Splitting our time between Barcelona and Costa Brava and where to stay

I have kids the same ages (well, now mine are 14, 17, 19), and we are active too. I think planning two locations per day for Barcelona is safe, and then add another for your "back pocket" depending on energy and interest (prioritize, so maybe La Rambla is in the back pocket for one of the days). I also like to plan a busier location with less busy, so Park Guell with the Hospital de Sant Pau (loved that) because waiting in lines, and shuffling through a place that is very crowded uses a different energy than just walking through a less crowded site. We stayed in the Gracia neighborhood, so walked 'up' tp Park Guell in the morning, and over to the hospital in the afternoon. Then at night you could wander somewhere else. We tend to walk most places as we find that waiting for and taking public transit takes about as long and with walking we feel more immersed and get to see neighborhoods en route from place to place, but public transit is easy (we did take the train to the beach one afternoon)
As for Costa Brava, I would not bother driving into Andorra or France, given the list of places you are interested in seeing. We stayed in Girona and loved it. It's enough of a city for there to be a lot to explore when in town, and central enough to the other places to be a reasonable drive. As for whether to rent a car in Barcelona or Girona, I would decide how much you want to see in the area between those two or along the coast between those two. If everything you're interested in is east, west or north of Girona, rent a car there. As for surfing and kayaking, I didnt look for those, but I did look for "swimming holes" throughout our travel in Spain (what they call "wild swimming"), and found several we visited that included hikes to get to them and some had cliffs to jump from. If I recall, there was one near Besalu (but no cliffs, which is what my son really likes). You could Google cliff jumping + Costa Brava.

I've never rented a car in Europe, so I can't give you much useful input.

I don't think four nights (three days plus some jetlagged/sleep-deprived hours on your arrival day) will be long enough in Barcelona if you include a day trip to Montserrat. Barcelona's a very appealing place, and the need for time-specific entry tickets at the Gaudi sights makes crafting a highly efficient sightseeing schedule quite difficult. Tickets to those places are rather expensive, so you'll want to get your money's worth. It's impossible to predict how much time you'll want to spend at each one, so you need to pad the schedule. It would be easier if you could just hop from one to the next when you were ready to move on, but your next ticket time might be 30, 60 or more minutes later.

I highly recommend using ViaMichelin.com for driving-time estimates from potential coastal towns to the other places you want to visit. You've listed a lot of inland places, and I think it's going to get old very fast if you make repeated drives from the coast. I'd seriously consider spending part of your time at a convenient inland spot. But maybe you only plan to see one or two of the inland towns.

Girona has a lovely historic center with a walkable wall, two historic churches, etc. If you enjoy walking through medieval districts, Girona can fill a day. It's a lively (read "touristy") place with lots of restaurants, but the southern section of the medieval center is much quieter. I think your entire family would enjoy Girona. However, I don't know that it's the most convenient possibility for an inland base when you factor in parking and needing to drive out of the city for repeated day trips.

From my experience the Dali Theatre-Museum and included nearby jewelry collection are the only significant reasons to go to Figueres. It's not all that visually attractive a town. On the other hand, hotels there are comparatively inexpensive. The Theatre-Museum is very quirky and likely to appeal to the entire family.

Besalu has a cute, not-large medieval center. The fortified bridge is a "wow", and there are some other sights as well.

I haven't been to the other places you listed, so my failure to mention them doesn't indicate that they're not recommendable.

I suspect it's not really viable to drive from Barcelona to Andorra, spend some time there, then drive on through France before looping back to the Costa Brava. It would certainly be a long day of driving. I haven't been to Andorra since 1972. Andorra-la-Vella, the capital, is reportedly virtually an outlet mall these days. It's a tax-free shopping destination. The scenery on the way would be nice, so I think our Catalunya experts can suggest a worthwhile route that perhaps doesn't take you all the way to Andorra. Both La Seu d'Urgell and Puigcerda ("Poo cher DAH"). There are some old villages along the road between those two places that have a sort of back-of-beyond, medieval feel to them.

An interesting activity in the area is the French Yellow Train running from La Tour de Carol (with a stop at Bourg Madame, just across the border from Puigcerda) through the Pyrenees to Villefranche-de-Conflent. Time-wise, I don't think this could be incorporated in a one-day drive beginning in Barcelona and ending on the Costa Brava, because you'd have to double back to get your car. I see, though, that ViaMichelin has the roads in that area highlighted in green, indicating that they are very scenic. That doesn't surprise me, because the views from the train are very good. Villefranche-de-Conflent, the easternmost point on that line, is a very touristy but atmospheric walled town.

You are going inland from the Costa Brava quite a bit. Either drop some of those day trips or spend a couple of nights in Gordon’s. We stayed in Begur, nice beach.
In Barcelona, Montjuïc was a highlight for us. The Miró Museum was a favorite; make sure you go up on the roof to see the fun art work there. Some of the Barcelona Olympics took place up there. Terrific views.
La Sagrada Familia is a masterpiece in the making, one of my two favorite churches in the world ( Westminster Abbey is the other one.)
Las Ramblas isn’t worth your time.
I wouldn’t waste any time going to Andorra. If you want to add a country for your boys, head north a short distance to pretty Collioure on the French coast, an hour and a half hour drive each way.

The Garrotxa Volcanic Zone offers some great hiking and exploring.

http://www.spainisculture.com/en/propuestas_culturales/volcanes_dormidos_entre_masias_y_castillos.html

With your interest in this area and Cadaqués, etc., I will recommend getting in touch with our guide from the Costa Brava hiking trip we did in May 2019 with REI Adventures. Our guide, Catalan native Jordi Esquerda, was one of the best guides we have had for this type of trip ( and we have done 5 of these “adventure travel” trips with REI or MT Sobek.)

Jordi is very knowledgeable about the history and natural history of the area and Catalunya in general, speaks perfect English, and is an all-around good guy. From the village of Santa Pau, where we spent one night in a lovely small inn, he took us on a hiking excursion to a couple of volcanoes—-one that has been sort of cut away to expose the inside, and another where we hiked down into the crater. Then we went on to Cadaqués for more hiking along the coast, as well as a visit to the Dali house. We loved Cadaqués, and made good use of our free time there to explore the town and take a swim ( very cold in May).

You could contact him and arrange for a day or two of guiding, and some advice about the rest of your wish list (kayaking, surfing, etc.).

This is a copy of his business card:

Freelance Guide
Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park
Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park
Cap de Creus Natural Park

But he told me that he can do much more than those specific places on request. His email is puckcris@hotmail.com

miriam.parker, I just responded to your last post on the Portugal forum. If I have more information to add, I will respond to this post in the Spain forum.

I see in this post you mention spending 4 nights in Barcelona. I don't think that's enough especially if you want to visit Montserrat. I would spend at least 5 nights in Barcelona.

You are missing out on southern Catalonia! While the Costa Brava gets all the big name press, the Costa Dorada (Golden Coast), south of Barcelona is delightful. It's a land full of ancient olive trees, citrus groves, sandy beaches, lazy beach towns, time-warped castles, and Roman Ruins.

Some of my favourite points of interests on the Costa Dorada:

Garraf - laid back beach community just south of Barcelona. Popular with locals and with good seafood restaurants. There is also here a beach house designed by none other than Antoni Gaudí!

Poblet Royal Monastery - a UNESCO World Heritage Site and still active 12th-century Cistercian monastery. It was a fortified medieval royal residence and contains the unique hanging tombs of the old Kings of Aragon.

Tarragona - ancient seaside town with very good Roman ruins, including an amphitheater, intact aqueduct, and Praetorium Tower, was once the capital of Roman Hispania (modern-day Spain). Tarragona's medieval old town is a delight to explore too.

Les Ferreres Aqueduct - Roman Aqueduct you can walk on top of, a few km from Tarragona.

Sitges - the quintessential posh beach town, 30 min south from Barcelona. Has multiple small sandy beaches. Known for its gay scene, Sitges also has nice historic centre lined with boutique restaurants and shops.

Castillo de Miravet - A large riverside stronghold built by the Knights Templar with commanding views of the countryside. The adjacent medieval village spills down the cliff towards the rivers. A great place to bicycle, kayak, or take a leisurely boat down the Ebro river.

With 12 days you could split between Girona, as a base to explore the Costa Brava, and then head south using Tarragona as a base to explore the Costa Dorada.

Barcelona (4 days) + Costa Brava (4 days) + Costa Dorada (4 days) = lots of fun in the sun!

Last several years we have been taking fall trips to Catalonia and recommend it highly. We also have been to many of the destinations that you and our fellow authors have mentioned such as Figueres, Rupit, Besalu Girona, Pals, Pallafrugel, Roses, Tossa de Mar, etc. Will therefore stick with the main points. Andorra is the place to buy cheap toasters not particularly to visit. Thought came to us several years ago to see for ourselves as we have friends that go to Andorra for the good skiing. They also suggested avoiding it for touring purposes. We saw a huge line entering Andorra very likely shoppers and made a U-turn and returned. Barcelona is so magnificent at least in our opinion that you could spend much of your allocated time there. Las Rambla is one of our favorite streets in Europe and we have been on most of the others. High marks go to Tarragona, Stitges, Girona and specifically Cadaques. Spoiler Alert: All of the above is experienced through the eyes/experiences of two mature people renting a car and going to where the road takes us. In your case, because you are traveling with 3 teenage guys your thoughts/needs may well be different. However, the bottom line is simply that you cannot lose on any trip to Europe. We have been to Europe many times over many years and have absolutely no regrets. You have wisely in my opinion chosen Rick Steves Forum as an informational source. I will only guarantee one thing; on the plane back home you will regret that you have run out of time. Good luck!