Getting from Barcelona cruise port into the city

Moll Adossat holds four cruise terminals spread along more than a kilometre of quay, and the World Trade Center has two more, closer to the Columbus monument and used mainly by smaller ships.

The difference matters more than it sounds. Walking between terminals with cruise luggage in July is genuinely unpleasant, and the quay is an active port area where pedestrian access is restricted for safety reasons. Your terminal is usually printed on your e-ticket a few weeks before sailing.

A shuttle runs from the Moll Adossat terminals to the foot of La Rambla by the Columbus monument. It is inexpensive, it runs frequently on busy days, and it is the standard way off the quay if you are travelling light.

From the drop-off you are at the bottom of La Rambla, which is a fine starting point for the Gothic Quarter and not a fine starting point for anywhere else with a suitcase. Factor in the onward metro or walk when you compare it with a taxi.

Taxis reach the terminal buildings directly under normal conditions, so you are collected at the door rather than at the port gate. On a few very heavy disembarkation mornings the port restricts vehicle access to the quay, and pick-ups move to the World Trade Center point instead — a pre-booked driver will tell you the night before if that applies to your date.

The distances involved are short. The city centre is only a few kilometres away, and Barceloneta is closer still. This is exactly the situation where a flat "port transfer" price overcharges heavily, because the actual journey is a fraction of the length of an airport run.

Between the terminals and the airport there is a fare fixed by the metropolitan authority — a single all-inclusive figure, identical in every licensed taxi, applying in both directions.

Boarding usually runs from late morning to mid-afternoon, and the approach road to Moll Adossat is at its worst between roughly 10:00 and 13:00, when coaches and taxis arrive together. If you are flying in the same morning you sail, book the earliest pick-up you reasonably can.

Disembarkation concentrates several thousand people into about two hours. The taxi rank moves, but slowly, and it moves slowest exactly when the largest ships empty. Booking a car to meet you at the terminal is worth considerably more than the small amount it costs.

If you have a long gap between clearing the terminal and your flight, hiring a car and driver by the hour is worth considering: luggage stays in the boot while you see the city, which beats both dragging it around and paying for storage.