Sants-Montjuïc apartments in Barcelona

From Barcelona International Airport you have the following options:

• RENFE Train or Aerobus T1 or T2. RENFE Trains run two services per hour from 05:42 to 23:38 and will take you directly to Barcelona Sants train station (about 20 minutes). OR take the Aerobus express bus service which has a number of services per hour from 06:00 to 01:05 with Placa Espanya being its first city stop (about 25 minutes). Total travel time is approximately 20 – 25 minutes.

From Girona Airport you have the following option:

• Barcelona Bus + metro. Barcelona Bus takes you into Barcelona city centre, stopping at Estacio d’Autobusos Barcelona Nord bus station (about 1 hour 15 minutes). Then walk to Arc de Triomf metro station (about 4 minutes) and take metro L1 to Placa Espanya (about 15 minutes). Total travel time is approximately 1 hour 35 minutes.

From Reus Airport you have the following options:

• Bus + walk or metro L3. A regular bus service by La Hispano Igualadina will take you directly to Barcelona Sants station (about 1 hour 30 minutes). Then you can walk to the nearby apartments or walk to Sants Estacio station (about 5 minutes) and take metro L3 to Poble Sec or Parallel stations (about 15 minutes). Total travel time is approximately 1 hour 30/ 50 minutes.

From Barcelona Sants station you have the following options:

• Walk or metro L3. A number of our Sants-Montjuic apartments are a walk away from the station and others you can reach with metro L3 so just walk to the Sants Estacio metro station (about 5 minutes) and then disembark the L3 metro at Poble Sec or Parallel (about 15 minutes). Total travel time is approximately 10 – 20 minutes.

More information relating to routes and timetables can be found at www.tmb.cat/en/home and www.renfe.com/index.html

Sants-Montjuic tips for food

Sants-Montjuic is a residential area so food stores and restaurants cater for the locals, which means that you cannot go hungry, whether you choose to eat in or out. Make the best of your self-catering short stay and cook up a feast at your Sants-Montjuic apartments after you return with a bag full of ingredients from the local food stores. When you choose to treat yourself to a night off from cooking you will be happy with the varied local cuisine and the always loved tapas.

Sants-Montjuic tips for drinks

• Domino Bar, 16 Carrer de Les Flors. Excellent cocktails and why not have a pizza alongside that too?
• Spice Café, 13 Carrer de Margarit. A great place to relax in with a coffee and dessert
• Bar Collage Art & Cocktails, next to Placa de les Drassanes. Get your late night cocktail fix here
• L Atelier de Blai, 38 Calle Blai. Sit and chat over beer and tapas
• Bar Seco, 74 Passeig de Montjuic. Relaxing and trendy atmosphere inside, and out on the terrace too

About Sants-Montjuic

The delightful district of Montjuic lies in the south west of the city and is in actual fact a wide hill with a flat top overlooking the harbour below. The eastern side of the hill is a near sheer cliff which provides some incredible views across the city. With its incredible height of 184 metres, it has something of an imposing presence on the city.

For centuries the slopes of Montjuic were used by the neighbouring community of Ciutat Vella for farming and crop growing. Changes came in the 1890s when large areas of woodland were cleared to create parkland. Later, select building began in preparation for the 1929 International Exposition. The impressive Palau Nacional, the Estadi Olimpic (Olympic Stadium) and the ever popular Montjuic Magic Fountain remain today.

Montjuic  is accessible via  several transport options.  You may like to wander up there on foot which can take around 20 to 30 minutes.  A quicker option is to take the funicular railway from Parallel metro station.  The train takes you only some of the way up the hill however.  If you want to reach the castle at the summit  then you will need to climb aboard a cable car from here. The system known as the Teleferic de Montjuïc  transports  four people in its gondola lifts  upwards in around eight minutes. The ride takes you over heights of 85.5 metres is measures 752 metres. A second cable car called the Transbordador Aeri del Port takes you back off the mountain over to the Port Vell Marina and Barceloneta district. It stops at the Sant Sebastian Tower.

Highlights of Sants-Montjuic

There are many places of great interest to explore on this unique city mound. One of the most visited attractions is Poble Espanyol, also known as the Spanish Village.  Built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition, it was championed as an architectural dedication to art. It was originally designed to last just sixth months for the duration of the exhibition. It proved so popular that it remains today in its complete form. ideal model incorporating the usual characteristics of typical towns and villages on the peninsula. Measuring  49,000 m2 it incorporates with 117 buildings, city squares and streets replicating the typical style of houses and architecture from different parts of Spain. You will discover a host of specialist workshops and craft shops producing traditional hand-made Spanish goods. It is also the location of the famous Flamenco show at Tablao de Carmen which comes highly recommended.

At the fist base of the mountain, where the funicular railway terminates, is the excellent Fundació Joan Miró, a fascinating museum dedicated to the works of Miró himself. . With over half a million visitors every year it is another of the most popular attractions in the city. This art hosts a huge range of Miró’s work going back as far as 1914. There are plenty of his lesser known sculptures, tapestries and early sketches to enjoy as well as his most popular paintings.

If you are particularly touched by the works of Miró then you can also pop along to his final resting place at Montjuïc Cemetery (Cementiri del Sud-Oest) and tell him yourself. This beautiful cemetery measures an incredible 56 hectares  and boasts stunning sea views, beautiful sculptures and cypress trees. Rich and celebrated various figures from Barcelona’s history are buried here.

No visit to Montjuic is complete without experiencing the beautiful Magic Fountain.  This spectacular  display of colour, light, motion, music and water acrobatics is a delight to behold. There are fountain performances nightly but times vary depending on the time of year. Amazingly, the fountains have been jumping since their very first performance in 1929 as part of the Great Universal Exhibition . They remain one of the city’s most popular  fun attractions to this day.

Other attractions on Montjuic are the wonderful Barcelona Botanical Gardens, the fascinating Museum of Ethnology, the Olympic and Sports Museum and the Catalan Museum of Archaeology, all of which are certainly worth exploring.

An area worth while exploring from one of our Sants-Montjuic apartments!

Sants-Montjuic must sees

• Poble Espanyol. The Spanish Village is one of Barcelona’s top tourist attractions; see full-scale models of buildings from different regions of Spain
• Magic Fountain of Montjuic. Its amazing light and sound show at night is not to be missed
• Palau Nacional. The beautiful national palace is now home to the Catalan National Art Museum (MNAC)
• Montjuic hill. Enjoy the whole experience and take the funicular and cable car up to the hill and see all of its popular attractions such as the ruins of Montjuic Castle, the 1992 Olympic Stadium and the botanical gardens.
• Las Arenas. A shopping centre on Placa Espanya with a unique setting inside a former bullring

Staying in one of our Sants-Montjuic apartments gives you easy access to all of these fantastic must sees!