Montserrat Aerial Cable Car Tickets One-Way or Round-Trip

The Montserrat aerial cable car

The aerial cable car has carried visitors up the cliff of Montserrat since 1930, making it one of the oldest cable cars in Spain still in service. Its cabins rise from the valley floor beside the Llobregat River to a terrace just below the monastery, gaining several hundred metres of height in a few minutes. The ride is short, but it is the most spectacular way to arrive: the wall of pink conglomerate rock grows closer and closer while the valley opens up beneath you.

Montserrat cable car tickets are the right choice if you want to save time and energy. The cabins run continuously during the day, so there is rarely a long wait once you are at the station. Stand by the downhill window on the way up for the best views of the river and the plain, and have your camera ready when the monastery buildings appear on their rocky ledge.

Montserrat Monastery and the Black Virgin

At the top station you are steps from the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat, founded in the 11th century and still lived in by a community of monks. Its basilica holds the Romanesque statue of the Virgin of Montserrat, known as the Black Virgin, which pilgrims queue to see in a small chapel above the altar. The boys’ choir of the monastery, one of the oldest in Europe, sings in the basilica on most weekdays around midday.

Plan at least three hours at the top to see the basilica, walk around the main square and enjoy the viewpoints. The monastery museum, with paintings and archaeological pieces, has its own ticket and is not included. Many visitors also take the funiculars from the monastery to higher paths, again with separate tickets, before returning to the cable car.

How to get to Montserrat from Barcelona

The easiest answer to how to get to Montserrat from Barcelona is the R5 train line from Plaça d’Espanya, which runs about every hour and takes roughly one hour to the cable car stop. The valley station of the cable car stands right next to that stop, so you simply walk across, show your voucher and board. Train tickets are not included in this ticket, so buy them separately at Plaça d’Espanya.

If you drive, there is parking near the lower station, and the one-way down ticket is useful if you go up by road and want to come back by cable car. Arrive early in the day in summer and at weekends, when Montserrat is busiest. The cable car runs daily from morning to early evening, with shorter hours in winter and the last ride down earlier than the last ride up.

Is Montserrat worth visiting? The mountain and its trails

Montserrat means “serrated mountain”, and its rounded rock towers rise abruptly from the Catalan plain to more than 1,200 metres at the summit of Sant Jeroni. The whole massif is a natural park, with trails through holm oak and pine, small hermitages carved into the rock and viewpoints that on clear days reach the Pyrenees. For many travellers, this mix of landscape and spiritual history is exactly why Montserrat is worth visiting.

With a one-way up ticket you can ride to the monastery and then walk down by one of the marked paths, a satisfying half-day hike for fit walkers. The best time to visit Montserrat is spring or autumn, when the air is clear and the temperatures are mild; in summer go early and carry water, as the rock reflects the heat.