelona sants station twice in my life. i never had to change to get to sants. it was direct, and the final stop.

I used the airport train to Sants in May and there weren't any changes although the train did make a couple of stops between the airport and Sants.

Ok, as I wrote on my first post (2 - major railway construction work), I had to change the train to get to the airport from Barcelona city at the last stop before the airport on the new year's day. I was prepared because they had given me a brochure about this modification. I had done BCN city -airport many times by direct train so this modification was an inconvenience. Hope it will be back to normal soon but it may last for a while. Having both options of Aerobus and train would be good.

The main difference between train and bus is how much luggage you are carrying. When I travel light, I take the train because, yes, it is a seemingly endless walk to the station, and once you get on there is little space to leave your belongings. It stops at Sants and P. de Gràcia, both of which are hellish train changes, and if you head upstairs in either of them, you will only have escalators half way. And, there is no free transfer from the airport train to the metro, so you have to pay again. When I left in September, they did not sell the T10 passes at the airport, so you did not get the discounted fare.

The bus stops all the way in and, as you are above ground, you get to see a beautiful section of Barcelona: the Gran Vía.

WARNING TO wco81:
THE PSG. DE GRÀCIA-DIPUTACIÓ STOP IS FOR HEADING TOWARDS THE AIRPORT.
If you are coming in from the airport, the last stop is Catalunya and though you might be able to get away with it, you will probably have to pay again or at least get yelled at by the driver for a minute before getting your way.

En fin, taxis are a rip off and the train involves lots of stairs and walking. Bus it!

Claire

Thanks for the tip about the Disputacio.

Seemed strange it would stop again one block later.