I am hoping for some guidance on this part of a 22-day trip to Spain we will be taking in September 2024. The bulk of this trip will be split betwen two home bases, first in the Costa Brava (Begur) and second in Barcelona (Eixample). We have 4 nights between those two locations and would like to spend those nights in a single location as a home base to explore the Catalonian portion of the Spanish Pyrenees. Although I have found some general information about this region and activities in the region both in this forum, in other online resources, and in guidebooks, I am having diffiulty with the specifics of where to base ourselves and specific hikes. I would love to receive recommendations from others who have experience traveling in this region, particularly from those of you who have done day hikes there. About us: We are a relatively fit 60-year-old couple. We run/bike/hike regularly. This is by way of saying that we can probably handle pretty rigorous hiking, but would like to avoid anything too techical or that would involve actual climbing. We will be in a rental car, so can drive from place to place. We are looking for gorgeous mountain hikes of approximately 5-6 hours in duration (so probably not more than 10-12 miles or 15-20 km). The areas we have looked at for hiking include: Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, La Garrotxa Volcanic Area Nature Reserve, Val d'Aran, and Vall de Boi. I would appreciate any recommendations for a homebase situated ideally to explore these sites as well as recommendations for specific lodging and specific hikes. I would also appreciate learning if you have had a negative experience with any of the above (so we can try to avoid duplicating it!). Finally, please don't feel like you are providing too much information -- this part of the trip has been surprisingly difficult to plan. Thank you so much.
Posted by
San Juan Islands, Washington State
22 posts
We haven't walked in that area, but I can suggest a place where you can get the information you are looking for. The app and website wikiloc.com has trail reports complete with lengthy descriptions and photos posted by Spanish walkers and hikers. (Open it in Chrome for auto-translation.) We use Wikiloc to plan all our walking trips to Spain.
There are many gpx tracks in the areas you mention. You can filter by trail length. Here are some for Val d'Aran.
If you upgrade to premium membership, you can email the posters of the tracks for more information. Most are happy to reply.
Posted by
1 posts
Hi Rockyrivergang - I'd love to hear what you ended up doing for your home base and hike!
Posted by
481 posts
Just spent 2 nites in Espot, a good access point for Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici. Nice little Pueblo with fantastic Pyrenees hiking. It would pair well with Val d'Aran.
Val de Boi has amazing Romasesque churches but not so much hiking.
Benasque and Torla/Ordessa a little farther afield are worthy.
https://www.visitvaldaran.com/en/discover-val-daran/
https://www.centreromanic.com/en/
https://www.turismodearagon.com/en/ficha/valle-de-benasque
https://www.barcelo.com/guia-turismo/en/spain/huesca/things-to-do/torla
Brad
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you for inquiring. We just returned from Spain. We ended up not doing much in the Catalonian Pyrenees, but we did spend one of our days while we were based on the Costa Brava (Begur) hiking in La Garrotxa Volcanic Area, which was very pretty and very gentle hiking. However, after I posted my original question, we decided to reroute and do a different area of the Pyrenees, located in Aragon, Ordesa National Park, so I can second Brad's recommendation for that area. We stayed in Torla, which was a great base for exploring that area. In hindsight, I am glad we opted for that area (Ordesa) over the Catalonian Pyrenees because the topography in Ordesa is much more dramatic and majestic than what we saw in Catalan, at least more so than the area around La Garrotxa, which seemed more like foothills to the Pyrenees. It is possible we would have been equally impressed by Aiguestortes, Vall de Boi, or Val d'Aran. Having now seen both Ordesa and La Garrotxa, I would recommend Ordesa over La Garrotxa if you love to hike and want rugged, dramatic beauty, and can do only one or the other of these areas.