Transfers across the whole of Spain

Sometimes a single ride from A to B is not enough. Your driver can stay with you for a few hours or for the whole day: collecting guests, going shopping, taking you to business meetings or following your own route with stops wherever you need them.

The car stays at your disposal for the whole of the hire.

El Prat (BCN) is the main one: more than 57 million passengers in 2025, which is above its design capacity of 55 million. Terminals T1 and T2 stand 4 km apart, with a free shuttle running between them. The city centre is 14 km away and the drive takes ~24 min with no traffic; at peak times, from 8 to 10 in the morning and from 6 to 8 in the evening, allow another 15-20 minutes. Girona (GRO) sits next to the small town of Vilobi d'Onyar and takes low-cost flights: from there it is 91 km to Barcelona but only 29 km to Lloret de Mar, which makes this the closer airport for the Costa Brava resorts. Reus (REU) takes seasonal low-cost flights to the Costa Dorada: 10 km to Tarragona, 13 km to Salou, 19 km to Cambrils.

The bus from Girona to Lloret runs from June to October and costs 12 EUR per person; from Reus to Salou it is 3.90 EUR. Both drop you at the bus station, and you get yourself and your cases onward from there. We drive all year round, from the terminal straight to the address.

Madrid is not a beach destination, and you can see it in the routes. People fly into Barajas on business, so most rides are short: 22 km to the centre and just 14 km to Chamartín station - handy when a flight connects with a high-speed train. Beyond the capital there are three historic cities: Toledo at 89 km, Segovia at 107 km, Ávila at 121 km.

The Costa del Sol runs west from Malaga airport along the AP-7. First comes Fuengirola at 24 km, then Marbella at 51 km and Puerto Banús at 59 km, while Estepona at 81 km is the furthest of the main resorts. Nerja lies the other way, east of the city: 72 km. Fewer people go there, and it is quieter for it.

Valencia and the Costa Blanca cover the eastern coast. Valencia airport is 11 km from the centre of its own city - one of the shortest routes in all of Spain - with 54 km to Cullera and 78 km to Gandia. Further south, Alicante airport serves Benidorm at 63 km, Torrevieja at 43 km, Altea at 70 km and Calpe at 81 km.

The terms are the same everywhere we drive: the price is fixed when you book, the driver tracks your flight, child seats are free. Free waiting time is 60 minutes at airports, cruise ports and railway stations, and 15 minutes at every other address. Toll roads are not part of the fare: you pay the driver back for them on the spot, against the receipt.

Green Spain is the Atlantic north: Bilbao, San Sebastián, Asturias, Santiago de Compostela and Vigo. Journeys here are usually short - from any of these airports the city is less than three quarters of an hour away. Worth bearing in mind, though, that the airports themselves are small, and when two flights land at the same time demand at the taxi rank goes up several times over.

Why a transfer pays for itself

It is 14 km from the airport to the centre of Barcelona. There are five ways to cover that distance.

The metro has a catch that rarely gets mentioned. The 5.90 EUR ticket is not a paper one: it is loaded onto a T-mobilitat card, which you have to buy from a machine first. The card is reusable and can be topped up later, but it is personal: one card per passenger. A family of four needs four cards, even when they travel together. The machines offer several languages, but the buying logic is not obvious: first the operator, then the fare, then the number of journeys.

What sits behind these figures. The metro and the Aerobus charge per person: for four people that is already 23.60 and 31 euros, plus a change between lines or the walk from the square to your hotel. A taxi shows an acceptable figure at the start, but then the meter runs: a quarter of an hour in traffic adds 7 euros, and you find out the total at the end. During arrival peaks demand at the rank rises sharply: the queue stretches out, and a minivan for four people with luggage is not always there.

A transfer covers what none of the other options does.

• The driver waits for you, not the other way round. He tracks your flight by its number, moves the pickup time himself if the plane is late, and gets in touch once you have landed. Free waiting time is 60 minutes: enough for passport control and an unhurried wait at baggage reclaim.

• The price is known before you fly. Not roughly, but exactly the one you saw when booking: the same amount whatever the traffic and however many suitcases there are. Per car, not per person: the price is the same for one passenger or three.

• One ride, no changes. From the airport to the door of your hotel, luggage in the boot. The driver will message you where the car is waiting.

You notice it the moment you walk out of the terminal. Two adults and a child with two suitcases fit in Econom, Eco or Business; if there are four of you and everyone has a case, take the Van with its seven seats. A child seat is free in every class, and under Spanish rules it is compulsory for children up to and including 135 cm: tick the seat when you book and tell the driver the child's age in the chat. A night flight does not change the price.

Madrid: the same arithmetic

It is 22 km from Barajas to the centre of Madrid, and here too there are five ways.

In Madrid the flat taxi fare makes the choice simpler than in Barcelona: 33 EUR round the clock, with no night or luggage surcharges. But it only holds as far as the M-30 ring road - beyond that the meter starts at the ordinary rates. And the queue at the rank during arrival peaks does not go anywhere.

The metro and Aerobus fares are official, from TMB and Aerobus Barcelona as of August 2026. The taxi figure is worked out from the current rates of the Barcelona Metropolitan Taxi Institute: 2.80 EUR for the flag drop, 1.35 EUR per km by day and 1.66 EUR at night, plus a 4.60 EUR airport supplement. The Madrid figures: Metro de Madrid and CRTM (ticket, 3 EUR supplement, card), EMT Madrid (Exprés 203), the official Madrid taxi tariff for 2026 (Tarifa 4 - 33 EUR inside the M-30).