Barcelona to Dali Museum

You can get the train schedule from the Renfe website. Both AVEs and AVANTs make the trip. They have the same running time. It appears that AVANT ticket prices are constant at 21 euros one-way, no matter when you buy them. AVE prices start lower but can go much higher if you buy them late.

The trains depart from Barcelona Sants and stop at the Figueres-Vilafant Station about 1 mile from the Dali Theatre-Museum. You'll need to allow time to cover that distance. There are online references to bus service to the Dali site, including this TripAdvisor thread.

Enric wrote a detailed explanation about visiting Montserrat last year. It may prove very helpful to you.

I haven't been to either the Dali Theatre-Museum or Montserrat, so I can't guess whether that combo can be done in one day. One important fact is that the train to Montserrat does not depart from Sants Station, but rather from FGC-Pl. Espanya, just over 1/2 mile away.

Edited to add: I believe the Montserrat train tickets have non-variable prices and will have to be bought as a separate round-trip, not in combination with your tickets for Figueres.

I haven't been to Montserrat. When I went to Figueres a year ago, there was a bus waiting outside the train station that went to the town center. I was planning to take a taxi, but the bus was right there. I think it was €1.70 for the bus ticket. From the bus stop, it's about a 10 minute walk to the museum. The bus stops across the street from the TI, where you can pick up a street map. After the Dali sights, I did take a taxi back to the train station for about €10. Don't skip the Jewels in the other building. If you are a few minutes late, I doubt they will turn you away at the museum entrance. On the other hand, if you get there when they open, you'll enjoy it more because it won't be so crowded.

Jon, my friend Chani and others have it exactly right. I remember when I went to Figueres in April 2016, there was a very cheap promotional price (bought in advance) for the early morning AVE train, about €10 as I remember. About mid-day I left Figueres for Girona, where I spent the afternoon until mid-evening. The old medieval town is very interesting with Roman walls, Jewish Museum, beautiful Cathedral, old stone lanes, etc. it is some distance from the train station however; I walked both ways (quite tiring, but good exercise, no doubt). There are no doubt taxis and buses for that route. I did not get to Monserrat during my 9 days in Barcelona, maybe in a future visit. Visiting Figueres and Monserrat in the same day seems to me to be feasible but likely rushed and tiring, and I don't know how you would find Monserrat late in the day in August, maybe great, but maybe extremely crowded. I hope Enric or others can advise on that.

Dali museum is an hour ride in one direction while monserrat is an hour in the opposite direction. I believe it would be very difficult to do both adequately in the same day without really rushing. At that point would it really be worth it

Thanks for the comments. I'm not too surprised to hear that Barcelona to Dali Museum to Montserrat would be tight. We'll have to see how the schedule works, but if we go to both, we'll do so on different days.

Is the Picasso Museum still open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00 to 20:00? We were hoping to attend a performance in the Palau de la Música Catalana while we are in Barcelona (August 22-25), but when I went to the web site, it appears to be dark the entire month of August. If we can't experience a performance we'll hopefully be able to take a tour, should we purchase tickets before hand? We saw tours are available Monday-Saturday, 9.30 to 21:00. Would the Palau de la Música Catalana be better seen earlier in the day or early evening?

The tour-booking section of the (English-language) Palau de la Musica Catalana website only extends through June at the moment. I remember seeing some performances on the schedule for last August, so perhaps you're just a bit too early to see those.

There is definitely no need to think about booking your tour so early. I can't say for sure how early you need to do it. If you need to squeeze that tour into a fairly limited time period on one specific day, it might be safest not to wait until you get to Barcelona. I wouldn't just walk up to the ticket window, because there are apparently only 5 English tours daily, at 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 noon, 1 PM and 3 PM.

My sister-in-law researched the options about a month ahead of time and turned up an afternoon tour (perhaps at 5 PM??) on August 11 that included a short organ recital. I have never seen information about such tours online; I don't know where she found it.

Yes, there's a high-speed train between Barcelona and Figueres (roughly one hour on a high-speed train from Sants station in Barcelona to Figueres-Vilafant). But the high-speed station in Figueres is outside the town (1.5 miles from the centre) and the museum is in the centre. Either you take a taxi, ride the bus or walk... noting that the bus runs on a fixed schedule of course.

No, the Barcelona 3day card (HOLABCN card!) only covers transportation in zone 1 (which is roughly the city and surrounding cities, the industrial belt). Figueres is on the other side of Catalonia, so to speak.

Montserrat and Figueres on the same day: no, it's not wise attempting.

Btw, they're not in opposite directions -both are north of Barcelona although indeed one is north-east and the other north-west :)) but it's simply that they're in different train lines altogether both company-wise and also physically. Any attempt to do what you say would result in a very tight schedule, too tight to work out as you'd probably be better off returning to Barcelona anyway. As I mentioned, in a different post, Montserrat is not a "few hours' visit", if you don't have a full "half-day" at minimum, it's best not to even try.

Enjoy!

Hi Jon, If you purchase the tour ticket in the Palau de la Música Catalana 21 (?) days ahead on their website, you'll get a discount. :-)