Barcelona Flights

Stay away from the female toilets land side at the airport. My wife said that they were worse than the toilets at Bucharest airport in 1988. I don't know but the smell reached the adjacent cafe so I suppose that she was right.

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El Prat Airport in Castelldefels is the closest to Barcelona. The second Barcelona airport which operates many low-cost airlines is much further from the city, it's actually in Girona.
El Prat has a good connection with the city center. The shuttle bus going to Plaza Cataluña (with a stop at Plaza de España or Sants) leaves every few minutes. In the rush hour, by the time one bus gets full, the next one is coming but still you need to count the queuing time which was at least 20 minutes in my case. It costs 7euro one way.
There is also a tren (Cercanías) going from the airport to the Sants station.

If you did some shoping and you want to get your Tax back it's really easy here. You just need to have all your receits, a Tax Free formular filled in the store where you did your purchase (for more then 90 euro), passport and plane ticket and you go to a small window in Terminal A, they put some stamps and the bank (located right there) and give you the cash back in not even 5 minutes.
It can do more shoping in Duty Free shops if you have time before your flight. Just don't get sucked like me and don't let them call you telling to hurry up for your flight. ;-)

For me, the easiest way to reach Barcelona was to fly from my local airport here in Scotland, to Girona which is around an hour from Barcelona. Its a small airport and the sort I like because there is no chance of getting lost! The low cost airline Ryanair fly out of there to various European destinations.

In order to get into the Barcelona itself you can take a shuttle bus directly to the Estacio del Nord bus station. There is a ticket booth on the main concourse at arrivals, right next to the car hire places.

Very nice and rather busy airport , with many good shops, restaurant,s caffees, travel agencies, car hire etc. Enough check in counters so no crowd or long waiting. Blue "Airbus" leaves terminal A via B and C direct to Placa Cataluna every 15 mins (3,50 ,€ one way)

By air: Arriving in Girona, you go to the kiosk at the airport to purchase your ticket to get to Barcelona. They have a number of busses that wait for the passengers to transport them to the bus station in Barcelona and other destinations. They have an arrangement with Ryanair to transport the passengers, so the bus times are in line with your arrival times.

Low fare airlines -like wizzair - lands at Girona airport. Take as shuttle bus at Girona airport to Barcelona city. Appr. 20 euros for the return ticket. Reservation is not needed.
Photo: Landscape between Girona and Barca.

Vueling Airlines is a new low cost airline company with head office in Barcelona that was set up with the objective of linking Barcelona with the main capitals of Europe and the West Mediterranean. The fleet is brand new with Airbus 320.

You could get cool prices from/to:

- Belgium (Bruxelles)

- France (Paris CDG)

- Italia (Milano, Roma)

- Netherlands (Amsterdam)

- Portugal (Lisbonne)

- Spain (Bilbao, Ibiza, Madrid, Malaga, Minorque, Palma, Séville)