Barcelona Travel Guide

Travelling by Air

Making your own flight arrangements can save you money and give you more flexibility in choice of airlines and flight times. Besides Barcelona (Prat) airport, airlines also fly to Reus and Girona, both between one or two hours drive from Barcelona. Hotel transfers from airports other than Barcelona involve a small surcharge that is included in the quote. Airport locations are shown by clicking here.

The low-cost airlines are:

Ryan Air provide low cost flights from London Stansted, Birmingham or Bournemouth airports to Girona for as little as £40 return. There are also flights from London Stansted or Luton to Reus. Bookings can be made online six months in advance for up to 50 passengers, but full payment must be made at the time of booking. The onward journey to Barcelona from both Girona and Reus is approximately 1 hour by coach. An additional €400 should be allowed to cover the extra airport-hotel transfer costs.
In February 2007 routes start from Bristol and Durham to Girona. In March 2007, flights start from Newcastle to Girona. The company has just announced that it wants to set up a new hub in Reus, which will mean new routes and at least double the number of flights from the airport, which serves the Costa Daurada resorts and is eight miles from Tarragona.

EasyJet  flies to Barcelona from Liverpool, Luton, Stansted, Bristol, East Midlands, Newcastle, Gatwick, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The fares are from £50. A maximum of eight tickets may be purchased at a single booking online. Therefore if there are more than eight people travelling, you will need to make multiple bookings. If you require assistance, ring the easyJet reservation centre on +44 (0) 870 6 000 000. Please note however, that their agents are unable to make the bookings over the phone if the date of travel is more than one month in advance.

BMI Baby (0870 264 2229) flies direct from Manchester and East Midlands airports to Barcelona, with fares from £50. Bmi baby starts a new route from Birmingham to Barcelona on March 24 2007.

British Midland (0870 6070555) flies to Barcelona from East Midlands, Manchester and London.

British Airways (0845 7733377) flies from Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Glasgow to Barcelona and Girona with prices that are now competitive with the low-cost airlines (February 2003). (groups): tel. 0870 5332266

Iberia (0845 6012854) has flights direct to Barcelona from Newcastle, Birmingham, Heathrow and Manchester from £118.50. Iberia also fly from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. They are particularly good in dealing with group bookings.

Monarch has flights direct to Barcelona from Manchester from £28. Group booking enquiries email reservationsgroups@monarch-airlines.com (10+ passengers). Telephone group bookings of 15+ passengers +44 (0) 8700 133 123

MyTravelLite.com has direct flights to Barcelona from Birmingham. Online bookings can be made for up to 25 passengers at a time. Group booking enquiries for 26 passengers or more can be made by clicking here. UK telephone 08701 564 564
Travelling by Sea

Brittany Ferries (08705 360360; www.brittanyferries.com) sails from Plymouth to Santander twice a week.

Acciona (08717 206445; www.atferries.com) sails from Portsmouth to Bilbao from June 28 to September 23. Further information from the Spanish Tourist Office (020 7486 8077; www.spain/info).