Catalonia: Barcelona, Girona, the Costa Brava and the Pyrenees foothills

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Barcelona

   Barcelona Airport to your hotel in the centre of Barcelona

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Barcelona
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Barcelona El Prat (BCN), about 15 km from the centre, and our driver meets you in arrivals for the half-hour ride to the hotel. Plan to land by about 4 pm if you want time to settle in before the evening; earlier is better, because Barcelona rewards a first afternoon on foot. From a central hotel you can walk to the Rambla, the Plaça de Catalunya or the seafront at Barceloneta. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the week runs, which entries are already booked for you, where the free time falls and what to pack for the coastal path. Then we walk a few streets to a welcome dinner of Catalan dishes, pa amb tomàquet, grilled vegetables, a rice or a fideuà, at a long table for the whole group.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : The Sagrada Família at opening and a Gothic Quarter food walk

   Barcelona: the Eixample by morning, the old city by evening

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Barcelona
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the Sagrada Família for the first entry of the day, around 9 am (later on Sundays), on timed tickets bought as soon as sales open for your date. Gaudí took over the basilica in 1883, a year after it was begun, and worked on it until he died in 1926; it is still being built. A licensed guide reads the Nativity facade with you, the part listed by UNESCO in 2005, then leads you inside, where the columns branch like trees and the morning sun comes through the eastern windows in blues and greens. Afterwards we walk the Passeig de Gràcia past Casa Batlló and Casa Milà. The afternoon is free: the beach, the Picasso Museum or a nap. At dusk the group meets a local food guide for a walk through the Gothic Quarter and El Born, tasting jamón, cheese, anchovies, croquetes and a glass of cava or vermut in small bars, enough to count as dinner.

   Compris

   • The Sagrada Família at first entry with a licensed guide
   • Passeig de Gràcia walk: Casa Batlló and Casa Milà from outside
   • Evening food walk in the Gothic Quarter and El Born with tastings and drinks
   • Metro tickets for the day

   Activités en option

   • Casa Batlló or Casa Milà inside (timed tickets; your guide helps you book)

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 6 to 8 km on foot over the day, all on city pavements.

3. Jour 3 : Montserrat, then north to Girona

   Barcelona to Montserrat by van and rack railway, then on to Girona

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Girona
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Barcelona after breakfast for Montserrat, the jagged massif an hour north-west of the city, and ride the rack railway up from Monistrol to the Benedictine monastery, founded in 1025 and rebuilt after the Napoleonic wars. Inside the basilica the line forms for the Moreneta, the dark Romanesque statue of the Virgin that is the patron of Catalonia; early in the day it moves quickly. On most weekdays in term time, though not on Saturdays, the Escolania, one of the oldest boys' choirs in Europe, sings a short service around 1 pm, and we plan the visit to hear it when it runs. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the mountain. In the afternoon we drive about an hour and three quarters to Girona and check in for two nights. Before dinner your guide walks you down to the river Onyar, where the painted houses hang over the water, so you know your way around.

   Compris

   • Rack railway up to Montserrat and back down
   • Montserrat basilica and the Moreneta
   • The Escolania choir on days it sings
   • Sit-down lunch on Montserrat
   • Short evening orientation walk in Girona

   Option plus facile : Stay at the monastery level for the basilica, the museum and the viewpoints, with a coffee on the terrace.

   Option plus active : Take the Sant Joan funicular up and walk the trail towards the Sant Jeroni summit, 1,236 m, with the guide, about 2.5 hours there and back, before lunch.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Girona

   Activité : The longest drive of the trip, broken by the morning on Montserrat.

4. Jour 4 : Girona: the walls, the cathedral and the Call

   A day on foot in Girona

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Girona
   Détail du jour 4

   We start on the medieval walls first thing, before the sun is high: the Passeig de la Muralla is a walkway of about 3 km along the top, of which we walk the best stretch, with towers to climb and views over the roofs to the cathedral and the hills. Down in the old town, the cathedral of Santa Maria sits at the top of a long Baroque stairway; inside, its single Gothic nave, about 23 m across, is among the widest in the world. Your guide then takes you into the Call, the old Jewish quarter, a maze of stepped lanes, and the Museum of Jewish History, which tells the story of the community until the expulsion of 1492. After a visit to the Arab Baths, a 12th-century Romanesque bathhouse, we sit down to lunch in the old town. The afternoon is yours: the Eiffel iron bridge, the Rambla, an ice cream, or a walk along the river.

   Compris

   • Walk along the medieval walls (Passeig de la Muralla) with your guide
   • Girona Cathedral and the Basilica of Sant Feliu
   • The Call and the Museum of Jewish History
   • The Arab Baths
   • Sit-down lunch in the old town

   Activités en option

   • A Game of Thrones locations walk (season 6 was filmed in Girona's old town)

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 6 km on foot with many steps and cobbles; the walls have uneven stairs.

   

5. Jour 5 : Dalí in Figueres, lunch in Cadaqués, sunset in Begur

   Girona to Figueres and Cadaqués, then south along the coast to Begur and Calella de Palafrugell

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Calella de Palafrugell
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave Girona about 45 minutes before the Dalí Theatre-Museum opens (between about 9:30 and 10:30, depending on the month, so never before 8 am) and drive north to Figueres to be there at opening. Salvador Dalí built it in the shell of his hometown's old municipal theatre, opened it in 1974 and is buried in its crypt; the glass dome, the Rainy Taxi and the Mae West room are best seen before the coaches arrive. From Figueres the road climbs over the last ridge of the Pyrenees to Cadaqués, a white fishing village on a bay at the end of the Cap de Creus peninsula, where Dalí spent his childhood summers. Lunch is fish and rice at a table near the water. In the afternoon we drive south through the Empordà plain to Begur, and climb to the ruined castle on its hill for the view over the coast at golden hour, before the short last stretch to our base at Calella de Palafrugell, where we stay two nights.

   Compris

   • The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres at opening
   • Cadaqués with your guide
   • Sit-down seafood lunch in Cadaqués
   • Begur castle hill at golden hour

   Activités en option

   • Dalí's house at Portlligat, next to Cadaqués, when small-group slots are available (booked at cost)

   Temps libre : Evening free in Calella

   Activité : The road to Cadaqués is narrow and winding; tell us if you are prone to car sickness and we will seat you in front. If the day runs late, the Begur castle climb is dropped first and we go straight to Calella.

   

6. Jour 6 : The Camí de Ronda: Calella, Llafranc and Tamariu

   On foot along the coast from Calella de Palafrugell to Tamariu

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Calella de Palafrugell
   Détail du jour 6

   The Camí de Ronda is the old coast guards' path that threads the coves of the Costa Brava, and its best stretch starts at our door. We set off after breakfast, while the light is soft and the path is quiet, through a tunnel in the rocks above the little Golfet beach and around the headland to Llafranc, about half an hour away. From Llafranc we climb to the lighthouse of Sant Sebastià for the long view up and down the coast, then follow the path on to Tamariu, a small bay of fishing boats and pines, about six kilometres from Calella in all. Lunch is grilled fish on the beach front at Tamariu, and the van brings anyone who prefers a ride back to Calella. The afternoon is free for a swim in season, a nap, or the Cap Roig gardens on the cliffs just south of the village.

   Compris

   • Guided walk on the Camí de Ronda from Calella to Llafranc, the Sant Sebastià lighthouse and Tamariu
   • Sit-down lunch in Tamariu
   • Van back to Calella

   Activités en option

   • Cap Roig botanical gardens (entry fee)
   • Kayak or boat trip along the coves, in season, booked locally

   Option plus facile : Walk only the flat half hour from Calella to Llafranc, have a coffee by the beach, and meet the group for lunch in Tamariu by van.

   Option plus active : Walk back to Calella along the same path after lunch, about two hours more.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 6 km with short steep climbs, steps and rocky sections; good shoes, a hat and water.

   

7. Jour 7 : Besalú, the Garrotxa volcanoes and a farm lunch

   Calella de Palafrugell to Besalú, Santa Pau and the Garrotxa volcanoes, then Olot

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Olot
   Détail du jour 7

   We drive inland for about an hour and a quarter to Besalú, a medieval town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and walk in across its fortified Romanesque bridge, with a gate tower halfway over the river Fluvià. Your guide shows you the Jewish quarter and its mikveh, a ritual bath from the 12th century found in 1964, one of very few surviving in Europe. Then we go on into the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, where some forty extinct volcanic cones rise from farmland and beech woods. We walk through the Fageda d'en Jordà, a beech forest growing on an old lava flow, to the crater of Santa Margarida, which holds a small Romanesque chapel. Lunch is long and local at a farm restaurant near Santa Pau, with the white beans of the area, sausage and seasonal vegetables. We end the day in Olot, the market town of the Garrotxa, with a free evening.

   Compris

   • Besalú with your guide: the Romanesque bridge and the Jewish quarter with the mikveh
   • Walk in the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park: the Fageda d'en Jordà and the Santa Margarida crater
   • Farm lunch near Santa Pau

   Option plus facile : Skip the climb into the crater and walk only the flat paths through the beech wood, about 3 km.

   Option plus active : Add the path to the Croscat volcano, the largest cone in the park, where an old quarry has cut its flank open to show the layers inside.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Olot

   Activité : About 7 km of walking on forest tracks, with one climb of about 150 m to the crater.

   

8. Jour 8 : Castellfollit de la Roca and back to Barcelona

   Olot to Castellfollit de la Roca, then Barcelona Airport

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   After breakfast we stop a few minutes out of Olot at Castellfollit de la Roca, a village built along the top of a basalt cliff about 50 m high, where two rivers meet below. From the viewpoint you see the cliff's columns of old lava and the houses stacked along its edge. Then it is about two hours to Barcelona, through the plain of Vic and down the valley, reaching Barcelona El Prat Airport around 1 pm. If you are staying on in Barcelona, we drop you in the city centre instead, at no extra charge. Your guide sees you off and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm, so there is no rush, or add nights in Barcelona before or after the trip: we can book them for you at the same hotel as the start of the tour.

   Compris

   • Castellfollit de la Roca viewpoint
   • Drop-off at Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN) or in central Barcelona

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm.

Faune et météo : May, June, September and October bring warm days of about 20 to 27 °C and fewer crowds than July and August. The sea is warm enough for most swimmers from late June to early October. The Tramuntana, a strong north wind, can blow for a day or two at Cadaqués and Begur; we swap days if it does.

• Barcelona2 nuits
• Girona2 nuits
• Calella de Palafrugell2 nuits
• Olot1 nuit