A week in Catalonia area

What are your likes and dislikes?

We are pretty active seniors. We like driving, great scenery, famous sites, historical places, viewpoints, quaint restaurants, beautiful towns and plazas, churches and architecture. Not really into hiking, congested areas, or lounging on the beach. We’ve also been to Southern Spain and Andalusia so I was hoping to concentrate on the North and Pyrenees if there is enough to enjoy. Thanks.

Hello from Wisconsin,
Being in Barcelona area is a bit like painting yourself into a corner.

Have you been to the neighborhood SW of La Rambla? Most people stick to La Rambla and NE of it. Another thought would by the Joan Miro Museum.

We spent a week in Talarn. What did we do there? Most days we drove a different road up into the Pyrenees until the road stopped. Talarn has a wonderful restaurant, Casa Lola. Lola can serve you chicken or some really, really great local dishes. A second restaurant, which I can't find on Google Maps, was a sincerely local restaurant where I had eight garlic rabbit.

Tremp is the neighboring village that has most of the necessities of life including coffee shops.

To enjoy this region you better like small villages (with condos in the background from the Spanish housing boom that made the US housing boom seem like a sniffle) with ancient churches. Mountains, streams, accessible castles on remote mountain tops, solitude.

Skip Andorra unless you want to see high end stores and unbridled capitalism.

Or, strap on your driving togs and head on the big road across to the Bay of the Basques. And enjoy the greenery of the Basque region. Tucked into the NW corner of Spain and the SW corner of France is a lovely piece of land. And great food.
But that is a drive on a four lane highway, and that is a lot like being at home.

wayne iNWI

The Basque Country is scenic; the Pyrenees are scenic; the coast north of Barcelona is scenic, including the road from Figueres to Cadaques. You definitely won't have trouble filling a week. There have been a few earlier threads where traveling the Pyrenees by car was discussed. I never have a car available, so I don't remember what was suggested in those threads, but you might be able to locate them via the Search function.

For exploring the Catalan Pyrenees the town of Ribes de Freser makes a good base, from there you can take a rack railway up to the Vall de Núria which is an excellent area for hiking of all abilities . The Sanctuary of Núria is also an important pilgrimage location in Catalonia. Nearby are a number of old stone villages like Queralbs.

Another option is Vielha, the capital of it's own autonomous community called Aran, which is tucked away in the corner of Catalonia. From there it's a short drive to the Vall de Boí, which is a mountain valley with many old 1000+ year Romanesque Churches, Vall de Boí is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yet another option is Jaca, which is the old medieval capital of the Kingdom of Aragon and is dominated by a huge 16th-century star fortress. From Jaca, you can do a day trip to the Castillo de Loarre, which is one of the oldest castles in Spain, or the medieval old town of Huesca.

I've been to quite a few of the places on the Ripoll-La Seu d'Urgell itinerary, all of them worthwhile. The Cerdanya Valley is can be surprisingly hot in the summer. I'd recommend checking several years' worth of actual, historical, day-by-day September weather stats for Puigcerda on the website timeanddate.com--just so you have an idea of what to expect. Bellver de Cerdanya's in that same valley. On the other hand, I don't remember thinking I was about to die in Ripoll or La Seu d'Urgell.

The French Yellow Train makes for fun excursion through the French Pyrenees if you do get as far as Puigcerda. One of the stops on the Yellow Train is right across the border in Bourg-Madam. You'd want to head in the direction of Villefranche-de-Conflent, one of Vauban's fortified towns.

Hi Brian

I see other colleagues have already suggested interesting itineraries. I will give you my two cents too.

But first I'd like to provide some background for consideration:

• Catalonia is the size of Maryland, this means you could, be it necessary, drive from end to end in a little over a half day. Furthermore, the road system is quite all right, with fairly good maintained roads, even the small county ones. Yet be prepared for narrow windy roads in mountainous areas, pretty different from those in FLA.
• By early Sept there are still quite a number of visitors so some destinations, especially coastal ones, might be rather busy. Note the weather in September is still very much summery in many areas, with an average of 68-80F (in Barcelona). For comparison L'Escala (60-78F), Vall de Núria (41-58F), Lleida (60-80F), Vielha (48-72F) or Amposta (65-80F)... find them in a map to have an idea of the climate in different areas of Catalonia in September.
• The orography of the land here in Catalonia provides very different landscapes with short drivings. Thus, you can be in a quirky little coastal town in the morning, like Cadaques, and within an hour's relaxed drive be looking at magnificent mountainous towns like Castellfollit de la Roca in the (former) volcanic county of La Garrotxa. Just under two hours later you'd be looking at scenic views in say Vall de Núria, and in the evening you could be admiring some of the finest Romanesque churches (and UNESCO World Heritage sites) in Vall de Boí. And all of that without leaving Catalonia. The same goes if you decide instead to take a route say in the south of the nation, in Delta de l'Ebre, which offers some great nature sites, such as the National Park of Delta de l'Ebre, with a surface area of over 120 square miles that plays host to the largest aquatic habitat in Catalonia and one of Europe's most important seabird breeding colonies, especially during Oct and Nov.
• Beyond breath-taking scenarios and inanimate sites (castles, museums, etc), I personally think the human connection is key in any adventure in a different culture, so I always try to catch some local celebrations to mingle with locals and see how they celebrate their heritage. To this effect, I'd recommend dropping by fairs and heritage festivals that might be happening around those dates. There are plenty of them all throughout Catalonia during most of the year. The quintessential heritage festival in Catalonia is "Festa major" (literally, 'biggest festival') and every single town in Catalonia has one (or more). What does it look like?. Yes, of course, the bigger the town or city, the more 'spectacular' they tend to be, and the opposite works too ;) Ah yes, these festivals are free, no tickets or reservations, just show up. The calendar of "festes majors" in Catalonia here.

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• And lastly, food. A trip is not a trip unless you feast with local food and specialities. Whether you are into fish and seafood, meat or just veggies, it's important to note we have a very old culinary tradition dating back many centuries on these shores and food, beyond a physiological need is also a social event and one of the small pleasures of our life here in the Mediterranean. So if you like to feast, you're at the right place. Name your poison and I'll tell you where to go. For starters find a few suggestions here: Map-guide gastronomy in Catalonia

In short, lots to see in a relatively small patch of land. Obviously, this is very personal, but if I were you I'd stick to visiting places within Catalonia... there is really a tonne to visit and you'll be saving travelling time, but again, there are also so many worthwhile places to visit elsewhere...

I don't want to make this a very long post so I am briefly recommending some places I'd include in my visit. Look them up online and if you don't see upfront why I am recommending them, drop me a line and I'll extend the reason why. Of course, there'll be many more in driving between these suggestions. Map them, that'll make it easier to discover what other towns are nearby and then an online search will yield you further reasons why to stop here or there on your way from A to B.

North-bound from BARCELONA

• Coastal itinerary: Mataró, Tossa de Mar, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Palamós, Calella de Palafrugell, Pals, L'Escala, Cadaqués, Perelada, Figueres
• Interior itinerary #1: Vic, Girona, Banyoles, Besalú, Castellfollit de la Roca, Ripoll, Vall de Núria
• Interior itinerary #2: Igualada, Cervera, Tàrrega, Lleida, then Tren dels Llacs, again from Lleida to Congost de Mont rebei, Gerri de la Sal
• Catalan Pyrenees: Montserrat, Manresa, Cardona, Solsona, La Seu d'Urgell, Sort, La Pobla de Segur, Pont de Suert, Vall de Boí, Parc Nacional d'Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici

South-bound from BARCELONA

• Coastal itinerary: Sitges, Tarragona, Reus, Amposta, Parc Natural del Delta de l'Ebre, La Ràpita
• Interior itinerary #1: Sant Sadurní d'Anòia, Vilafranca del Penedès, Montblanc, Prades, Siurana, Miravet, Gandesa, Horta de Sant Joan, Valderrobres

I hope this is a good starting point to start planning your trip.

These resources can help too:

Welcome to Catalonia
Catalonia Experience
Map of roads in Catalonia
Routes and getaways

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Thanks everyone!!! You gave me a lot to consider.