agsimpkins13

I'm interested in a tour of Montserrat (or would I be better to go on my own)? I'm not interested in trying to find trains and such. Is there a shuttle of some sort if we want to be on our own after we get there? What are advantages of a tour? I especially want to be there for the boys' choir. And who might you recommend if we want to do a tour? Is it important to get there early? We'll be there October 18, 19, 20. Thanks, I always get such good ideas and info from this forum!

elberko

Here's a post from a few days ago:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-barcelona.cfm

agsimpkins13

Thanks, elberko. That helps some, but I'm still hoping for recommendations of tours and input about whether there is any advantage to arranging a tour and what companies with whom others (or you) may have had good experiences.

kja

Do you generally prefer tours to visiting a place independently? I can't imagine any reason why the general differences wouldn't apply here....
- If you go independently, you can go at your own pace.
- If you go with a tour, you might need to do a bit more reading on your own to know what your are seeing.

Beyond that, the thread to which elberko directed you has all the how-to info. It really is quite simple to do on your own if that's what you prefer.

kja

Sorry! If you withOUT a tour, you might need to do a bit more reading....

agsimpkins13

Thanks, kja. We're often fine on our own but, for example, we recently booked a Vatican tour because it gets us in an hour before the normal opening and there's just so darn much to see and it's so huge. We did not do a tour at the Louvre, and I wish we had because it was overwhelming and we had a hard time finding the specific artwork we were interested in. Is the scope of Monstserrat like that or is it pretty easy to enjoy it on our own. Personal opinion is welcome. I wondered if there are any benefits, other than intellectual, to taking a tour vs. on our own.

kja

IMO, Montserrat is not overwhelming. AFAIK, there are no special advantages to taking a tour. I could be wrong.

agsimpkins13

kja, I always find your comments on these forums to be helpful. You are an asset to us all. You must be incredibly well traveled. Thanks for sharing.

kja

@ agsimpkins: What a lovely compliment -- thank you so much! I am incredibly fortunate to have traveled as much as I have, but MANY Fodorites have even more experience -- sometimes much more -- and I am grateful to learn from them.

pumpkin

There is no need for a tour. It is not large like the Louvre. Leave from the train station
You can travel to Montserrat by train which you catch from Espanya rail station.
The Espanya rail station is on the green and red metro lines making it very accessible from any part of Barcelona city centre that has a metro stop.
Once at Espanya look for Line R5 headed towards Manresa.
It's advisable to arrive at Espanya station in plenty of time as it can be a little confusing to find R5 track. The Espanya rail station is quite large and the directions to the R5 track could be clearer.
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Plaça Espanya station is huge and has many surface entrances to the station below ground. It can be very confusing for tourists to find their way around especially as each entrance only has partial information about the lines that you will access from any particular entrance. The best advice here is just to ignore the line information displayed as you enter a surface entrance to the underground station and just enter the nearest surface entrance you can find. Once you are underground look for signs for the R5 track. You may have to walk around a little but you will find it eventually!
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Look online to make sure about timetables to connect with the cable car, etc. You can find that online. The choir does not sing every day. Check that as well. We were disappointed to have missed them, but the day was great in spite of it!

Christina

Some people just can't handle logistics on their own, I know some. They aren't experience with doing that and just can't handle details. A tour would be more convenient IF they picked you up at your hotel or even some central point and then handled everything, I suppose. I did it on my own but I will admit the train from plaza Espana was a teensy bit hard to find.

If you do want a tour, I can't recommend one, I know a company in Madrid but not BCN for good tours.

Here is one, though, that is what you want
https://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelo...r/d562-7548P10