Landing on Friday in Barcelona. How do we get to our hotel?
 

I have read that taxi and train strikes on Friday might prevent us from getting to our hotel from the airport. Any ideas of what to do? Grateful for all responses.

Have you contacted your hotel to ask what it recommends?

Where is your hotel? Maybe the Aerobus can work.

Direct bus Barcelona city center - Airport El Prat | AEROBÚS

The buses will be running, but there are other things going on in Barcelona tomorrow and protesters might attempt to block roads. So it might take extra time for you to get in.

The local Rodalies trains will be running on a limited schedule. I do not speak much Catalan, but that is what google translate tells me from this:
Convocades diferents jornades de vaga al servei de Rodalies de Catalunya. Rodalies de Catalunya

If this is the case you should be able to get into the city on the train. But yes it’s a good idea to see if your hotel can help and what bus or train stop to aim for.

I can only find information on the (Renfe) train strike, but not a taxi strike.
Asking the hotel for recommendations should be step 1.

Anyway, I think that only a smaller number of passengers uses Rodalies to/from Barcelona. It's somewhat unpractical when you arrive at T1 as you'd need to take a shuttle bus from there to the Rodalies train station (which is attached/ next door to T2).

Aside from Aerobus, Metro is also an option but will most likely require a change as that line does not go for the city center.

I would be helpful if you told people where this hotel is, or else no one can really answer that well.

Your hotel probably wont' have any great solution.

It's because of the Spanish govt cabinet meeting on 12/20 and 12/21 in Barcelona, to protest, as well as pro-independence people. Taxi people may join to protest Uber, etc, you know how it is when everyone wants to protest. RENFE is just a partial strike, but i don't see what that would have to do with getting from airport into Barcelona anyway. The meeting venue is in the Gothic quarter (near placa Antonio Lopez, a bit south of the cathedral) so things are going to be worse if you are going around there.

Taxis striking isn't definite. And the protestors may block roads, etc., so neither is Aerobus a sure solution or a taxi.

I'd take the metro (line 9), but I imagine it is going to be very very crowded. As I said, no one can advise that well since you didn't say where you are going. Worse comes to worst, I guess stay in an airport hotel one night.

Full disclosure with an apology: I quickly put in the question for a family member who just left for the airport to fly to BCN today. I myself was up to my ears in other packing and planning--a different start to a multi-leg trip--but I thought, "Heck, I can post a question on Fodors--they'll know!" And I had hoped I'd have SOMETHING to text her. And Fodors Forums provided. I thank you.

I have NO idea in which hotel she is staying with her son. I only found out there might be a problem in Barcelona via yet another family member, so never got to do the detailed drill I'd normally ask. Mea Culpa.

By way of explanation, four different travel itineraries are meeting up in Paris Xmas Eve, and I'm just the Paris planner. One person is coming from Portugal, two persons are on their way to Barcelona, two leave for Barcelona tomorrow (no scheduled protests Saturday yet), and two of us are leaving for a few days in DC and then onto Paris.

A total aside:
In planning the Paris part, it's been interesting working around the French protests. Three of us in the party are sort of "been there, done that." But out of the seven people in our convening party, four have never been to Paris. My husband and I are staying on the border between the 6th/7th, so we can be just walking, walking, walking. Two are staying in the 7th pretty darn near the Eiffel, one of whom has lived in Paris and speaks perfect French, so 0 problem there. But three who have never even landed at CDG and who speak NO French are staying in some area of the 15th I know little about.

So in thinking of the protests and thinking ALL were staying near the Eiffel in the 7th, I created my own detailed guide to the 7th, radiating out, that could avoid pitfalls. Then at the last minute, I found out that the party of three were staying far away in the 15th, so I wrote another guide. So this last-minute problem sort of threw me for a loop.

Thanks again for helping me to help them. I so appreciate it.
AZ