Where to Park Your Car at the Barcelona Airport

A taxi from the city center to the airport costs around 35 euro. I would suggest avoiding the local taxi companies and getting a Cabify cab instead. You’ll get better service for the same price or less.

If you want to travel to the airport in your own car, this is another convenient option, since there are numerous parking options.

Aena General Parking

The most expensive option but probably the safest and most convenient is to leave the car in the airport’s own official parking. For a 4 and a half day stay (4 days and 6 hours to be exact) I was charged €53 to park in the General T1. This is by booking in advance through the web interface. According to the same site, parking without booking would cost €114.50 as it just goes by the hourly rate. If I understand correctly unused hours will be refunded when you exit the parking. The parking is located in a building annexed to the airport terminal T1, and you can just walk to the terminal in 4 minutes – no hassle whatsoever.

PROCEDURE FOR USE OF THE CAR PARK:

On entering the car park:

Take a ticket as you enter the car park. IMPORTANT: Please, wait in front of the barrier until the Automatic Number Plate Recognition recognises your vehicle and a ticket will be issued automatically. YOU MUST NOT PRESS THE BUTTON. If you press the button, the ATM will charge you the normal price and not the reservation price. Proceed into the car park and park your car in any available parking space.

On your return:

When you return to the car park, please go to the ATMs to make the payment. If you have any problems, please use the Customer Service integrated in the ATMs. Amount calculated based on the stay booked. If the actual stay of the vehicle is different, this amount may vary.

You can purchase this parking on the official site or on elParking or Parkvia. elParking offers free cancellation up to 24h before the reservation starts.

Aena Long-stay car park

The long-stay car park at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport is the best option for parking your vehicle while on holiday or a long trip. Only a few minutes away from Terminals T1 and T2, a 24-hour free shuttle busprovides connection: from April to September between 04:30 and 00:30, and from October to March between 05:30 and 23:30, every 20 minutes. Upon request at any other time (more details can be found at the shuttle bus stop).

Aparca&Go

There are several parking options where you leave your car in an open air or partially covered parking close to the airport, following which you are driven to the airport in a minivan. Aparca&Go is probably the most well known such service.

It takes around 5 minutes to arrive to the terminal.

For the same duration mentioned earlier, I was quoted €40.75 for the Express option. Covered parking is one euro extra per day, and you can also select the option of having the car washed before you pick it up.

Their Premium service has you drop off the car at the departures terminal, whereby an employee of Aparca&Go would drive the car to the car park for you, and return it to the same place when you are back in Barcelona. The price for this service was quoted as €53.70, which is basically the same as Aena’s parking.

I don’t think I would go for the premium service given the price, Aena gives me more peace of mind as I can park the car myself and be just as close to the terminal.

The Express option is ok for saving a few euros, but again, for 10 euro more I’d rather park it inside the airport.