Hiking

We stayed at Casa Cundaro in Girona. It was right by the cathedral in a great location. Well priced, quaint, local charm. Be sure to walk the city walls. It is especially nice at dusk.
Casa Cundaro
Pujada de la Catedral,9
17001 Girona
[email protected]

Maybe look at some of the Camino routes and pick out some towns and cities you would like to visit. There is bus service and taxis widely available as well as luggage forwarding. So, you wouldn't have to come back to the same town you stayed in.

There are lots of Camino routes all over Spain and coming up from Portugal too.

For your Camino, there is a northern route that passes where you’ll be. You can find more information on a number of Camino routes at: pilgrim.es/en/routes to give you an idea. The one you’d probably be interested in is The Northern Way. There are 32 stages to it and the site states the beginning and end of each, difficulty, and distance. You just need to compare them against your itinerary. There are a number of sites dedicated to the Camino. The one above is a sample.

Forget about Camino de Santiago -which by the way, the bit here in Catalonia is called Camí de Sant Jaume, in case you search online. Since you're visiting Girona and Figueres, you should then also visit the Costa Brava which is at a stone throw away from these, and thus I would strongly recommend a hike in the Camins de Ronda, the coastal footpaths, which run by the coastline... that is a breathtaking hike indeed!

Some background and info:

• https://en.costabrava.org/enjoy/natural-areas/coastal-footpaths
• https://ebooks.costabrava.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Hiking-The-Costa-Brava-Coastal-Paths-2016-compressed.pdf
• http://www.xavierblancafort.net/caminsderonda.htm
• http://www.camideronda.com/en.html

Enjoy!

PS: Here more on Camí de Sant Jaume and on a more general note, all of the other pilgrim ways from elsewhere in Europe ending in Santiago de Compostela. For those not aware: there's not only one "camino" but quite a few, which receive different names depending on where it originates.

The Camino Norte goes through that area and the views from it are quite beautiful. You can do pieces of it for the views and the beautiful hills. The plus about walking along the Camino is that there are lot of cafes compared to other, more remote routes.

We stayed a couple of nights at the Parma Hotel in San Sebastián. We had no reservations, just arrived with our car, and a room was available. Very pleasant place, centrally located and a parking garage across the road from the hotel.

@Norma, do you do that often in Europe? I feel like when I've done it in the U.S. I've paid more than if I'd booked in advance. But I wonder if the difference between a chain hotel and a local accommodation might make a difference, or maybe the volume of customers. It sure would be nice to travel that way on occasion.

@Jules, I was just in Toledo over Christmas and I did something similar. I originally booked a hotel close to the Alcázar (Hotel Carlos V), but after the first night I didn't like it at all. So I walked about 100 meters away and found Hotel Alfonso VI, I had no reservations, but got a balcony room with an incredible view of the Cathedral, it was more spacious, breakfast included, and about 15 euros cheaper than my original hotel. Sometimes it's just luck, but this has happened to me a few times already.

jules. there was a time when we never booked hotels ahead. We always found a room somewhere but a lot people would turn their noses up at some of the places we ended up in. I am too old and comfort seeking to travel like that now, but it was fun then. Twice we ended up in rooms offered to us right on the platform as we got off the train. Once was in Amsterdam and the other was in Budapest. Both lodgings were dead cheap and each was hilarious in its own way.

Ah yes, the good old days.