Montgat is where the Maresme coast begins — the first town north-east of Barcelona, wedged between Badalona and the sea. People who know the area treat it as the practical choice: you get a beach and the R1 train, and you are still inside the Barcelona orbit. It is not a resort and it is not trying to be. Here is what living here is really like.
Montgat sits roughly 13 kilometres from the centre of Barcelona, on the coast between Badalona to the south-west and El Masnou up the line. It is a small municipality, around 12,000 people, and it splits physically into two parts that locals treat almost as separate towns. The centre, with the beach and the town hall, lies below the coast road. Montgat Nord, up towards Tiana, is quieter and residential. That split matters more than any brochure will tell you, because it decides your train stop and your walk to the sea.
Two R1 stations serve the town: Montgat and Montgat Nord. From the centre it is about 25 minutes to Plaça Catalunya and a little over half an hour to Sants, which is fast enough that plenty of residents do not bother owning a second car. Trains run frequently through the day, and the line also links you straight to Mataró and the rest of the Maresme. By road you have the C-31 and the B-20, and off-peak you are on the Diagonal in around 20 minutes. In the morning rush on the coastal road, add time and patience — that is true of every town on this stretch.
Day to day, this is a lived-in local town, not a holiday place. The seafront has the Platja de Montgat and the smaller Platja dels Toldos, a modest promenade and a handful of restaurants that are busy with locals in summer and quiet by late October. Above the coast road the streets climb the hill, and it is up here that you find the detached houses and gardens that make people choose Montgat over a Barcelona flat.
The flip side of being small is that you lean on your neighbours for services. For a big shop, a hospital appointment or a proper night out you head to Badalona or into Barcelona, both of which are close enough that it hardly counts as a trip. Montgat works on the assumption that you have a car or a train card, and ideally both.
Montgat is a commuter town with a thin, mixed rental market. Flats dominate near the stations and the seafront, and they are not cheap: recent market reports have put apartment asking rents at roughly 13 to 15 euros per square metre, with houses a little lower per square metre but a bigger total ticket. One- and two-bedroom flats commonly show between about €1,100 and €1,900 a month depending on condition and sea view.
The houses are the reason a family looks here. Detached and semi-detached properties on the hill, often with a garden and sometimes a pool and a slice of sea view, typically run from around €3,000 a month upward, and the best ones with a real panorama ask more. Supply is genuinely limited, so good houses often move through local contacts before they appear online. If you need a villa rather than a flat, be ready to view quickly and have your paperwork in order.
Montgat has its own public infant, primary and secondary schools, and the local offer is solid for families who want their children in the Catalan system. For international schooling you are looking at a drive: the north Barcelona belt is roughly 20 to 30 minutes away, and from September 2026 the BSB Maresme campus in Cabrera de Mar is about 15 to 20 minutes up the coast. Families here often start in a local school and move to an international one later, or the reverse, depending on how long the posting lasts.
Montgat suits people who want the beach and a fast train into Barcelona without paying a resort premium, and families who want a house and a garden while staying inside the city commute. It also suits anyone who simply wants to be as close to Barcelona as you can get while still being on the Maresme coast.
It suits less well if you want a big, energetic town with everything on the doorstep, or if you are chasing the cheapest rent in the Maresme. Badalona gives you more city for less, and El Masnou and Premià de Mar give you a livelier seafront a few minutes up the line. Montgat is the quiet edge of the city, and it works best for people who like it that way.
Montgat is the practical choice, and it does not pretend otherwise. You get a beach, two R1 stations and a 25-minute train to the centre, and in exchange you accept a small town, a thin rental market and the fact that the interesting evenings are five stops away. For a family that wants a house near the city, or a commuter who wants sand at the end of the line, that is a very good trade.