Itinerary for ten days in Catalonia

I can't help with kid-friendly activities, but I think you should skip the Ramblas because of the crowds. It's not as if that's an important Barcelona sight. You might consider the Sant Pau modernista site, which--as of last August--seemed nearly totally undiscovered. But to your children, it may just be a bunch of odd buildings. Actually, if your family is interested in soccer, I think Camp Nou would be the thing to do.

Edited to add: I don't suppose it really matters since you'll have a car and there must be things to do in the area, but Besalu is extremely small. The fortifed bridge is very striking, but I think you can walk every street in the historic area in no more than 1-1/2 to 2 hours. The tourist office was offering an English walking tour last year, but infrequently (perhaps just once a week), and the deal was that the tour was in either French or English, depending on who asked first. So I suggest Googling to see whether you can discover the timing and perhaps contact the T.O. now to express interest for the appropriate day.

With Besalu only 30min drive from Girona I would think you are concentrating too much in that one area.

August
21. 5:30pm Arrive Barcelona (1 night) BCN 41 Apartments near Placa Tetuan
22. Pick up car in Barcelona. via Sant Feliu de Guixols to Llafranc (2 nights)
23. Llafranc
24. via Begur to Cadaques (2 nights)
25. Port Lligat, Port de la Selva, San Pere de Rodes
26. via Figueres to Besalu (4 nights)
27. Besalu
28. Day in Girona
29. Besalu
30. Depart Barcelona

Hmm. I'd want more time in Girona than Besalu, but Girona does get its share of tourists, and some of the streets can feel crowded--not a problem you're likely to encounter in Besalu.

Thanks for the replies. The idea is to use our house in the country (not in Besalu, but near) as a base for day trips, but we can return and decompress and have our own space.

Hi CoRunner

I like your introduction -albeit I don't share myself your aversion to cities :)))- so see if you find the following helpful.

1.) Speaking Spanish you can get by, but note that in Catalonia Catalan is the local language and, especially outside Barcelona and the metro area, Catalan is what you'll find. Period. Yet you shouldn't have a problem communicating because we Catalans all know Spanish as well. And you can use English or French too, especially in coastal towns.

2.) If you intend to visit anything in August in Barcelona... DO PRE-BOOK where possible, thus you will minimise queues. August in Barcelona is "infested" with visitors (mind me, the verb is used affectionally) -even many of us Barcelonians avoid certain parts of the city those weeks.

3.) The answer to your first question is, regrettably, that you can't avoid flocks of visitors if you intend to visit anything that one would be willing to fly to Barcelona for. The good news is that precisely to minimise queues, some of the most visited sites have established a procedure (online pre-booking) which allows you to arrive a few minutes before the given time to the site and only queue with those fellow visitors that are entering the site at the same pre-booked time than yourselves. This system is available (and compulsory I'd say!) for the sites you mentioned above. Despite what I just say, if I had to choose one thing, I'd probably choose Sagrada Família for its singularity.

4.) It's my understanding you've already booked all those accommodations, haven't you? Just saying because I feel that once you've based in Girona, you can visit Besalú and a bunch of other places without the need for moving yet again (to Besalú). After all, it's merely one hour drive from Girona.

5.) You're arriving on the last day of Festa Major de Gràcia (in Barcelona).... For those not knowing... what is a Festa Major? Know though that over 1.5 million from all over visit this festival during this week.

Now for the nitty gritty...

• Girona Tourism
• Map of roads in Catalonia
• Routes in Catalonia
• Routes and getaways
• Counties in Catalonia -- Besalú is located in the county of La Garrotxa, here is the county's tourism website
  
• If you want coast.... if you prefer mountain (only available in Catalan and Spanish)... all at a stone throw away from Besalú/Girona
• Some other medieval towns to explore in that region: Peratallada, Castellfollit de la Roca, Pals, Monells, Rupit, Tavertet... ---Google for these.
• If you like nature.... the National Park of Cap de Creus and for more details (only in Cat/Esp though).
• You don't really have that much time, but just in case this might be of interest to you: walking a camí de ronda, the coastal trails, at Costa Brava and then this for the details. This is really a great family experience for those that have time to walk bits of the camins de ronda.
• A unique manner to experience Catalan culture, heritage and tradition are thru one of its Festa Majors -as explained in the link above in 5.). These festivals are celebrated in different times during the year and each city, town and village have its own. They tend to go over several days. IMHO, one should aim for a medium-sized town's festival in order to really experience what's all about because in smaller towns and villages is a much less rich event -more like a neighbourhood gathering so to speak- and in bigger cities crowds are the norm. Unfortunately, during your stay I can only spot the town of Igualada -pop.40.000- that would fit the bill with her Festa Major on the 24th, Saint Bartholomew. Igualada is located west of Barcelona, at about 1h45' from Besalú. If you were to visit, I'd probably choose Saturday (26th) as it's the "big day" so to speak. Closer to the date, the city hall website will publish the programme -you'll have to use Google Translate though as the site is only in Catalan. During a Festa Major, there are literally dozens of activities throughout the village/town. This is, for example, the programme for last year's in Igualada, and this a Dutch's visitor video of the 2010 edition so you can have a "feeling".

Enjoy!

PS: Follow the links above. You have now enough info to be stuck to your computer screen for a week!

Thank you Enric! I confess I was hoping you would reply--I have read many of your valuable responses on other threads and knew you'd have some great ideas. I look forward to reading through what you shared.

I personally enjoy cities, but my family does not, so we have compromised. I have seen the main sights in Barcelona before so I can live with it, but really would like them all to see the Sagrada Familia because, as you said, there is really nothing like it.

We debated whether it made sense to shift from Girona to the country house (not in Besalu, but near, about 10 kilometers away) because they are so close, but we know we like that area and it is a great home base which is why we opted to stay close and just move to a location that would provide a pool, area for the kids to run around, and for our family to have some privacy (the house is very isolated).

If we are looking for day trips from the Girona area, what would you recommend? We'll do Figureres for sure. Perhaps Montserrat or Cadaques? We would like to see ancient ruins, hike and go to the beach!

Thank you!

You definitively need to check the brochures above... you'll find "answers" and lots of ideas there :))

If you're visiting Cadaqués, you might want to drop by El Monestir de Sant Pere de Rodes as well as ruins of the Greek colony of Empúries, dated in the 6th century BC. The first one is at 10km from Cadaqués, the second one is some 40km to the south.

More info on Empúries: http://www.cbrava.com/en/magazine/the-ruins-of-empuries/ and also here http://www.mac.cat/eng/Branches/Empuries which is one of the branches of the Archeological Museum of Catalonia.