We have 8 days in Barcelona in September and thought we'd spend about 5 in Barcelona and then rent a car to drive to the south of France for a few days. Any suggestions on places to go? We're not really interested in the super touristy places as much as seeing the French countryside for a few days. Any suggestions on hotels or bnb's would be appreciated too. Any suggestion on car rentals in Barcelona, (we'll return the car to Barcelona).
One of Rick Steves’ “Back Door” destinations, Collioure, France, is one of the places we’ve had on our bucket list for 20 years, but haven’t gotten there - yet. Maybe you’ll get there before we do! It’s on the Mediterranean coast, less than 10 miles from the border with Spain. North and west of that town, there’s the fantastic wine country south of Bordeaux, a beautiful but big city.
North and east of Collioure is the Provence region, with some well-deserved touristy places, but also magnificent countryside, ancient Roman sights, historic medieval places, wonderful scenic gorges, fields full of lavender or sunflowers, and superior food. Our last trip, 4 years ago, we based ourselves in Saint Rémy and drove to nearby places on narrow country roads.
Collioure is a wonderful place to visit. It is on the Mediterranean, has a castle and an old town. Read up on it’s art history too, the Fauvists, Matisse and more. We stayed at Hotel Casa Païral. And you can see on a map that is relatively near Barcelona. We drove from Collioure to the Costa Brava for a few days and then to Barcelona.
Hello, after your 5 days in Barcelona, you will have 3 days left, so 2 nights total available? If that is the case then I would recommend you not stray far, in fact I don't think you should even go into southern France, save for Collioure, just 2 nights does not merit this.
Instead, I would recommend you spend those two nights somewhere closer in Catalonia, for example you could explore:
Tarragona - seaside medieval town with impressive Roman Ruins
Girona - an ancient city in Northern Catalonia, looks a bit like Florence
Rupit or Besalú - medieval stone towns in the foothills of the Pyrenees
Tossa de Mar - cliffside medieval town on the Costa Brava with castle
Collioure is not what I would call a back-door destination at this point. It's quite touristy, though attractive. It may well have been relatively undiscovered when Rick first mentioned it.
Thanks all for your suggestions. We will be outside of Barcelona for 3 night, 4 days. We'd like to take in the countryside, doing a little hiking and exploring and visit a small museum. Looks like we have a few good options now. Sure appreciate the input!
So here's one more possible option . . . The Languedoc region, centered by the city of Albi (which has an impressive cathedral, the biggest brick building in the world), some hill towns nearby, plus the childhood home of Tolouse-Latrec, which is now a museum of some of his art - we enjoyed seeing that.