London to Barcelona

I am trying to plan a trip to London, staying for a few days, and then heading to Barcelona for a transatlantic cruise leaving out of the port of Barcelona. I would be flying into Heathrow from NYC.

Can anyone give me any suggestions on the best way to get from London to Barcelona? TYIA!

Maryann

I am trying to plan a trip to London, staying for a few days, and then heading to Barcelona for a transatlantic cruise leaving out of the port of Barcelona. I would be flying into Heathrow from NYC.

 

Can anyone give me any suggestions on the best way to get from London to Barcelona? TYIA!

 

 

 

 

Maryann

Well... best really is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it??

Flying would be the quickest, and probably quite reasonable price-wise. A perfectly sensible option.

But that's not what I would do. :D

As demonstrated by The Man in Seat 61, it's quite possible to go from the UK to Spain by either train or ferry. While the ferry option has always intruigued me, I would probably end up on the Eurostar/TGV combo of trains. It takes a full day, but a full day racing thru the English/French/Spanish countryside. I can think of worse ways of spending a day.

Thank you for such a quick response, Twickenham! I will start researching the train, schedules, how long the trip would take, etc. My DH, our two traveling buddies and myself took the Amtrack train from New Orleans into New Jersey after a repo a couple of years ago. I believe we were on the train for 30 hours. We called it our big adventure..LOL:D

Maryann

Thank you for such a quick response, Twickenham! I will start researching the train, schedules, how long the trip would take, etc. My DH, our two traveling buddies and myself took the Amtrack train from New Orleans into New Jersey after a repo a couple of years ago. I believe we were on the train for 30 hours. We called it our big adventure..LOL:D

 

 

 

 

Maryann

Ha! Compared to that, London-Barcelona will be a breeze! Just click on the link in my other post (yes, there is a link...) and that will give you all the info, plus videos covering the whole trip.

If flying into Barcelona, obviously make sure you are flying into the 'real' Barcelona airport, as some of the low cost airlines describe airports miles away as Barcelona.

I am trying to plan a trip to London, staying for a few days, and then heading to Barcelona for a transatlantic cruise leaving out of the port of Barcelona. I would be flying into Heathrow from NYC.

 

Can anyone give me any suggestions on the best way to get from London to Barcelona? TYIA!

 

Maryann

Also, if you decide to fly to Barcelona, there are plenty of discount carriers that operate within Europe such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Wizzair, FlyBE; none of which have their schedules appear in the major online search engines. As with all things, you get what you pay for and be VERY VERY careful regarding luggage, luggage weight etc etc

On the flying to BCN, note that London has 5 major airports LHR you're likely familiar with, but LGW, STN, LUT and [perhaps] LCY will offer you a better option.

Lastly, do read Seat61. London -> Paris -> Barcelona (on the sleeper) is certainly doable.

Another option can be to buy a ticket to Barcelona and include a stop in London.

Lastly, do read Seat61. London -> Paris -> Barcelona (on the sleeper) is certainly doable.

Scottbee, while you can still do the sleeper, there's now a TGV that travels Paris-Barcelona in about 6 1/2 hours, making a (albeit full) day trip possible.

We did the Elipsos sleeper train in 2008, but this has been discontinued for almost 2 years now. There is no way I would do overnight in a French couchette! Definately go for the TGV (one of the fastest trains in the world) in daylight. You could always do the Eurostar (London - Paris) one day and do a bit of Paris sightseeing, then get the TGV the next day...just a thought. If you do decide to do it 'one hit', cross Paris by taxi...we did it via the Metro...never again (with luggage):eek:! Don't forget when looking at timetables, France is one hour ahead of UK, so it looks like London to Paris takes about 90 mins, but it takes best part of 2 1/2 hrs.

Simon

Wow! Thank you for all of your responses! I looked into the Eurostar/TGV as Twickenam suggested. Looks interesting and doable. We are planning on doing the transatlantic out of Barcelona in the Fall of 2016, but it's never too early to check into all of the possibilities!:D

Thanks again!

Maryann