A guide to the Montserrat mountain and Manresa area

Description of Montserrat & Manresa

The number one tourist excursion is a Barcelona day trip to Montserrat. Montserrat is the religious centre of Catalunya with a monastery, basilica, Museums, restaurants and a hotel. It is a mountain top religious centre and world famous pilgrimage destination. The Benedictine Monk retreat at Montserrat offers you some of the most spectacular mountain views of Catalunya. This page is a summary of attractions and hiking trails in Montserrat Mountain.

For an easy family day trip to Montserrat I recommend visiting the Montserrat Monastery Basilica first and walking around the main square. The Easy Santa Cova walk can be done or the Easy Montserrat walking route. This combination will allow you to explore some of the mountain hermitages as well as the basilica.

For a more challenging montserrat day trip hiking experience, I recommend a quick visit to the Montserrat Monastery Basilica followed by the Sant Jeroni from Montserrat Monastery route. Sant jeroni is the highest summit in the Montserrat natural park and you will enjoy magnificent views of some of the most unusual rock formations in catalonia consisting of a sedimentary geology of pebbled stone with its flora, fauna and abandoned hermitages along the way.

Alternatively the monastery complex can be reached from Monistrol de Montserrat with a spectacular hiking route up the side of montserrat mountain via the Abandoned Hotel Colonia Puig and Santa Cecilia Hermitage.

Colbato is also an interesting starting point for Montserrat hiking, being a town reachable by bus and providing great views of the side of the mountain range. This route is challenging because it involves walking up the entire Height of the Montserrat mountain range rather than starting half way up from the monastery complex.

Not on the Montserrat mountain range but in the valley below is an La Puda abandoned thermal bath complex and this hiking route gives spectacular views of Montserrat mountain from Sant Salvador de les Espases hermatige.

Barcelona to Montserrat by Train or Private Coach Tour

When planning a Day Trip from Barcelona to Montserrat there are four options for getting to the Monastery:

1. FGC train + Montserrat Cremallera train: Take the FGC train from Barcelona Plaza Espana to Monistrol de montserrat station and change here onto the Montserrat cremallera racked railway which terminates in the main square of the Monastery complex.
2. FGC train + Montserrat Cable Car: Take the FGC train from Barcelona Plaza Espana to Aire de Montserrat station one stop before Monistrol de Montserrat. Exit the station and immediately outside is the Montserrat yellow cable car lower station. The cable car terminates in the main square of the Monastery complex after climbing some steps upon exiting the upper cable car station.
3. Walk up the Montserrat mountain from Monistrol de Monserrat to the Monastery via Abandoned Hotel, Sant Bennet Monastery & Santa Cecilia.
4. Book a Guided Coach tour from Barcelona.



Click on any of the images below to read more about a specific activity in Montserrat and find Montserrat train maps, Montserrat hiking route maps, Montserrat timetables and other relevant information, as well as a little history.

Note that Cardona is a town North of Manresa and worth a day or weekend trip.

Happy Exploring!