Recommendations for 4 days near Barcelona

Hello jenniferjoan138, I was on the RS Best of Spain Tour in 2016. It is a terrific tour with very diverse stops and experiences. I spent an extra week in Barcelona before the tour. In Barcelona itself there are many, many highly interesting sites that are not included on the tour, which spends little time there. In fact, I could not fit in all the sites I wanted to see, and am returning to Spain this June, including a couple days in Barcelona. I also took three day trips in the area, but returned to Barcelona to dine and sleep each night. One day trip by train was Tarragona, which is on the coast, although most sites are inland in the city. I found it OK but not a highlight of my trip. Nice cathedral, nice Roman theater by the coast, some other Roman ruins but not really outstanding in my opinion. I did not go to nearby Stiges. I also went to Girona, with its beautiful old city with many sites, and some excellent restaurants, and on the same day, started in Figueres to visit the Dali Museum. All this by train, a fine day, but not on the coast. I will also re-visit Girona in June. My third day trip was a guided bus tour called “Medieval Villages of Catalunya” which went to the beautiful and old villages of Besalú, Rupit, and Tavertet, which I really enjoyed, as I love small villages, especially ancient ones still being lived in. Girona, Figueres and these villages were not right on the coast, but I guess you’d say they were in the coastal region. One thought might be to spend two or three nights in Girona, and then take a day trip or two from Girona to spots on the Costa Brava coast. But, don’t short-change Barcelona. The RS Spain book, or any other good guidebook, will present the many, many sites and neighborhoods in Barcelona that merit your time.

The tour itself gives you just one day for Barcelona, plus the evening after your welcome dinner. That is grossly inadequate; the word "ludicrous" also comes to mind. The assumption is pretty clearly that travelers will get to Barcelona well in advance and do a lot of sightseeing on their own. (I have no problem with that, but I sure hope everyone understands that.)

I haven't been to Tarragona; there are some Roman ruins, but the attitude on this forum seems to be pretty much "meh" on the city. Sitges I enjoyed on a day-trip, but that was the only one I took from Barcelona while staying there for 10 days. I recommend spending all your pre-tour nights in Barcelona itself. In my view, Tarragona and Sitges are really not for the typical tourist who has only 5 or 6 days in the area.

Remember that your arrival day is probably not going to be much good for sightseeing due to sleep-deprivation and jetlag. I'd plan to walk around outdoors that day, maybe in the Eixample where you can see some modernista architecture.

If you decide you want a day-trip, my top choice would be Girona. If the weather's nice and you want a partially-outdoor destination, I'm sure Montserrat would be a good choice. (I haven't been there.)

I list below some key sights in Barcelona that the tour doesn't cover. Note that for many of them you'd want to buy tickets in advance, else you'd likely spend a very long time standing in line. I'm not attempting to prioritize these.

Parc Guell (pre-book)
Sant Pau Modernista Site (blessedly uncrowded for me in 2016)
Palau de la Musica Catalana (pre-booked tour required, or attend a performance)
Casa Mila/La Pedrera (pre-book)
Casa Batllo (pre-book)
Camp Nou soccer experience (sells out early; pre-book)
Picasso Museum (pre-book; this is often massively overcrowded. Skip if not a fan.)

Barcelona has a lot of other museums, including the Miro and the MNAC, but usually there are not significant ticket lines. I think the (large) MNAC is especially interesting. In addition to the expected paintings and sculptures it has a good modernism collection (furniture, decorative arts and jewelry) and some wonderful frescoes rescued from churches in the Pyrenees.

Figuring out the timing of site visits in Barcelona is difficult. Who can say how much time you'll spend at your first site and how long it will take you to get to the second? So I suggest being very strategic and scheduling one of your key sights first thing each morning, beginning on Day 2. If you want to do a second pre-booked site one day, it would probably be safest to schedule it in the afternoon. Note also that Casa Mila and Casa Batllo are both open late.

Thank you so much, Larry and Acraven, for your detailed responses to my question. IF I leave Barcelona before I begin the Rick Steeves tour, I will go over to Girona. We have seen some fabulous Roman ruins in Italy and Sicily so sounds like Tarragona can be skipped. I really appreciate your time.
Jennifer

We took a day trip from Barcelona to Tarragona and Sitges with Spanish Trails in October 2017. Tarragona turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights of our trip to Spain. Tarragona is definitely below the Rick Steves radar - but the town is lovely and the opposite of Barcelona when it comes to crowds. Maybe we liked it so much because we had a guide to point things out to us - like the Roman statuary pieces "re-purposed" over the centuries into the walls of the buildings. We didn't spend much time in Sitges - just enough to walk along the beach and enjoy gin and tonics in a bar on the beach. It must have been the waiter's first day ever as a waiter - he brought us each a large goblet full of gin with some ice, and a small bottle of tonic! Spanish Trails arranged a private tour for us, and it was worth every Euro. A well-traveled friend highly recommended Tarragona to us, so we made an effort to see it.

https://www.tarragona.cat/patrimoni/museu-historia/monuments/lamfiteatre

https://www.catedraldetarragona.com/cathedral/

https://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en/monument/les-ferreres-aqueductpont-del-diable-bridge-mht

http://spanish-trails.com/home-bcn

We also visited Girona - which I also loved - but I found Tarragona to be more to my taste.