Has anyone visited Montserrat on their own?

[3redheads]

It seemed relatively straight forward. I found lots of tips online. I'm rather looking forward to doing this on our own.

 

Has anyone tried this?

[hawkeyetlse]

It is not difficult if you purchase the one of the Montserrat packages from the tourist office (includes round trip public transport from

Barcelona and all the activities at the site with a substantial discount compared to paying everything separately). The only drawback is that you have to choose either the cable car or the rack railway to get up to the monastery and back down (it would be nice to take one up and the other one down, to experience both).

 

Or were you maybe thinking of driving? That is also pretty easy, but when the monastery gets busy (holidays and summertime), there may be no room to park up on the mountain and you'll have to take the cable car or rack railway up anyway.

Edited May 14, 2016 by hawkeyetlse

[3redheads]

It is not difficult if you purchase the one of the Montserrat packages from the tourist office (includes round trip public transport from

Barcelona and all the activities at the site with a substantial discount compared to paying everything separately). The only drawback is that you have to choose either the cable car or the rack railway to get up to the monastery and back down (it would be nice to take one up and the other one down, to experience both).

 

Or were you maybe thinking of driving? That is also pretty easy, but when the monastery gets busy (holidays and summertime), there may be no room to park up on the mountain and you'll have to take the cable car or rack railway up anyway.

 

Thanks for the response!

 

We are going to take the train and buy the Trans Montserrat Ticket. I think we'll decide on the cable car. We hope to have enough time and energy to also take the Sant Joan Funicular.

 

This seemed a better option than paying a driver, who would stay with the vehicle with our luggage. Instead, we're dropping our luggage off at the hotel and then going to the train station. Fingers crossed!

[hawkeyetlse]

You can find the train schedules here: FGC line R5. Try going during the week if you can, because there will (hopefully) be fewer crowds at the Monastery, and because the trains are less frequent on weekends.

 

You should also check to make sure the boys choir is singing on the day you go there. There is a clickable calendar here (but apparently only in Catalan and Spanish).

 

And finally, hope for good weather, because a lot of the best stuff about Montserrat (the views, the walks/hikes on the mountain) are outdoors.

[3redheads]

Thank you so much for the tips. We are really looking forward to this excursion.

[hkto]

Tickets ate explained here https://www.fgc.cat/eng/bitllets_oci_turisme.asp Cheapest tickets is COMBOS MONTSERRAT R/T TRAIN + RACK TRAIN zone 4 at 19.30 euro. Then they go up from there depending what one wants. Other tickets include funiculars in Monserat, lunch, etc.

 

Network map is here https://www.fgc.cat/eng/planol.asp Train is R5 to Manresa.Schedule is here https://www.fgc.cat/downloads/horari...juliol2012.pdf

[Markanddonna]

I had used directions to Montserrat from others that gave choices, but I thought it might be helpful to give a step by step set of directions. Please see the post I just wrote and ask questions if necessary. We spent about 8 hours total doing this trip.

[dogs4fun]

We used an excellent online guide for our DIY trip to Montserrat. Worked like a charm & explains everything you need to know. See link below:

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/tour/barcelona-montserrat.html

[senorbanda]

We used an excellent online guide for our DIY trip to Montserrat. Worked like a charm & explains everything you need to know. See link below:

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/tour/barcelona-montserrat.html

 

dogs4fun you are absolutely correct. We used this guide for our trip to Montserrat back in 2014. It did indeed "worked like a charm".