Girona is very cute and peaceful
For a day trip from Barcelona to Girona it’s pretty easy to take the train. There’s even a fast train that cuts the trip time down to about 38 minutes. It costs 15.90 Euro one way if you want to do something tricky like also visit the Dali museum in nearby Figueres (buying a standard round trip saves you a few Euro).
Or you could check Blablacar to see if there is anyone driving to Girona who has room in their car. Checking transportation options at 9pm the night before our trip, I found a ride offered for 5 Euro per person from a friendly woman who was making this drive for work. We exchanged a few text messages and set up the exact location to meet.
Blablacar Ride
The next morning we arrived promptly and found our driver. The car was comfortable, the trip was reasonably fast (though not as fast as the high speed train), and the conversation was great. I got some useful tips from the driver about things to do and see in Barcelona, and also learned more about local culture, cost of living, and other topics that interest me about this area in Spain. She dropped us off in the center of Girona. A very successful ride share that saved us about 22 Euro.
Logistically using ride sharing platforms as a traveler is pretty easy. You sign up with an email account, and you need a phone that can send and receive text messages. You could get away without the texting capability as long as you register before leaving home so that you can use your phone to confirm the registration. If you can’t text internationally I recommend installing Whatsapp, as it’s pretty commonly used and an easy way for people to SMS you without paying a fee. And if you don’t have cell service you can use Whatsapp over wifi. My driver automatically found me using Whatsapp when she saw my phone number was not local.
Overall my first ever ride share was very successful. And I recommend using these services for travelers looking to save some money on transportation. To see all the ride sharing companies that I’ve found, check out my spreadsheet and select “Transportation” or “p to p ride sharing” as the description. Of course, you will miss out on this:
Spain high speed rail