Our daughter is studying abroad in Barcelona. This will be our first trip to Spain; we plan to visit her in the beginning of March. We're trying to figure out what other parts of Spain and maybe southern France (maybe Toulouse?) we should try to visit. I think we should stay 4 days in Barcelona. Not sure if we should rent a car of take public transportation.
Has anyone visited Ordesa and Mount Perdido National Park? Is this a one day site, or multiple?
Thank you for your help.
If your daughter is not travelling with you beyond Barcelona then I would suggest spending all your time there, making day trips out of the city.
So many places to choose from - Montserrat, Girona, Figueres, Cadaques, Besalu, Vic, Sitges, Tarragona, Poblet. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/barcelona/travel-tips-and-articles/top-ten-day-trips-out-of-barcelona
David, thank you for your reply and link. Our daughter will be on break and will be traveling with us. The day trips sound great.
Another question: Have you been to Sobrarbe, the Spanish Pyrenees? Would it be worth doing a day excursion or better to spend a couple days there exploring?
Thank you for your help.
I'm not familiar with the Pyrenees destinations you mention.
My Pyrenees time was all spent around Andorra where I had friends.
Looking at the map though and I note that the famous Cirque de Gavarnie is on the French side just over from Mount Perdido. http://summer.gavarnie.com/discover/walks-and-hikes/hikes-around-the-cirques
If the mountains appealed you could do a loop of approx 1200km ...
Barcelona > Cadaques > Carcassonne > Lourdes > Zaragoza > Tarragona > Barcelona
There's no need to have a car in Barcelona since you won't use it but will have to pay to park. Use public transportation. What to see is dependent on what you like to do. I will frequently look at TripAdvisor comments to get ideas as to which cities/town to visit.
Would you recommend us visiting Madrid since we are in Barcelona? Or would it not be worth our time?
Barcelona is likely to have milder weather than Madrid in March, if that matters to you, but temperature averages suggest that even Madrid is not likely to be very cold. You can get to Madrid easily by AVE train if you wish. Madrid has 3 important art museums, #1 being the Prado, and a large royal palace. I'm in the camp that--aside from the art museums--much prefers Barcelona to Madrid. It's a matter of taste and what interests you. Madrid does have some truly fabulous, and varied, side-trips, of which Toledo is my favorite. I also like Segovia and Cuenca. I'm not sure how much the atmosphere in those smaller cities would be affected by the shorter daylight hours and cooler weather in March, however.
I suggest you get a guidebook and do some reading. See what sounds intriguing to you. If your daughter is free during the period of your visit, I imagine she would prefer to see another part of Spain since she'll have lots of time in Barcelona herself. It will be warmer in Andalucía than in either Madrid or Barcelona. I'd be tempted to head to some combination of Seville, Cordoba and Granada, depending on how much time I wanted to spend outside Barcelona.
