6 Days in Barcelona Plus Day Trips
Six days keeps the 5-day itinerary intact and adds Tarragona, the one day trip on this list built around Roman ruins Barcelona itself doesn’t have. That’s five day trips against a single city day now, a genuinely different kind of Barcelona visit than the one most guides assume you’re planning. The 7-day version adds Penedes cava country as the final leg.
| Day | Focus | Train time from Barcelona |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sagrada Familia, Gothic Quarter, El Born | In the city |
| 2 | Montserrat monastery and hiking trails | FGC R5, about 1 hour each way |
| 3 | Girona old town and the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres | Rodalies/AVE, 40 min to under 2 hours by service |
| 4 | Sitges beach and Modernisme architecture | Rodalies R2 Sud, 35-40 minutes each way |
| 5 | Costa Brava coastal towns by rental car | No direct fast train, drive or tour |
| 6 | Tarragona’s Roman amphitheater, forum and circus | Rodalies, 45-90 minutes by service |
Book these before you go:
- Sagrada Familia timed entry : mandatory online booking, sells out 10-14 days ahead in peak season
- Montserrat combined FGC and Cremallera ticket : buy ahead for a summer weekend
- Dali Theatre-Museum tickets : buy online to skip a real line in summer
- Costa Brava rental car: book weeks ahead in July and August
Day 1: Barcelona, One Day Only
Sagrada Familia in the morning, the Gothic Quarter and El Born for the rest of the day. Depth on the city itself isn’t the point of this itinerary; the full Barcelona guide covers what this one deliberately leaves out.
Day 2: Montserrat
FGC R5 to Monistrol de Montserrat, about an hour, then the Cremallera or cable car up, combined ticket EUR 15.90 one-way. The Sant Joan trail above the monastery is the better use of your afternoon once the Black Madonna’s been seen. Book a guided Montserrat day trip to skip arranging the tickets yourself.
Day 3: Girona and Figueres
Girona in about 40 minutes for EUR 9-17, Figueres and the Dali Theatre-Museum on the same corridor, 40 minutes to under 2 hours away, EUR 18 admission. A combined Girona and Figueres day tour handles both towns in one booking.
Day 4: Sitges
R2 Sud, 35-40 minutes, EUR 4-5. A beach town with genuine Modernisme architecture; a half-day is the right amount of time to give it here.
Day 5: The Costa Brava
No direct fast train reaches Tossa de Mar, Cadaques, or Begur, so pick up a rental in Girona instead, the nearest city with its own airport. Book weeks ahead in July and August, when the coastal lots run short on cars.
Day 6: Tarragona
The slower Rodalies regional train, EUR 7.50-9, 75-90 minutes, drops you directly in Tarragona’s historic center; the faster Avant or AVE, EUR 14-16, 45-60 minutes, leaves you about 10km outside town instead, a genuine case of the pricier option delivering the worse trip. The UNESCO-listed Roman amphitheater, forum, and circus run around EUR 5 per site, or EUR 15 for a combined five-site pass, detailed on tarragonaturisme.cat . Tarragona was the provincial capital of Roman Hispania, and it shows in a way none of Barcelona’s own Roman remnants quite manage.
Should You Take the Slow Train or the AVE to Tarragona?
The slower Rodalies train, almost always, if the Roman sites are the point of the day. It costs less and drops you inside the historic center; the faster AVE saves perhaps 30 minutes but leaves you a 10km taxi or bus ride short of the amphitheater you came to see.
Is Five Day Trips Plus One City Day Too Lopsided a Way to See Barcelona?
Only if you wanted a deep city trip in the first place, in which case this isn’t that itinerary; the barcelona family’s own 6-day plan is. This version is built for travelers who’d rather use Barcelona’s rail network than its restaurant scene, and five real day trips against one grounding city day delivers exactly that.
Buy the Tarragona combined five-site pass at the amphitheater ticket window rather than online; it isn’t sold in advance, and the queue there rarely runs long enough to matter.