WELCOME TO BARCELONA
“Cabin crew, prepare for landing”. You are almost in Barcelona, ready to explore and experience all that the city of Gaudi has to offer. You will likely touch down in Barcelona-El Prat Airport – Spain’s second-biggest airport, conveniently located mere me
By taxi
If you grab a cab in front of the airport, your trip to the city might get pricy. Depending on the day and hour you arrive, you may pay somewhere between 25 and 35 euros for a ride to Plaça Catalunya. All taxis in Barcelona charge the same price per minute and kilometre as it is regulated by the city hall, so negotiating on the price or looking for a cheaper ride is pointless. To reduce the cost significantly, you can book a ride through a taxi app. Mytaxi and Cabify are commonly used for booking official taxis, and Uber is also very popular. At any time of the day, more than enough taxis await you at the terminal.
By public transport
Heading to the city by public transport is fairly easy and considerably cheaper. From both Terminal 1 and 2, you can hop on metro L9 Zona Universitària to the Torrassa station, where you can change to L1 Fondo, which takes you to the Catalunya station. To take the metro from the airport, you have to buy a special airport ticket (€4.60). From Terminal 2, there is also one train every half an hour that takes you to Passeig de Gracia in 25 minutes, a mere ten-minute walk from Plaça Catalunya. You can take this train with a regular ticket (€2.20) or a T-10 (a ten-ride pass, at €10.20). If you arrive at Terminal 1, there is a free shuttle
bus that brings you to Terminal 2, which runs every six to ten minutes, 24 hours a day. At night, there are no trains or metros, but night buses leave for the city centre every 15 minutes.
By Aerobus
A third option is to hop on the Aerobus (€5.90), a shuttle bus that brings you from both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to Plaça Catalunya in just 35 minutes. Along the way, it also stops at Plaça Espanya, Urgell and Universitat. During the day, there is a bus every five minutes, and at night, you might have to wait up to ten minutes. If you book a return ticket straight away, you get a small discount.