Beech Forests and Castanyada: Barcelona's Autumn Hikes

Here is something nobody warns you about when you move to Barcelona: summer is actually the worst time to hike here. By July the trails bake, the light is flat and white, and you spend the whole walk chasing shade. The secret the locals keep is that autumn is when the hills come alive. The air turns crisp, the crowds of August thin out, and the forests put on a show. If you have been meaning to get out of the city and meet people while you do it, the few weeks between now and late November are the window.

Start right behind the city

You do not need a car, a plan, or even a free day to begin. Collserola, the wooded ridge that rises straight behind Barcelona, is reachable on the regular FGC trains from Plaça Catalunya. The easiest first outing is the Carretera de les Aigües, a wide, flat gravel path that runs about ten kilometres along the mountainside with the whole city laid out below you, the Sagrada Família poking up through the haze and the sea beyond it. It was built as a maintenance track for the old water pipes, which is why it barely climbs at all. Take the S1 or S2 and get off at the station named after the path itself, or ride up via the Vallvidrera funicular. It is popular with runners, dog walkers and cyclists, so it never feels remote, which makes it a gentle place to find your feet before anything more ambitious.

Where autumn really shows off

For the real colours, head to Montseny, the closest natural park to the city and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. It is roughly an hour out by car and around an hour and a half on public transport, and it is worth the trip. The beech forests around the Santa Fe del Montseny valley turn gold and copper from late October into early November, and walking through a Catalan fageda when the leaves are down and glowing underfoot is one of those moments that makes the whole move abroad feel worth it.

If you want a summit, Turó de l'Home is the massif's highest point at 1,712 metres, and on a clear autumn day you can see all the way to the Pyrenees from the top. Matagalls is the other classic peak, a little gentler, and it catches the same autumn palette. None of these require technical skill, just decent legs and a sensible early start. You can read more about the best spots for autumn colour in this local guide to autumn near Barcelona.

Time it around the Castanyada

Autumn here comes with its own festival. Around All Saints' Day on 1 November, Catalans celebrate La Castanyada, roasting chestnuts (castanyes) on street corners and eating little almond sweets called panellets. It is the perfect season to be out in the hills and then come back down to a warm plate of something. Just know that both 12 October and 1 November are public holidays, and Montseny gets genuinely busy on those weekends. Go on a weekday if you can, or start early to beat the crowds and grab parking or a seat on the train.

A few practical notes

• Dress in layers. It can be mild in the city and properly cold on an exposed ridge, especially once the sun drops.
• Watch the daylight. Sunset creeps earlier through October and November, so plan to be back down well before dark and carry a headtorch just in case.
• Carry water and some food. Mountain bars and refuges keep shorter hours out of high season, so do not count on them being open.
• Check the trains back. Rural lines run less often than you expect, and missing the last one is a long wait in the cold.

Do it with people

Hiking alone is lovely, but it is also how a lot of newcomers end up spending their first autumn quietly. It does not have to be that way. Walking is one of the easiest ways to actually talk to people, because you are side by side for a few hours with nothing to do but chat, and nobody cares how new you are to the city. That is a big part of why we run hikes at Keep Calm, our free, volunteer-run English-speaking community here in Barcelona. We are a mix of expats, internationals and locals, everyone is welcome, and all our activities are 18+.

If a day in the golden beech forests or a sunset lap of the Carretera de les Aigües sounds like your kind of autumn, come and join us. Have a look at how to get involved and hop into the WhatsApp group to see when the next walk is going out. Bring a jacket, and we will see you on the trail.