Carcassonne Travel Forum

How do I get to Carcassonne by Train or bus if I'm traveling from Barcelona, Spain? What do you recommend to take to get there?
I'm arriving to Barcelona in July 2009 and from there I want to visit Carcassonne but I'm having troubles finding how to get there.

Any help will be appreciated.

Train to Cerbère, then another train to Narbonne, then another train to Carcassone.

Look at http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml for train times and details in English (the easiest site to use, imo, and which carries timetables and details for almost all European trains).

Then look at http://www.renfe.es/horarios/english/index.html (the Spanish railway site) for times and (possibly) fares. www.sncf.com is the French railway site.

Journey time is 5+ hours. You can get a train with only one change ( 08:00 and 16:42, change at Narbonne), otherwise you will need to change twice.

Thank you very much!

You're welcome! :-)

Thanks for the links! I'll check them out.
What do you recommend as next stop after getting to Carcassonne, going to Montpellier or Lyon?

Thank you!

Aha....I've been to neither so I really can't advise, I'm afraid.

I do recommend a trip to Narbonne though, if you can manage it (maybe allow yourself a few hours there then get the train to Carcassonne?). The cathedral and the horarium in particular are well worth a visit (see my Narbonne/Carcassonnne pages).

As Narbonne is at the junction where the coastal (Barcelona - Montpellier) and inland (to Toulouse / Bordeaux) routes meet, you could stop overnight there and then visit Carcassonne the next day. If you do, I can recommend this hotel, where I have stayed:

http://www.willshotel-narbonne.com/htgb/0002.htm

it's just across the road from the station.

As for your next stop, I don't know, either Toulouse or Montpellier, depending on which way you choose to go.

Toulouse! An easy journey from Carcassonne and no back-tracking.

Hello there,
I checked http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml but got lost as there are many stations called Barcelona and I'm not sure which one to choose or go to. I'm getting off a cruise and will need to head to the train station from there but, not sure where to head to. The train direction I suppose is to Narbonne, correct?
Any advise will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Barcelona Sants is the main station. If you have to get to another station bahn.de will show you the connection....but you don't. Trains to Narbonne leave from Sants.

To double-check which station is correct to put in the journey in reverse order, e.g. starting from Narbonne. Where the train arrives is generally where it will leave from.

The train may be going further than Narbonne, so don't let the lack of 'Narbonne' on the front throw you! Check the platform signage.