Escapes half an hour from Barcelona that you did not know about

Half an hour is the time it takes for a short episode of a series, a long subway ride, a walk to run errands or the time you spend looking at your cell phone in bed before going to sleep. To make better use of that time and get you out of bed we bring you some getaways that can be done in 30 minutes from Barcelona, and that allow you to change the world and have the feeling that we have taken a plane for hours. And although in our city it seems that all the secrets are discovered, there are still many places that remain to be found.

Garraf Buddhist Monastery, Richard Gere’s refuge

Yes, it is possible to travel to Tibet in a trip less than half an hour from Barcelona. In a romantic 19th century palace, in the middle of the Garraf Park, Buddhist flags fly: it is the Monastery of Barcelona, of the Sakya Tashi Ling Buddhist Monks Community, the first to be installed in Catalonia in 1996.

And although the meadows of the Garraf are not the impenetrable mountains of the Himalayas, in this temple one breathes peace. Every day and once an hour the monks organize tours to explain the Buddhist religion and visit the stupas, those conical constructions typical of Tibet that the monks have added to the Palau Novella where they are installed. Visiting the impressive health stupa, walking around the monastery and fantasizing about doing one of the retreats available in the temple is a perfect way to disconnect and be closer to enlightenment. In doing so,we may meet Richard Gere, one of the world’s famous Buddhists, who has already made more than one pilgrimage to this temple.

Colonia Güell, Gaudí’s pearl on the outside

Gaudí’s great secret just outside BCN is only 20 kilometers away and a train ride. A modernist factory colony, Gaudí’s ideas applied not just to one building, but to an entire small town. His installation here is the story of an escape: Eusebi Güell moved the Colonia Güell here to avoid the social conflicts in Barcelona in 1890.

The project, in line with the factory colonies of the time, included everything necessary for the workers to live close to the factory and have a decent standard of living. Single-family houses, a theater, a school, stores, gardens and a church. And although all the buildings have the hallmarks of Gaudí’s identity, it is precisely this church, with its 40-meter high dome, one of the most striking buildings of the complex and where you can see some of his first architectural innovations, such as the trencadís that we will later find in so many other places.

La Puda, the abandoned horror movie spa

Hidden at the foot of the mountain of Montserrat, and a few meters from the road along a winding path hides a building that looks like something out of a Wes Anderson movie. After a few sharp turns, some open and abandoned doors give way to an impressive modernist spa, a kind of abandoned Titanic that enchants by day and scares at night. It is La Puda de Montserrat, a thermal baths of the nineteenth century, built here to take advantage of a source of sulfurous waters, so beneficial to health, (and so stinky, “puda” in Catalan comes from “apestar”) that spring from the side of the Llobregat river.

The spa experienced its golden age in the early twentieth century, when thermal treatments became fashionable among the Barcelona bourgeoisie. Later, a flood of the Llobregat River destroyed the building, which never recovered. Although there have been many projects to recover it, the corpse of a century-old luxury building remains in ruins. Visiting it (at your own risk), is a trip back in time like a movie. The chapel, modernist wooden doors, the bathrooms with their bathtubs, the rooms… and downstairs, the sulfurous water fountain, which still gushes, filling everything with that characteristic smell and inviting us to wet our faces to give shine to our skin and feel like bourgeois of the nineteenth century.

Vallromanes, thermal baths and ritual rocks.

Between the mountains, the Vallés and the sea hides a little gem. A village sunk in a valley that can be reached in half an hour by car, and that allows a mountain getaway through one of the most unknown areas around Barcelona. The road from the capital is already nice, because it forces you to climb the coastal mountain range overlooking the sea and then go back down and into the humid valley. Once in Vallromanes you park, walk to the church and stroll along the stream, to turn off at some point along the path that leads to the Roca Foradada, a holed rock that, they say, was an ancient burial cave.

For the less adventurous, Vallromanes is also home to one of the branches of Aire, the luxury spas in the center of Barcelona that are now also in the countryside.

Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, the cradle of wine

And from the relaxation of prayer, to the pleasures of drinking. Sant Sadurní d’Anoia is, together with Vilafranca del Penedés, a little further away, one of the Catalan wine capitals. Only half an hour away from Barcelona there are several important wineries that allow visits with tasting in impressive cellars.

The arrival by train says it all. Right next to the station the magnificent facade of the Freixenet cellars welcomes the visitor, who walking only two hundred meters can already make the visit in one of the most important producers of wines and sparkling wines in the country. But there are many more: Juvé y Camps, Codorniu, Gramona? There is no shortage of options for drinking. In addition, the old town preserves many beautiful buildings, children of the wealth that the wine activity has left in the city. So we can stroll around while we let the glass of the last tasting go down, and make room for the next one.

Montgat, the beach of another century

A water getaway was missing, and that’s Montgat. The village between Badalona and Masnou is a stronghold of beach and beauty, a small area wedged between two cities that has kept the essence of yesteryear. There are the Baños de la Virgen del Carmen, probably one of the most beautiful beach bars in Catalonia. Nothing fancy, nothing elegant, a beach bar that takes us to another era. White lime walls, stone tables covered with rubber tablecloths, a thatched roof and the terrace built literally on the sand.

The corridor to access the beach bar will remind nostalgic people of the tingladus of Barceloneta, which used to fill the access, anticipating the smell of fish from their kitchens to the aroma of the sea that brings the beach breeze. That Barcelona no longer exists, but this Montgat does, and luckily, it is only a short train or bike ride away from Barcelona.

Montserrat, the ultimate mountain is right next to home

Half an hour away by car (and a bit more by public transport) is the real mountain of the people of Barcelona. In contrast to the soft and gentle shapes of Montjuic and Tibidabo, Montserrat allows you to do everything a good mountaineer wants to do: walking, climbing…

There are as many Montserrats as you want to have. Going up to the abbey with the rack railway is the most obvious, but you can also go to Collbató and take a hiking route to climb up to the monastery, for example, for a couple of hours, enjoying the views over the Baix Llobegat and Vallés. A mountain that always keeps a new secret and is worth exploring.

Caldes d’Estrac, hot springs with sea views

Thermal waters in front of sea waters. A small paradise just half an hour from Barcelona. This is the idea of visiting Caldes d’Estrac, a town in the Maresme region that has been welcoming travelers in search of its medicinal waters for more than a century. Hence the municipality offers not only several spas to go to its thermal waters, but also a town full of beautiful modernist houses.

In addition, the Palau Foundation, which exhibits the valuable collection of works by Picasso from the artistic fund of Josep Palau i Fabre and of course, a beach where you can sunbathe.

Sant Cugat del Vallès Monastery

With an impressive Romanesque cloister this monastery was, it is said, the most important in the whole county of Barcelona. Today it is governed by the Benedictine order and contains pre-Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance elements in its architecture.

You can discover this monastery, seven centuries old, through its guided tours. And the best part? It’s so close that you can even get there by public transport.

Casetes dels Pescadors del Garraf

A half-hour train ride takes us back a hundred years in time, when the coastal villages around Barcelona were fishing villages and not tourist destinations. The Garraf preserves part of this historical heritage with the Casetes de pescadors del Garraf, a relic that reminds us of what the Catalan coast must have looked like not so long ago.

The small white and green wooden houses rest on the sand, and sleeping in them, a privilege of the few heirs of those old fishermen (the huts are not open to the public), allows us to dream while listening to the waves breaking at our feet. Of course, although you can not sleep in them, you can get off at the Garraf stop, sunbathe on the beach, eat some paella at the Nàutic del Garraf, built on the cliff, and say that you have spent a great day at the beach as they spent, at the time, the fishermen who once fished in this cove.

Castell de Eramprunyà, the castle ruins overlooking the sea

Between Gavà and Begues hides this castle in ruins, perched on a ridge overlooking the Llobregat Delta and the Mediterranean. The excursion to get there is simple and beautiful: just an hour’s walk from the Parc del Bruguers (where you can get there by bus from Gavà). It is one of those places that seem like a medieval secret in the middle of the metropolitan area.