Planning to travel to Catalonia by plane? Depending on your destination (Barcelona/Costa Brava/Costa Dorada) and your budget, it might be interesting to consider all three main airports within the northeastern Spanish region: El Prat, Girona and Reus. Here’s what you should know before buying your ticket.
Airport El Prat
The main airport of Catalonia and the second largest of Spain is Airport El Prat (BCN).
It’s located in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, about 12 kilometers from Barcelona’s city center. Many international destinations are connected with El Prat.
The airport has two terminals: 1 and 2. Make sure you know from which one your plane departs, since the distance between both terminals is too big to walk. When you accidentally end up at the wrong terminal, you can take the free shuttle bus, which takes about 10-15 minutes.
From/to the airport of El Prat
A taxi between the city center of Barcelona and Airport El Prat takes about 20-30 minutes and will cost around 30 euros. Keep in mind drivers will charge €1 extra for each suitcase in the back of the car.
Another option to get to or from Catalonia’s main airport is public transport: train, airport bus, general bus and metro.
Train (R2 Norte Aeropuerto): leaves every 30 minutes from terminal 2. Tickets can be bought in the vending machine at the platform (single fare €2,20 and 10 rides for €10). The train stops at the following stations: Barcelona airport, El Prat de Llobregat, Bellvitge, Barcelona-Sants, Barcelona Passeig de Gràcia, Barcelona El Clot Aragó, Barcelona St. Andreu Comtal. Passengers traveling to Barcelona center, should get off at Passeig de Gràcia, 25 minutes from the airport.
After Barcelona, the R2 train continues its journey to final destination Maçanet-Massanes, with stops in:
Montcada I Reixac, La Llagosta, Mollet-Sant Fost, Montmeló, Granollers Centre, Les Franqueses-Granollers, Cardedeu, Llinars del Vallès, Palautordera, Sant Celoni, Gualba, Viells I Viabrea-Breda, Hostalric
Aerobus: The blue airport buses arrive and depart every 10 minutes at both terminal 1 and 2. A ticket costs €6 one way and the ride to the city center of Barcelona takes about 30 minutes.
The Aerobus direction Airport departs from the central Plaça Catalunya and stops at Supúlveda-Urgell and Plaça Espanya.
Direction city center, the airport bus stops at Plaça Espanya, Gran Via Urgell and Plaça Universitat.
Conventional bus: Slower but cheaper than Aerobus is the conventional bus L46, which departs from both terminal 1 and 2. It makes several stops at Gran Vía and afterwards at Plaça Espanya and Avinguda Paral-lel (twice). One-way tickets can be bought in the bus itself and cost €2,20.
Metro: The orange line L9 Sud connects both terminals of El Prat every 5 minutes with the metro station of Zona Universitaria (where you can change lines to metro L3). A single ticket costs €4,50 and can be bought in the vending machine before entering the platform.
The metro stops at the following stations: Mas Blau, Parc Nou, Céntric, El Prat Estació, Les Moreres, Mercabarna, Parc Logístic, Fira, Europa-Fira, Can Tries-Gornal, Torrassa (switch to metro L1), Collblanc (switch to metro L5).
Girona – Costa Brava airport
Aeropuerto Gerona (GRO) is the second biggest airport in Catalonia. The distance between the airport and Barcelona’s city center is 90 kilometers. It may not be the fastest option when Barcelona is your final destination, but when travelling to the province of Girona or Costa Brava, it is.
Moreover, for certain destinations, flying to or from Girona can be a lot cheaper than flying to El Prat – even with a bus ticket to your final destination included.
The airport of Girona – Costa Brava is very small and has only one terminal. There are no intercontinental flights departing from or arriving at Girona: by far most connections are operated by low cost carrier Ryanair.
From/to the airport of Girona
The airport is not connected by train nor metro, so your options for transport are limited to taxi and bus.
The price for a taxi to Girona center is around €28 and passengers travelling to Lloret de Mar or Platja D’Aro will have to pay between €45-50. When Barcelona is your final destination, we recommend to take the bus, since a taxi to the Catalan capital easily costs over €120.
The bus connections between Girona Airport and most touristic places around, like Barcelona, Girona and Costa Brava, are well organized.
Direct buses to Barcelona (line 604, company Sagales) are waiting outside the terminal after the arrival of the plane. A single ticket costs €16, roundtrip €25. The bus stops at Estació del Nord in Barcelona, close to the Arc de Triomf and central park Ciutadella.
Bus tickets to Girona city center (line 605 or 607) cost €2,75 (€5,25 return). The journey takes 20 minutes.
Passengers travelling to Costa Brava (Lloret del Mar, Tossa de Mar, Malgrat de Mar, Santa Susanna, Pineda de Mar, Calella de la Costa, Sant Pol, Canet, Arenys de Mar, St. Vicens de Montalt, St. Andreu de Lavaneres) can take the Sagales bus that connects the airport with south of the Costa Brava.
Sagales also offers the line Girona Airport – Figueres – Empurirabrava – Roses.
Reus Airport – Tarragona (Costa Dorada)
The smallest of the three main airports in Catalonia is Reus, 100 kilometers south of Barcelona. For passengers traveling to Tarragona, Salou or Theme Park PortAventura, Reus Airport is the closest option.
Like Girona airport, no intercontinental flights depart from or arrive at Reus. The airport has only one terminal, just two shops and most of the flights are operated by Ryanair. In general, direct flights to and from Reus are cheaper than El Prat.
From/to Reus Airport
There’s a bus (line 50) from Reus Airport to Reus city center (Plaça de la Llibertat), with stops at Renfe train station and the bus station. From here you can travel to other destinations.
When traveling to the Costa Daurada (Cambrils, La Pineda, Salou or Vilaseca), you can also take a direct bus from bus company Bus Plana outside the terminal. Departure times coincide with flight arrivals.
When Barcelona is your final destination, we wouldn’t recommend to fly to/from Reus Airport, since the connection between Reus and Barcelona city center isn’t ideal. There’s a direct bus (Hispano Igualadina) that goes to Barcelona’s main train station Sants, but it takes quite long and we’ve heard from several people it didn’t show up at the scheduled time.
You can opt for the train between Reus and Barcelona, but keep in mind the Reus train station is located 10 km from the airport. The journey between the train station and Barcelona (Sants) takes 1.30 hours.
This Guest Blog was provided by Things To Do in Barcelona
