Free daily briefing on global business news.
From Sitges' carnival coastline to a cliff-backed cove in Dalí country, the best beaches near Barcelona reachable by train
chan lee / Unsplash
Travelers $TRV who spend a week in Barcelona often assume the city’s own waterfront covers every beach need, so they never look past the crowds lining the sand near the old port. This oversight costs them the best swimming Catalonia has to offer. Just outside the city, a string of coastal towns offers beaches with clearer water, quieter stretches of sand, and landscapes the urban shoreline can’t match. Reaching them doesn’t require a car, since regional trains and buses connect Barcelona to most of these towns within a couple of hours, and several sit less than an hour from the city center. A traveler with a single free afternoon can still make the trip worthwhile, and someone with a full day open can string together a swim, a hike, and a meal in a town they’d otherwise never see from a bus window on the way to somewhere else.
Barcelona’s own beaches carry a secret that surprises most visitors. The nine consecutive crescent-shaped beaches lining the city, including the popular Platja de la Barceloneta and the longtime local favorite Platja del Bogatell, are artificial, built ahead of the 1992 Olympics to give the city a waterfront it never had. They work well for a midday swim or a quick nap on the sand, but they also fill fast, and the manufactured coastline can’t replicate the coves, cliffs, and fishing-village character found farther up and down the coast. The gap between a convenient city dip and a genuine beach getaway is what pulls day-trippers out of town, and it explains why locals bypass the sand closest to home.
