Barcelona

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Barcelona
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Information
Country:
Flag of Spain
Spain
Population: 1,604,555
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Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, a region in Spain (and France).

Hitching in

From France

When on the main motorway from France to Barcelona, some cars are being stopped at the border for identity and luggage check. When going to Spain (Catalunya), there are several big rest areas on that road. You can either ask your driver to let you out in towns (with train stations) and cities along that road, such as Girona or Rubí and Sant Cugat (latter two are better options), or get out of the car at a rest area and wait for another ride to Barcelona. A train ticket generally cost you between €1,30 (Sant Cugat/Rubí) and €10 (Girona).

You can also ask the driver to leave you at the junction by the university (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona). There is a roundabout right by the motorway ramp. The only challenge is that your driver has to be going from the junction of Barbera de valles on the right site of the motorway as it gets split - otherwise you leave the car at Castellbisbal service station.

You can also try to get a ride to the Costa Brava - there you will find many train stations with trains to Barcelona. There is a cheap train service along the coast all the way to Barcelona (as of 2004, the ticket for the longest distance was 4 euro).

Hitchhiking out

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North towards Girona, Figueres, La Jonquera, (France)  AP-7 

In general your chances of being picked up are much better with cars with French number plates. For the options below it's good to have an idea about how many French cars you can expect.

Option 1: C33 Motorway service station Montcada

Take a Renfe train from Barcelona-Passeig de Gracia (there are even more trains from Barcelona-Sants) on the R2 or R2 Nord line, direction: Granollers Centre (R2) or Macanet-Massanes (R2 Nord). Get off at station Montcada i Reixac. (This train will take you about 20 minutes and costs €2,15 (2014)). Exit the train station to the left, through the second exit in the direction of the train. Walk under the railways and pass through the station building. At the other side you will find yourself at a small shopping district with a one way street. Follow it to the right. Pass the church, traffic lights, and cross the pedestrian bridge. Once over the bridge, turn left and follow the fenced in school playground around to the right. You should now see the motorway above you and parking below the motorway. Continue following the motorway until you see the road dip down and to the right under the railroad. Go under the bridge. Up ahead and to your left you will see a very broken vertical turnstile and a sign saying "forbidden" (see a picture here: http://imgur.com/MLxJc29). Ignore the sign and follow the foot path to the right, to the service road along the motorway. This service road goes right into the back of a Gasolinera Galp Montcada Norte petrol station.
Hitch there by asking around, or with a sign where the exits converge. Keep in mind that the toll is only two kilometers ahead, so try for shorter distances to get past the toll and onto a different rest stop. Sovereign, after waiting for 15 minutes (standing, with sign) at the Galp station was told by an employee to fly a sign with "Girona" instead of "FR". Girona works far better and there is another station before and after Girona.

This good petrol-station is on the C33 motorway (which leads to the Autopista del Mediterraneo, AP7/ E15) and is just 10 minutes away from Barcelona city centre by train. You can find cars going to Girona, Figueres, and sometimes even much further: straight into France.

This option worked very well for us (Steffi and Manu), the spot is easy to find, the description above is very good! takes about half an hour form Passeig de Gracia, people were helpful at the petrol station, we got a ride all the way to Switzerland.
This option also worked well for me (Tarik) in Jan-14. I just waited for 15 minutes until a gracious Spanish couple gave me a ride to Girona.
This option worked for me (Joel) too in June-15. Waited 20 minutes before I was picked up by some really friendly spaniards. The trouble for me was to get out of Spain (gave up after 4 hours) and I was stuck just close to the border to France in La Jonquera before I finally had to get a cab to Perpignan. Apparently -nobody- picks up hitch hikers just next to the border because this is a huge drug smuggling zone. Both rides I took before they clearly asked me if I had any drugs on me. I had no idea why but now I understand. My recommendation is that you find someone that goes all the way to France in Montcada / Girona, because believe me, there is absolutely nothing to see in La Jonquera. (In hindsight I should've just walked the remaining 5 kms to France where it's very easy to catch a ride.)
It is a great spot! I used it 2 times (04/2014 and 08/2016). Once I was going to France with Girona sign. Leaving a highway in Spain - not a good idea! Coming back is a nightmare... My advise is to look for a French car if you're going further. Also watch out for R2 trains as half of them after Passeig de Gracia goes to the final station instead of your direction. --Polski Matematyk

Option 2: AP-7 Motorway Service Station Bellaterra

Take train S2 from Barcelona Plaça Catalunya, direction Sabadell-Rambla, and get off at Bellaterra. (2 zones). Turn left out of the station and walk 1.6km along C/ de Bellaterra. After you have crossed over the motorway bridge, you will see a small road to the left. Walk ≈400 along this road (you will pass through a small tunnel) to the service station.
When asking locals, ask how to walk to Hotel Bellaterra, as Spanish people are clueless about hitchhiking and any other question will be answered with useless answers about how to reach the motorway. (EDIT: the hotel is closed and you have to climb two gates to get to the rest area).
There are not too many drivers going north though, and the (Spanish) ones who are don't seem to be eager to pick up hitchhikers. Almost no traffic from Barcelona going north passes through here, so you miss out on all the French drivers - option 1 is probably much better.

Option 3: Barcelona Gran Via

Take the metro L2 and get off at Monumental. From there, pass by the Plaça de Toros (Bullfight Arena) and start hitchhiking at the last traffic light by the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes/Carrer Padilla before street corner where the road leads to the motorway C-31. When the light turns red, ask people if they're heading towards the motorway. If yes, ask them if they can take you to the first petrol station ("gasolinera"). Location Option3
This is a good option to start hitching from the city itself. It works pretty well if you know how to hitch from petrol lights, have a big sign or know some Spanish.

I tried today this central and easy to reach option 3 and waited only 5 minutes with two people and a huge Montgat sign to get a ride from Gran Via /Padilla street outside of Barcelona along the coast. The willing driver can stop on a marked area. See a photo-link. In theory only cars on the right hand side lane of the 3 lanes going out of Barcelona can use this "stop possibility" marked on the street, but our driver crossed the still red traffic light to make it to the right even from the middle lane.
I've also tried "Option 3," but I believe it's much too busy a street to get a ride. Also, the drivers will have to do some interesting manoeuvers in order to pick you up. If you can blackride the metro, I would go elsewhere.
There is construction work going on (April 2016) so the cars really can't stop or pull over anywhere anymore. A little bit further, shortly behind the train station, the cars can pull over to the taxi/bus lane. One time it worked, we were three people going to Palamós, the other time it was only me going to Figueres and nobody stopped even after waiting for 40 minutes. Walking even further is possible but there are many cars going in another direction, I recommend trying another option.

Option 4: Petrol station Barcelona Beach

Take bus H16 from Plaça Catalunya direction Fòrum and get off at Cementiri de l'Est. Head towards the beach, cross over the highway bridge, and you will see McD and the Repsol petrol station on the left. photo-link This is a good option to start hitching from near the beach itself in Barcelona. It works pretty well if you know some Spanish or even Catalan as you have to ask the drivers at the petrol station.

South towards Valencia, Alicante  AP-7  & West towards Zaragoza, Madrid  A2 

Option 1: AP-7 Motorway Service Station Porta de Barcelona (Castellbispal)

Take Renfe train R4 direction St.Vicente de Calders from either Barcelona Sants, Plaça Catalunya or Arc de Triomf, to Castellbisbal.

Note: If you have a map, and try to find the directions below on it, you will find that they make no sense. It is very likely that your map does NOT display the brand new high-speed train tracks that pass 10m north of the train station. DO NOT follow your map, follow the instructions. Or follow the map link that is provided below.

From the train station, go left and take the dirt road that leads out and cross under the railway tracks on your right. Walking on this road, you'll come across a surfaced road on your right, that will lead to a bigger road. When you reach this bigger road, you'll see a bridge on your right. Turn left here, and then immediately to the right, to a small street, at the end of which you can see a "stop" sign from the distance. Go straight until it turns into a dirt road, keep going on the dirt road until you reach the petrol station. There will be other roads left and right, ignore them. This whole walk from the station to the service station shouldn't take you much more than 30 minutes (besides, you can find signs on the last road that directly takes you to the service station, showing you that you're on the right way to the "área de servicio").

If you are trying to get to Madrid and you use this route, stay on the side going south and try putting Lleida on your sign. Way to walk and Location


This doesn't work anymore, it is impossible to get from "St.Vicente de Calders" to any petrol station.

ꜛI think this user did not read the instructions right and got off on the wrong stop (St Vicente de Calders), from Castellbisbal I walked to the petrol station following the instructions and I got my ride to Malaga with a nice trucker in less than 10 minutes - Mario C. 27/08/2016

Option 2: AP-7 Motorway Service Station Bellaterra

Follow the instructions as per "heading north to Girona option 2" above. Cross over the footbridge to the services on the north side of the motorway for hitching south.

This place is not recommended for going south or west. A worker at the petrol station says that people arrive there and end up sleeping 1 or 2 days. Also the entrance from the highway to this petrol station is 10km before the petrol station. Most of that cars that passed in this place were going to barcelona center... Use option 1, much better.

South towards Tarragona, Valencia  C-32 

(Petrol station on Granvia de l'Hospitalet leading to motorway C-32).

Take metro L1 (red) to Bellvitge. Turn right out of the station and walk south ≈300m along Rambla Marina to the Avenida de la. Turn right and walk west ≈200m to the Galp petrol station.

We took a metro to the second last stop of the red line (Bellvitge) and walked three minutes on Rambla Marina towards We then hitched a couple of minutes in the traffic lights and got our first ride (if you go up to the Granvia there is a petrol station right there petrol station but we did not know it). After four more fairly easy rides we were in Valencia. --Astikain (talk) 15:29, 24 April 2013 (CEST)

I do not recommend this option. I spent 7 hours in the sun, switching from the ramp (which factually is.a.perfect spot) to the gas station with no luck. I speak spanish so I asked everyone that I saw at the gas station, they were all mainly going to the nearby villages.or to the airport, and several truckers let me know that most people take the A7, especially truckers. Mario Cecilia, 27/7/2016

North West towards Manresa, Andorra  C-16  E 9

Take Renfe train S2 train from Placa de Catalunya to Volpelleres. Get out on the left side(taking the direction of the train as reference) of the station. Walk straight out along Carrer Mare de Déu del Roser, going a bit uphill. Bear left at the end of the road and you will see a roundabout with a petrol station. At the roundabout, take the exit Carrer de Vallespir and walk ≈150m till you get to the roundabout junction with the C-16 motorway. Stand at the entrance slip-road direction Manresa.
Probably you will not find a ride to Andorra but from Manresa you can take the road in direction Berga. For us it worked out quite well.

Hitchhiking ferry to Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza

Please add information if you have experience hitchhiking a ferry there.

More information

Check Nomadwiki for info on accommodation, showers etc. or Trashwiki for dumpsters...and share your wisdom :)

  • Hitchbase has some more options on alternative ways to hitchhike out of Barcelona.
  • TMB.net Barcelona public transport website.