Estacio de Sants

Barcelona’s main train station is known as Estacio de Sants (after the Sants district, where it is located) and is the major rail transport node of the city. Whilst Sants is no Gare du Nord, or Hauptbahnhof, the station efficiently serves its primary function of getting you from A to BCN, and the toilets are even cleaned once in a while.

The impressive AVE express train to Madrid leaves around eight times a day and takes only 2.5 hours to reach the capital (tickets are both pricey and in demand), whilst you can also use Estacio de Sants to get to Valencia and Tarragona, amongst other of Spain’s manifold treasures.

Tickets

For major destinations you can buy tickets on the Renfe website.

For local destinations around Catalonia try looking on the Rodalies website.

Neither websites are quite as user-friendly as one would like!

Generally speaking for local train journeys you don’t need an advance ticket, you can buy them from the machines (leave 5 minutes at least to queue) or from the ticket office (leave at least 15 minutes as it can get busy).

Left Luggage

The station has reasonably-priced left luggage lockers that cost around €5 an item. Look for the signs for consigna. Otherwise check out more luggage storage solutions here.

Sants Bus Station

Adjoining the train station is Sants bus station, and if you’re flying out of Barcelona with Ryanair from Reus this is where you should catch the bus to Reus airport