Costa Brava from Barcelona: Bus, Train or Day Trip

By Joan. I have lived in Barcelona for 16 years, and the Costa Brava is the day trip people ask me about after they have already booked their two nights.

That is the whole problem with it. The coves north of Blanes are the best piece of coastline in Catalonia and they are also the hardest of the three big day trips to squeeze into a short stay, because the towns worth seeing do not have a train station. Montserrat has one. Sitges has one. The Costa Brava does not, and everything below follows from that.

Quick answer: with 48 hours in Barcelona I would not go. The Costa Brava eats a full day and the coves are reached by bus or by car, not by train. If you are going anyway, the one I would book is the Girona and Costa Brava Small-Group Tour with Pickup from Barcelona, from €99.47, rated 4.9 out of 5 across 7,712 reviews, around 10 hours door to door. With three days or more it moves to the top of my list instead of the bottom. Prices change, so check the current one before you book.

The short version

• No train reaches the Costa Brava coves, so the choice is a bus of an hour and a half to two hours, a rental car on the AP-7, or a guided day out with the driving done for you.
• The R1 train does reach Blanes in about an hour and a half, and Blanes is the official gateway to the coast rather than the good part of it.
• Girona is 100 km from Barcelona and under an hour on the high speed line, which makes it the one piece of this trip that works as a half day.
• The reason to go is the camins de ronda, over 200 km of clifftop footpath running from Blanes to Portbou as part of the GR-92.
• On a two day trip I would take Montserrat or Sitges instead and keep this one for a return visit, which is not a sales pitch and is the opposite of one.

How I am ranking these: by how much of your trip each one costs you, not by how good the place is. On a longer stay the order would be different, and I say so below rather than pretending my two day answer is the universal one.

Costa Brava, Montserrat or Sitges

This is the comparison that actually decides your day, so here it is first. All three leave from central Barcelona and all three are worth doing. Only one of them fits comfortably in a 48 hour trip.

1. Sitges, if the budget is tight or you have children

R2 Sud train, 35 minutes, from €4.20 one way. The cheapest and shortest of the three by a wide margin, and the only one you can abandon halfway through without wasting anything. A whitewashed old town on a headland, 17 beaches, and a train every 20 to 30 minutes so the return is never a countdown. If someone in your group is small or tired, this is the answer. Full detail in my Sitges day trip guide.

2. Montserrat, if you only do one and want the one that looks like nowhere else

R5 from Plaza Espanya, combined ticket from €24, 5 to 7 hours round trip. A serrated mountain with a Benedictine monastery on a ledge, an hour northwest. It costs more of your day than Sitges and it gives back more, and the shape of that rock does something to people the first time they see it. This is the one I recommend first to almost everybody. The route, the choir times and the funiculars are in my Montserrat day trip guide.

3. The Costa Brava, if you have three days or more

Bus of an hour and a half to two hours each way, or a guided day of around 10 hours. Better coastline than Sitges and better swimming than anywhere in Barcelona, and it asks for a whole day plus the mental energy of a connection you cannot check from the beach. I would not spend one of two days on it. I would spend one of four days on it happily, and I would go on the third day rather than the second, when you have stopped being tired from the flight.

If you are still deciding, the wider list including Tarragona is on my day trips from Barcelona page, and the two day plan this site is built around is the 48 hour itinerary.

Getting there, which is the whole decision

Barcelona has two stations for this, Sants and Passeig de Gracia, and neither of them sells you a ticket to a cove. Here is what actually exists.

1. The bus, if you want a beach

Sarfa runs direct from Barcelona to Tossa de Mar, Lloret de Mar and Palamos, between an hour and a half and two hours. Moventis also runs lines that connect Barcelona and the airport with Lloret, Tossa, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Palafrugell, Roses, Cadaques and L'Escala. This is the option that leaves you at the sand rather than 20 minutes inland, and it is the one I would take if the plan is to swim.

2. The train, if you want a town

R1 to Blanes, about an hour and a half. Blanes is described by the tourist board as the gateway to the Costa Brava, which is an accurate and slightly generous way of putting it. Further north, the R11 goes inland to Girona and Figueres, and the high speed line puts Girona under an hour from Barcelona. Girona is 100 km away and has a walled old town you can walk in a morning, so if what you want is a Catalan town rather than a swim, take that train and skip the coast entirely.

3. The car, if there are three or four of you

The AP-7 runs the length of the region. Splitting a rental between four people beats four bus tickets and it is the only way to see two coves in one day. I do not own a car and I would still rent one for this, which is about as strong a recommendation as I can give.

4. The guided day, if you would rather not think about any of the above

From €49 for Girona alone, from €99.47 for Girona plus the coast. The honest case for a tour here is not that it is cheaper, because it is not. It is that the return connection stops being your problem, which on a two day trip is worth more than it sounds.

What I would do once I was up there

Not a list of everything. Three things I would actually plan a day around, and one I would skip.

1. Walk a camin de ronda

These are the old paths along the cliffs, used in the past by fishermen, smugglers and border patrols, and they now run more than 200 km from Blanes to Portbou as part of the GR-92. The one I would send a first timer on is Calella de Palafrugell to Tamariu, 7 km on gentle ground. If you want a proper half day of walking, Palamos to Calella de Palafrugell is about 11 km and takes around 3 hours. Blanes to Tossa de Mar is nearly 21 km with constant climbing, which is a different kind of day and not a casual one.

2. Give Girona a morning

The walled old town, the cathedral steps and the coloured houses over the river are the part of this trip that works without a car. It is under an hour on the fast train, which means Girona is the only piece of the Costa Brava you can genuinely do on a two day visit, and even then it costs you a morning and an afternoon.

3. Figueres and the Dali museum

From €18.50 online, and from €22.00 in July and August. The Dali Theatre-Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday for most of the year and daily in July and August, so check the day before you build a trip around it. Book ahead. The ticket desk exists but capacity is capped and I would not gamble a two hour journey on it. This is the stop I would pair with Girona rather than with the beach, because doing a museum and a cove in the same day means rushing both.

4. What I would skip

Lloret de Mar, unless you are specifically going for the nightlife, in which case you already knew that and do not need me. It is the easiest Costa Brava town to reach and the least like the rest of the coast.

Before you book

• Check the last bus back before you leave, not from the beach. Coastal services thin out in the evening and outside summer.
• Buy Sarfa tickets at the desk in Estacio del Nord or online, because you cannot buy them on the bus.
• Bring shoes with grip if you are walking a camin de ronda. The surface is rock and steps, not promenade.
• Book the Dali museum in advance, and check whether your date is a Monday.
• Every price on this page moves, so treat them as starting points and check the current one before you pay.

Costa Brava Tours from Barcelona

Day trips with the transport handled, from Girona on its own to the coast with kayaking. Worth comparing against the bus if you would rather not manage the connections yourself. The kayak and snorkel day from €60 is the one I would pick in July, and the Girona full day from €49 is the cheapest way to see the good town without renting anything.

If you only have two days, close this page and go and do Montserrat instead. I would rather you came back to Barcelona for a third day than spent a quarter of this trip on a coach, and the coast will still be there.