Abadia de Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain

5Freddy_on_trips 5:00 PM Jul 4, 2022

Excellent visit - 31 May 2022
We took a bus tour to visit Montserrat which is located around 1 hour away from Barcelona. The views are absolutely stunning and there are many things to do. You could walk up to the cross on the hill, take a cable car to go higher up, go to a restaurant and/or visit a souvenir store where you can do some liquor tasting (4 tastings for 3 euros). There is a line to visit the Virgin of Montserrat on the right side of the church entrance which is different from line to enter it. Try matching your visit when there is a boys choir performing as it is simply grandiose. Overall, we enjoyed it a lot and definitely recommend the visit.

4james 5:00 PM Mar 16, 2023

Nice day trip from Barcelona
We went on our own on the train from the Espanya station in Barcelona. It makes a very nice day trip. The natural setting is spectacular—much more impressive than I imagined based on photos. The two funiculars that run from the abbey are closed for the season, but there are still several hikes you can make with beautiful overlooks of the monastery and the valley far below. The lines at the abbey were very confusing. It was not at all clear where to go if you wanted to visit, as there were a few separate queues, and we ended up in the wrong one more than once. We did not realize that you can make reservations online for the boy’s choir and the black Madonna. Make a reservation for 12:15 for the Black Madonna, so you will finish in time for the choir performance at 1:00. There is no charge, but you need to make separate reservations for each on the official abbey website. Since it is off season, we were lucky to get in without reservations, but you should not count on this. With regard to transportation: as several reviews have mentioned, it is very easy to get off one stop early if you are taking the cogwheel train instead of the cable car. They don’t always announce the stop! In fact, this happened to us. We accidentally got off at the “Aeri” station. It turned out well, because we then purchased tickets for the arial tram and enjoyed it very much. We went up on the aerial tram and came back on the cogwheel train. The only downside was the 30-40 minute wait to board the tram. I would definitely recommend not coming back on the aerial. It is on the second train stop, which means standing room only on the train back to Barcelona! Even if you take the aerial up, take the cogwheel train down. Sit on the right side for the best views.