Pilgrimage to Montserrat and Manresa in one day

Using the word “pilgrimage” confuses me a bit, since I’m not religious and I’m not quite sure what you mean by it.

But if what you’re looking to do is a simple tourist visit to Montserrat and the Cave of St. Ignatius in Manresa, you can easily do that on your own without joining an organised tour. In fact, that’s what most people do. Logistically speaking, it’s very simple.

The plan would be:

• Leave Barcelona early and head to Montserrat.
• Visit the monastery and spend some time walking around the mountain.
• From the Montserrat train station, take a train to Manresa (about 20 minutes).
• Visit the Cave of St. Ignatius (https://www.covamanresa.cat/en) and walk around Manresa’s town center.
• Return to Barcelona in the evening.

This train line works like a commuter line, with several trains per hour, so there’s no need to book anything in advance. You simply arrive at the station, buy a ticket, and take the next train to your destination.

> BEST APPROACH

Buy a TransMontserrat ticket at the FGC Espanya station in Barcelona. This ticket includes the return train trip to Montserrat, the ascent to the monastery, and the use of the mountain funiculars.

Once you’ve finished visiting Montserrat and are back at the station, buy a ticket to Manresa-Viladordis (note: the platform is in the opposite direction from Barcelona). The ride is only about 20 minutes. This station is a stone's throw away from the cave.

To return to Barcelona, simply buy a ticket at Manresa station.

> NOTES

To visit Montserrat, you could buy individual tickets for everything (train, rack railway or cable car, and funiculars), but it’s much more convenient to buy the combined ticket, the TransMontserrat. This combo includes the return trip to Barcelona from Montserrat. However, since you plan to continue on to Manresa, which is further along the same train line, you won’t be using that return portion of the combo ticket. It's not that much of a waste, monetarily speaking.

For the Manresa leg, you’ll buy one one-way ticket Montserrat > Manresa, and later another one-way ticket Manresa > Barcelona, since you won’t be returning from Montserrat. It sounds a bit more complicated than it really is; I’m just explaining why the instructions above work that way.

Thank you very much for your detailed answer, I appreciate your advices. What do you think about renting a car for transportation during that day instead of the train? Wouldn't that be more convenient? Thanks.

Not really:

• inconvenience of having to go to a specific spot to pick up/drop your car
• narrow windy road to ascend to the monastery -if you're not used to it!
• not easy to park in Montserrat
• ... and more expensive overall (renting, gas, tolls, parking)