metro in barcelona

We have been to Barcelona three times and never used public transport. The city center is very walkable, just protect your valuables since the city is the pickpocket capital of the world.

I was in Barcelona in March 2024 for a week. I used the metro enough that a T-casual card with 10 rides made sense for me. I purchased a physical card at the train station upon arrival. English instruction on the machine and live people monitoring (not scammers although I would always be alert to that possibility.). You may do better with individual tickets. https://www.tmb.cat/en/barcelona-fares-metro-bus

I found the metro very easy to use and didn’t take more precautions than I would in Paris Metro or other cities - e.g. monitoring purse carefully, watching surrounds, I wear a money belt, phone stashed away, etc. I am a senior, solo female traveler. I don’t remember any Barcelona specific oddities, very straightforward.

I used the app also for planning. https://www.tmb.cat/en/home

I also walked a lot as suggested above, but I don’t consider multi-mile walks a particular challenge. I stayed in the Eixample neighborhood.

Enjoy!

The Barcelona Metro is as easy as the London Tube, and (for me) easier than the New York Subway or Paris Metro. You won't need it for anything between Placa Catalunya and the sea (that part is easily walkable) but it is very useful for areas outside the centre you might want to see (Montjuic, Eixemple, Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Barceloneta...)

We used the Barcelona metro frequently during our late Spring visit. I watched a YouTube video on how to buy tickets before we went just because I knew I would be using a jet-lagged brain for the transaction. I just YouTubed “ How to buy metro tickets in Barcelona” and liked the one done by Patrick in Barcelona best. We bought the T-casual cards at the closest metro station to our hotel.

Barcelona is a very walkable city, but if it’s raining or you just hit a wall when it’s time to head back to base, they are great. Also, they are interchangeable with city buses.

The metro is easy indeed, but some transfers are long (I am looking at you, Passeig de Gracia). It pays to walk a little and get a direct ride. For example, walk to L2 Passeig de Gracia station to get to Sagrada Familia.

The public transportation system in Barcelona is one of the best in Europe. It comprises a network of buses, metros, tramways and trains within the metropolitan area -not just the city of Barcelona. It's inexpensive, clean, has a high frequency of services, and is safe. In short, moving in the city is very convenient and fast.

But... I am sure you'll have a bucket list of things you want to see, right? As said earlier, the city is very walkable and also, it has plenty of things to see at every corner -it has a 2000+ year history after all!- so DEPENDING on your list, you might realize you don't actually need to use the system that much, after all, three days is a very short stay. If that's the case, single tickets are the way to go. The purchasing process is similar though, so the referenced videos above will be useful anyway.

If you wish, do tell where are you staying and what you want to visit each day, and I can suggest how to best move about.

Enjoy!

We are staying at a hotel at Placa de Catalunya, so we will be walking some for sure. We will want to take the bus/ or metro to Sagrada Familia and to Park Guell. We have to meet for our trip to Montserrat and it is a little ways out so i will probably catch the metro for that as well, but want to be assured we won't be late for our starting time. We are traveling to Europe for our first time and are 70 years old. So, not the best at navigating with our phones and all but I am working on figuring it all out. I have mapped out Barcelona for our walking parts like Picasso and Barceloneta and the market. Hoping for the best. Thank you all for your time and comments, much appreciated.

Jill J

I am in my late 70's and have been to Europe twice before. I will be going to Barcel;ona for the first time in October and like yourself have difficulty using a cell phone for navigation.

Visitor Information is in Placa de Catalunya. I am also attaching a link to Visitor Information which has been very helpful to me.

https://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/page/5/getting-around-the-city.html

I have found another very helpful site and if I can find it again will post the additional link.

I also want to go to Monsterrat and am trying to book through Spain Day Tours. They pick you up at your hotel and return you to hotel. I am also afraid of not being able to find the meeting spot for the train or bus excursion.

YouTube Videos are exceptional and I have been watching YouTube videos about Barcelona Public Transportation as well as many others.

Here is the other site that I have been using.
https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com

We were just in Barcelona this past April. As others have mentioned , pickpockets are a big concern. I had read that many pickpockets operate in the Metro and Las Ramblas. So to avoid that , we stayed away from Las Ramblas and the Metro. Instead , we did a lot of walking and used taxis which were not that expensive.

We found the Metro in Barcelona very easy to use, although we mostly walked places. We were staying on Passieg de Gracia, one block from Placa de Catalunya. We took the metro to the old hospital, and toured that, and walked back to Sagrada Familia. The only time we took a bus was to Park Guell. There is a bus that stops on Passieg de Gracia and goes all the way to Park Guell. That seems to be the only convenient way to get there unless you take a taxi.

If you are staying on Placa de Catalunya, there is a big department store there called El Corte Ingles, which has a big grocery store one floor down from street level. Also in that area, Rambla de Catalunya and Passieg de Gracia are great for walking and looking at the beautiful buildings, and we went for tapas at Ciutat Comtal twice, it was so good. Get the honey glazed cod. Ciutat Comtal is only a block away from Placa de Catalunya, on Rambla de Catalunya. It has a lot of seating inside; no need to sit outside. Rambla de Catalunya is not "the Rambla." To me it was a lot nicer, with fewer tourists, and nice places to sit and watch the world go by.

The T casual card is very helpful. It can be used on the Metro, buses, and even the local trains (Rodales). We arrived via train to the Sants station, but couldn't find a machine to purchase the T casual cards. Later that day we went to a Metro station and bought the cards--very easy, very straightforward.

Barcelona is very walkable, the metro was very useful going from one place to another. We stayed a few blocks from the rail station and a block from a metro station. We ended up using only 6 of 10 trips on each of our cards--the cost of the cards was still cheaper than the cost of 6 individual fares.

We were able to use the T casual card to take the local train from the Sants rail station to the Prat airport. For some reason, the T casual card cannot be used to take the metro from Sants to Prat though--no big deal since the journey takes roughly the same amount of time for the metro or train.