Country guide
Cruise ports in Spain
2 ports we cover in Spain, across the Western Mediterranean. Each guide covers how ships berth, how far the town is and what a group can do with the day.
Practical basics
Currency
Euro
Language
Catalan and Spanish are both official; English is widely spoken in tourist areas · Catalan (Mallorquín) and Spanish; English and German widely spoken
Time zone
Central European Time (UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer)
Getting ashore
2 ports with a berth, 0 where ships tender
Drawn from the individual port guides below. Currency, language and berthing can differ between ports in the same country, so the detail that matters is on each port's own page.
How Spain's ports compare
Spain’s two Western Mediterranean ports serve very different purposes. Barcelona is the busiest cruise port in the Mediterranean and a turnaround hub, so most groups start or finish there rather than merely calling. Palma is a port of call on the same loop, a day rather than a gateway.
Barcelona rewards a full day and a pre-cruise night; its landmarks are spread across the city, which suits a group that wants to split up and regroup. Palma is more compact — the cathedral, the old town and a market are within a few hundred metres of each other, once the 4 km transfer from the berth is done.
Both are Catalan-speaking as well as Spanish, and in Palma the local form is Mallorquín. English is widespread in tourist businesses in both, and neither presents any real language friction for a group.
Every Spain cruise port
Barcelona
The Mediterranean’s busiest cruise port and a city that rewards a full day — Gaudí, a Gothic quarter and a beach, all within a short ride of the berth.
Palma de Mallorca
A Balearic capital under an enormous sandstone cathedral, with a walkable old town and beaches within a short ride of the berth.
Regions Spain sits in
Other countries with cruise ports
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bonaire
- British Virgin Islands
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- France
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Honduras
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Malta
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Montenegro
- Puerto Rico
- Sint Maarten
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Turkey
- United States
- US Virgin Islands
Taking a group to Spain
Five cabins or more held together as one block, quoted once, with each household booking and paying separately. Tell us roughly when and how many.