Metro, buses and trams in Barcelona: prices and top tips to save money during a tourist stay

The T-Casual is a card which allows you to take 10 one-way trips by metro, bus, tram and train around the city centre. It cannot be shared.

Your T-Casual card will be valid until the last day of February of the following year.

After this point, expired cards can be exchanged, on condition that they haven’t been used, up until the end of June. You may have a small fee to pay if the price has gone up in the meantime.

Metro and bus ticket: The T-grup

The advantage of the T-Grup ticket is that it can be shared. If you come as a group or family for a stay of between a week and a month, it may be a good option.

Take good care of your card, as it could well last you for your entire trip. In case of loss or theft, you’ll have to buy another ticket.

Metro and bus ticket: T-familiar on sale from March 1, 2020

The T-Familiar allows you to make 8 trips within 30 days and has the advantage that it can be shared. It is not valid for journeys from the airport metro station. It is scheduled to go on sale on March 1st, 2020.

Where to buy transport tickets

• Online with a 10% discount for Hola Barcelona. Afterwards you will only have to pick it up at one of the many tourist information centres of the airport or the city.

• On entering the RENFE train at the airport. The cards also cover the journey from the airport to the centre of Barcelona.
• At tram stations
• At the entrance to all métro and ferrocarril stations, either at the window or using the automatic TMB machines. Instructions are available in English by clicking on the flag icon at the bottom of the screen. Next, select your card, in zone 1 (important!) and choose the number of cards you want to buy. Be careful not to get the number of cards and the number of zones mixed up. You can then pay with cash or by card. Simple!

Using your card

You need to validate (stamp) your card every time you use it. On buses and trams, you’ll find a stamping machine near the doors.

At metro or ferrocarril stations, you’ll need to use your card to get through a turnstile or automatic door. Sometimes, the machine will show how many trips you have left. Don’t forget to retrieve your card each time. Note that the side where you insert the card to get through is not the same at every station.

In any case, take good care of your card – if it’s damaged, you won’t necessarily be able to get it replaced.

A little-known top tip

With any of these cards, you only need to validate once for each trip, even if you use several different modes of transport.

If you change from a bus to another bus or the metro, tram or ferrocarril, it still counts as the same trip, even if you’re on the return leg, on condition that your journey time is less than an hour and a quarter.

An example?

• You get the bus from avenue Diagonal to plaça Catalunya, get off and spend a short while in plaça Catalunya.
• If you take a different bus service or the metro back to Diagonal or, for example, toward Sagrada Familia, and if your journey time is less than 1 1/4 hours from first validation, then it counts as a single trip. However, this is not the case if you get the same bus service again.
• Note that if you leave a metro station to walk to another or, for that matter, return to the same station later, you’ll have to validate again on your second entry and it will count as two trips. However, this is not the case if you go from a metro station to a ferrocarril station.

Handy, no?