Salou is one of the most sought destinations in summer due to its proximity to Barcelona. It is convenient to reach Salou from Barcelona Sants within 1 hour and 30 minutes via train.

Salou is a resort town in the Tarragona province along Spain’s north-eastern Costa Daurada.

Salou is “The Summer Place.” We realized this when we noticed deserted hotels and closed cafes, restaurants, and shops. Yeah, we visited the place in the “off-season.”

The Mediterranean Coastline at Salou

You will fall in love with the Mediterranean Coastline at Salou. Our Airbnb had a perfect sea view from the balcony. The coastal path is a beauty. It was a perfect sunny day. We spent the day outside, walking around the coastline and visiting nearby beaches.

I was relieved that there was less crowd and we could explore the place and its beaches calmly. However, we walked a long way to find an Indian restaurant for our lunch.

How to reach Salou from Barcelona-Sants via train?

There are many regional express trains from Barcelona Sants to Salou. If you want to go to Salou, the nearest railway station is Port Aventura. There are regional express trains that go directly to Port Aventura. If you do not find any train that goes directly to Port Aventura train station, hop onto any train that stops at Vila-Seca.

We boarded R17 from Barcelona Sants at around 5:03 PM. The total journey took around 1 hour and 30 minutes from Barcelona Sants. One way ticket for a person was 8.80Euros.

You will not get any reserved seat numbers written on your tickets. So, you can take any seat on the train. It was Friday evening, and the jam-packed train made it difficult to find the seats, but we got them later.

From Vila-Seca, there are two options to reach Salou, either you take Bus Plana. The bus takes approx. Fifteen minutes and it takes about an hour to walk.

We love to walk, so our choice was an easy one.

Traveling from Vila-Seca to Vilanova without a ticket

On our way home, we decided to walk to Vila-Seca and take the regional express at 11:10 AM. To our surprise, there was no machine to get the ticket, and the office was closed due to ongoing maintenance work. We questioned a lady standing outside the railway office, and she said, “Take the tickets inside the train.”

Nobody came on the train to ask for the tickets. We thought that we had completed our journey without tickets. It was not the case because you should punch the tickets at the exit gates at Vilanova train station. So, we briefed the security person on what happened at Vila Seca, and he helped by opening the exit gates for us. We went to the counter to pay for the journey from Vila-Seca to Vilanova and then bought our tickets to go home.

Yes, it can happen, so do not worry if you do not have a ticket while traveling. You can always go to the ticket counter and pay for the journey.