How to Travel From Barcelona to Seville by Train, Bus, Car, and Plane

Barcelona and Seville are both cultural epicenters within Spain, each one highlighting the local region and all it has to offer. Barcelona sits along the Mediterranean and is rich in Catalonian history, while over 600 miles away Seville lies in the heart of Andalusia and is decidedly Spanish. When you get there, you can more easily blend in by calling the city as the locals do, Sevilla, pronounced seh-vee-yuh.

If you're able to book far enough in advance, then the train is usually the most comfortable and cheapest way to get from city to city. But if you didn't get tickets weeks in advance, a flight is likely to be the most affordable option (it's also the fastest). A bus is available, but it's unnecessarily long and expensive. Going by train or plane means you'll miss out on all of Spain that lies between these two cities, and renting a car gives travelers the most freedom to take their time, make stops, and explore.

If you buy tickets weeks in advance, the train is potentially the cheapest way to get from Barcelona to Seville. On the flip side, it can also be the most expensive method of transport if you wait to book your seats. Just like with a flight, train tickets on Spain's national railway system, Renfe, go up drastically as the travel date gets closer and seats sell out. For the best deals, you should complete your reservation as soon as tickets are released—which is about 90 days before the travel date for high-speed trains in Spain. Tickets from Barcelona to Seville start at roughly $21 when they are first released, but can quickly balloon up to over $150 for a one-way journey.

The high-speed train is direct and takes about five and a half hours, so it's also one of the fastest ways to get from city to city. The Barcelona Sants and Seville Santa Justa train stations are both located in their respective city centers, so it should be easy to reach your final destination by metro, a short taxi ride, or even walking.

Tip: If tickets from Barcelona to Seville get too pricey, save money by looking into trains from Barcelona to Madrid on the low-cost, high-speed Avlo train and continuing on to Seville from there. Avlo tickets start at just $10, and you can easily transfer to another train or spend a few days exploring Madrid.

With a total flight time of just one hour and 40 minutes, taking a plane from Barcelona is the fastest way to get to Seville. And with several daily flights from low-cost airlines Vueling and Ryanair, it's also one of the most affordable ways with tickets starting at just $30 for a one-way journey.

Even though the travel time is ostensibly the shortest, once you factor in all of the time that it takes to travel to and from the airport, check in for your flight, pass through security, and wait at your gate, going by plane is only marginally faster than the train. However, unless you've planned out your trip months in advance, you're likely to find that flights are much more affordable than train tickets, especially if you're booking at the last minute.

Since they're at opposite ends of the country, it's a long 10-hour drive from Barcelona to Seville, covering over 620 miles of the Mediterranean coast and olive tree orchards. But if you have access to a car and you're up for the journey, driving yourself is also one of the best ways to explore Spain's diverse landscape and truly immerse yourself in the local culture. If you can, stretch out the drive for as many days as you can afford and make overnight pitstops along the way.

Having a vehicle is great for the entire journey between Barcelona and Seville, but you won't want a car while in either city. Moving around in the city center is best done by foot or public transportation, which is convenient and easy to use. Once you get to Seville, parking in the historic center is complicated and expensive, so you'll likely need to park farther out and use transit to get into the city.

If you want the experience of driving but don't want to get a car yourself, BlaBlaCar is a popular ride-sharing service in Spain. Use the website to search for people driving from Barcelona to Seville and who have an open seat in their car. You'll have to chip in for gas, but apart from being affordable, it's also an opportunity to ride with a local and learn about your host country.

Bus travel in Spain is dominated by the company ALSA, and while buses are generally touted as the transit of choice among budget travelers in Europe, the route from Barcelona to Seville is wearily long and also expensive. The journey is a direct route but takes nearly 15 hours and costs roughly $100, far more than a flight and usually more than the train. If you need to take a bus, consider using the low-cost Avlo train to get from Barcelona to Madrid, and then taking a bus for the second leg of the trip to Seville.

In springtime, Seville has some of the best weather in Spain and a full calendar of events to keep visitors entertained. First, activities for Semana Santa take place during the week leading up to Easter Sunday, which usually falls during the end of March or early April. Two weeks later is the biggest annual event of the city, the Feria de Abril de Sevilla, or the Seville Fair. During the last week of April and the first week of May, the entire city erupts with typical sevillana dancing, bars serving locally-made sherry, and huge concerts in the streets that are open to all. It's also the busiest time to visit, and hotels during Semana Santa and the Seville Fair are often reserved up to an entire year in advance.

Summer is also a popular travel time, but be warned that Seville—along with the rest of Southern Spain—is usually sweltering from June to August, with average temperatures hovering around 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius).

The best way to enjoy the landscape and charming Spanish pueblos is to drive, and there are two main routes you can take from Barcelona to Seville that take roughly the same amount of time. If you want to stop in Madrid—which sits in the dead center of the country—you'll have to go through Spain's flat and tedious interior. If you don't mind missing out on the Spanish capital, driving south from Barcelona along the coast is much more scenic. You'll pass through Valencia (a perfect place to make a pitstop for a night or two) and then cut west, driving through the endless orchards of olive trees that are ubiquitous in Southern Spain.

Once you arrive at Seville Airport (SQV), you can use bus line EA to get from the airport directly to the city center in about 35 minutes, with stops at major points such as Santa Justa train station and the Plaza de Armas. The bus runs 365 days a year from about 5:30 a.m. until 1 a.m. If you're arriving late at night or prefer to use a cab, a taxi ride to the center takes about 15–20 minutes and prices start at about $23.

Seville is the capital of and largest city in the Andalusia region of Spain, home to Spanish staples such as flamenco dancing and classic tapa bars. The Barrio Santa Cruz neighborhood is the heart of the city, where the cobblestone streets are lined with Sevillian orange trees and colorful patios. Within walking distance from this neighborhood are the Seville Cathedral and the Real Alcázar, both of which are mandatory stops for anyone visiting the city for the first time. Start the evening at one of the city's many tapa bars for a cold beer, Spanish wine, or a glass of locally-produced sherry, all of which will be accompanied by small appetizers of specialty dishes. Later in the evening—Spanish dinner time starts around 9 p.m. or later—enjoy your meal while listening to Spanish guitar and watching a live flamenco performance, a show that is sure to leave you speechless.