Transportation Guide - Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is Spain's second largest city, with a population of 1.5 million people, and the capital of Catalonia. Barcelona is located on the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Mediterranean Sea. It is 160 km (100 mi) south of the Pyrenees and the Catalonian border with France.

Transportation

By Air

Barcelona International Airport (BCN), also known as El Prat, is a major transport hub and fields flights from all over Europe and beyond. There are now two terminals, T1 and T2. T1 and T2 are linked by a bus shuttle (every 6 to 8 minutes, travel time 10 minutes).
There is a cheap and fast way by taking the half-hourly RENFE C-2 suburban train, which runs between airport and Sants station in city centre. (travel time: 20 minutes), The train terminates next to T2, with a free-of-charge connecting green colored bus service to T1 (travel time: 15 minutes).

The budget airlines, Ryanair, uses the airports in Girona, nearly 100km to the north, or Reus, around the same distance to the south, instead.
For Girona Airport: The Barcelona Bus service runs a shuttle bus from Estació del Nord in Barcelona to Girona Airport and this ties in with various flight times. A one-way ticket costs €12 and a return ticket costs €21. The journey takes approximately 1hrs 10mins. Timetables are available online.
For Reus airport, the easiest way is to take the train from Barcelona Sants station to Reus and then the local bus to the airport. The train costs €6.45 and then the bus costs €2. This takes roughly about 1.5hrs.

By rail
Several trains per day (including overnight hotel trains) from other parts of Europe (via France) are regular & reliable.
Main train stations are Barcelona-Sants (SW of the center) and Barcelona-Estació de França(on the edge of the old town next to the seafront district of Barceloneta).
From/to Estació de França: there are several connections per day to France. Elipsos Trainhotel runs between Milano, Italy and Barcelona Estacio de Franca, Spain.

By sea
The city's port is one of the busiest on the Mediterranean. It supports both ferries and cruise ships. Large cruise ships dock 1-2 kilometers to the southwest. Many offer bus-shuttles to points near the south end of La Rambla.
You can arrive to Barcelona by boat from the Balearic Islands, from Genoa and from Rome. The ferry docks almost directly on the Ramblas.

Tickets
The metro can take you to many places. Stations are marked on most maps; every station has a detailed scheme of exits to the city. A one-journey ticket cost €1.40, so it's probably best to buy a multi-person 10-ride ticket for €7.85 (called a T-10). These tickets are also valid on the buses and trams. You also can buy a T-10 from the ticket vending machine at the airport station.

The Barcelona Card features unlimited free travel on public transport and free admission and discounts at around 100 visitor attractions. The card costs €24 for a 2-day card and €34 for a 5-day card. If you don't plan to see lots of museums every day, then it is cheaper to buy transport-only tickets.


Useful links:
The wikipedia information of Barcelona - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona
The travel information of Barcelona from WikiTravel - http://wikitravel.org/en/Barcelona
The official website of Barcelona Metro - http://www.tmb.cat/en_US/home.jsp