Experience Barcelona Day Trips & Sightseeing Tours

Beyond Barcelona

So, you’ve landed in the very cosmopolitan Barcelona, the queen city of Catalonia. It’s an extremely exciting city to explore and experience, but in between marveling at the city’s riches in modern art and architecture - Picasso, Miró, and Gaudí - trekking to Montjuic for the fabulous views; eating your weight in tapas and pintxos in a bar crawl; and having a merry time partying your way all over Barcelona, you can take a break and get a taste for something different but easily accessible. There are many interesting places to visit near Barcelona that will take you outside the city and even let you dip your toes into Andorra and France.

Montserrat

Of the day trips from Barcelona, a tour of Montserrat is definitely one of the most popular picks. Get away from all the hustle and bustle of the city and take a serenity-inducing trip to the mountain.

Located some 50 kilometers northwest of Barcelona, Montserrat’s distinctive rounded peaks and formations stand as a beacon for much of the surrounding Catalan lowlands. The journey from Barcelona to Montserrat isn’t long and just past midway up the mountain is the abbey of the Santa Maria de Montserrat, home of the Black Madonna, patron saint of Catalonia.

Visit the Black Madonna’s shrine. Go to the Museu de Montserrat for some Caravaggio, El Greco, Picasso, and Dalí. Venture above the monastery to the various chapels and the Santa Cova. Listen to the pure voices of the Escolanía de Motserrat, one of Europe’s longest-standing boys choirs. Montserrat is quick, easy, and packed with enough interesting highlights for a short respite from Barcelona.

Costa Brava

From modern to medieval, hub to coast, that’s a couple of ways to describe a Barcelona to Costa Brava day trip. A pleasant surprise: there’s a lot more to this coast than beaches.

A Costa Brava day trip can also mean a visit to the medieval town of Pals. A Historic Artistic Site sitting on top of Mont Aspre, its medieval quarter features cobbled streets and ancient stone houses. Trek to the Torre de las Horas, walk around the Plaça Major, and light a candle at the Romanesque Sant Pere church. The same day trip will definitely mean a trip to Empuries. The Greco-Roman ruins dating back to the 6th century BC located in between the towns of L’Escala and Sant Martí d’Empuries.

Andorra and France

No, it’s not a make-believe, fictional European country used in movies. Like Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and San Marino, Andorra is a micro country and very real. Its location up in the Pyrenees between Spain and France makes it a good candidate for either a day trip on its own or as one point on a day trip from Barcelona to France.

Exploring the capital of Andorra, Andorra la Vella, means a seeing a sampling of the old and the new, and the natural and the man-made in a tighter landscape. Watch the waters of the Gran Valira and take a load off in the Plaça del Poble after your tax-free shopping.

Up and over, Barcelona day trips to France will involve the Pyrenees. This means sweeping vistas of the valleys below and many breathtaking photo opportunities. A day trip like this usually means crossing into two other borders, basically taking you to three countries—Spain, France, and Andorra— all in one day.

A day trip to France can also mean a foray into the southern end, the fortified town of Mont-Louis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was once a citadel built by Vauban (one of the Sun King’s defense advisers) to guard against the Spanish enemy; Mont-Louis now welcomes these Spanish incursions that bring tourists to the quiet little village.