06/06/2026
www.bcnfashionhouse.com
Barcelona is one of the best cities in Europe to use as a base. Within two hours, you can be on a medieval street, a hidden cove, or a mountaintop monastery. Here are the six best day trips, ranked.
1. Montserrat — 1 hour
A jagged mountain with a Benedictine monastery that has been there since 1025. Home to La Moreneta, the Black Madonna, patron saint of Catalonia. Take the R5 train from Plaça Espanya, then a cable car or rack railway straight up. The most dramatic day trip on this list.
2. Girona — 40 minutes by fast train
A medieval city with one of the best-preserved Jewish Quarters in all of Europe, Roman walls you can walk on, and colorful houses stacked along the Onyar River. Game of Thrones fans will recognize it as Braavos. Easy, beautiful, and often overlooked.
3. Cadaqués — 2 hours
A whitewashed fishing village at the far tip of the Costa Brava, reachable by a mountain road with dramatic sea views. Salvador Dalí lived here most of his adult life and built his house from a cluster of fishermen's huts in 1930. That house is now a museum you can visit. One of the most beautiful villages in Catalonia.
4. Sitges — 40 minutes by train
A charming seaside town with clean beaches, a lovely old town, and a church perched right above the water. The easiest beach escape from Barcelona, and far more elegant than the city's own coastline.
5. Sant Sadurní d'Anoia — 45 minutes by train
This small town in the Penedès wine region produces around 90% of all Spanish cava, the sparkling wine made using the same method as Champagne. Freixenet and Codorníu both have their cellars here. You can reach it directly by the R4 train from Plaça Catalunya and walk to the wineries from the station.
6. Tarragona — 1 hour by train
A Roman city with a 2,000-year-old amphitheater sitting right on the Mediterranean. Far fewer tourists than the rest of this list, and one of the most complete days you can have outside Barcelona.
