Why Montserrat for a company convention?
Montserrat is Catalonia's most recognisable mountain and it is less than an hour from Barcelona. For a convention it brings something that is hard to find in the city: focus. The group steps out of its routine, works without interruptions and goes home feeling it has been somewhere else, without losing a whole day on the road.
As a base we suggest Món Sant Benet, in Sant Fruitós de Bages, at the foot of the mountain. It is an estate with a medieval monastery, a hotel, meeting rooms spread across historic and modern buildings, gardens and vegetable plots. What we show you here is an outline programme that we tailor to your group, your objectives and the time of year.
Món Sant Benet: what it offers a group
The estate is built around the 10th-century monastery of Sant Benet de Bages. Around it there is a 90-room hotel and an events centre with 20 rooms, 9 of them inside the monastery itself. For the plenary, the Sala Món offers 931 m² of open-plan space with a five-metre ceiling; for dinners or mid-sized sessions, the Palau de l'Abat adds 420 m². The estate is also home to the Fundació Alícia, a food and science research centre, and the summer house of the painter Ramon Casas.
Food is another strong argument: three different dining options, one of them with a Michelin star, and cooking with produce from the estate's organic gardens. For a convention, that means meals the group remembers without ever leaving the site.
We organised a convention for Edenred here, and in the same area a day for Esteve at Oller del Mas, in Manresa. We know the walking times between buildings, which rooms work best for workshops and how a group moves between the monastery and the hotel.
How does Montserrat fit into the programme?
The visit to Montserrat works best on the morning of day two, once the main content is done. From Món Sant Benet it is about 30 minutes by coach to Monistrol de Montserrat, where you board the rack railway: a climb of about 15 minutes, more than 600 metres of ascent and departures every 20 minutes. The station has free parking with 900 spaces for cars and coaches, which makes logistics much simpler.
At the top we organise the visit in smaller groups with a guide and time it to coincide with the Escolania, the boys' choir that usually sings in the basilica at 13:00. As the choir's calendar can vary, we confirm it before the date is fixed.
The wines of the Pla de Bages
The afternoon of day one is given over to wine. The DO Pla de Bages is small and very distinctive: its native grape, picapoll, is grown nowhere else in Spain. The landscape is dotted with dry-stone vineyard huts and stone wine vats, 18th-century structures that still survive in their thousands. A winery visit with a vineyard walk and a guided tasting works very well as a team activity, with no physical demands and plenty of conversation.
If you would like a more unusual setting, Oller del Mas, in Manresa, combines a castle with its own winery and makes a good alternative for a leadership dinner.
How does it adapt to 40 or 160 people?
| Group size |
Plenary |
Workshops |
Dinner |
| 40-80 people |
One monastery room |
Mid-sized monastery rooms |
Palau de l'Abat or restaurant |
| 80-160 people |
Sala Món |
Monastery and Can Riera rooms |
Palau de l'Abat |
| More than 160 |
Sala Món, one-day format |
Rooms across the estate |
Lunch format |
With accommodation, the practical limit is set by the 90 rooms: most are twins, so a group sharing rooms can reach about 160 people. For larger groups we suggest the one-day format, with return to Barcelona in the afternoon.
Logistics and transfers
The venue quotes a journey of around 45 minutes from Barcelona, and by coach with a group we allow 45 to 60. We leave at 8:30 so the plenary can start at 10:00 with everyone registered. On day two, return to Barcelona is planned for around 17:15, which still allows late-afternoon flights from El Prat.
On the estate everything is on foot. You only need a coach for the winery and for Montserrat.
What changes with the season
Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons: mild temperatures for outdoor activities and, at the end of summer, the grape harvest in the Bages. In summer it pays to bring the Montserrat visit forward and enjoy the hotel pool in the afternoon. In winter the outdoor part is shorter and the food and the monastery rooms, which work just as well in the cold, take on a bigger role.
Budget: what it depends on
The cost lines are the usual ones for a convention with an overnight stay: accommodation, meeting rooms, AV, meals and dinner, activities, transfers, tickets and guides, and coordination. Here the number of food and drink services, the use of special spaces such as the Palau de l'Abat and whether the group goes up Montserrat or stays on the estate weigh most. In the proposal we break down every line; our guide how much a convention costs explains the factors.
If you want to compare with other destinations, in convention programmes you will find the sea at Sitges or the high mountains of the Pyrenees. And if you are planning a smaller leadership team meeting, see meetings and seminars.
Does Montserrat suit your team? Send us your dates and numbers and we will send you a proposal within 24 business hours.
Sources
- Hotel Món Sant Benet: dossier de eventos (EN)
- Hotel Món Sant Benet: dossier de eventos (CAT)
- Montserrat Visita: cremallera y tren
- Escolania de Montserrat
- Diputació de Barcelona: Descubre el enoturismo (DO Pla de Bages)
- Ajuntament de Manresa: Oller del Mas
