We are looking for suggestions as to the best way to make a day trip to Montserrat and a winery on a Sunday when we need to return to Barcelona by 5 PM to join our Rick Steves tour group. There are lots of companies on the web that offer tours, but many are a bit lengthier and it is hard to tell which companies are good. Has anyone done this trip and can you suggest any companies and is this worth a trip? We could get to Montserrat on our own, but probably not a winery. Thanks.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
2942 posts
... any tour that offers both sites will take the full day, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing much of anything. If I were you I'd stick to Montserrat, besides, the best vineyards in the area are in the opposite direction -towards Penedès (south west of Barcelona) while Montserrat is north(ish).
Also, getting to Montserrat on your own allows you to experience one of the joys of the trip, the ascension and descend to the Monastery, either by cable car or by rack train. On a tour you'd be ascending on a boring twisty road instead. Check out post #5 here for more details.
Posted by
OP
Winston-Salem, NC, USA
4 posts
Thanks, Enric. This is very helpful and so is Post #5.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
2942 posts
Enjoy your visit!... also if you happen to be going to Montserrat from Mon to Fri, at 1ish you can listen the choir boys, Escolania de Montserrat, performing in mass (a short performance though, barely 15'). A delight I must say. This is one of the many concerts that they perform along the year, and this one of the performances on a typical Sunday. In this video they recorded for a televised fund-raiser for Catalan TV in 2011 you can see a few more impressive images of Montserrat. If you visit on a Sunday, the performance is a bit longer and it's held at noon instead.