suetibu

Hi, So we just booked a trip to Barcelona for 11 days (Sept 18 to 30th).

We will be staying in Hilton Barcelona (points).

What are the recommended day trips out of the city?

We want to see/experience the small villages in Costa Brava. Is this possible by train or do we need to rent a car?

We are also considering Girona by train..

We will have a toddler with us so ease is priority..

Thank you!

bilboburgler

There are bunch of companies offering Gaudi tours, with a toddler you don't want to get into the queues for some of these places especially at the sun gets hot. But you can use the trams and buses which are pretty efficient.

Parc Gaudi has no queues and the cable car trip are both worth a visit. The Familia cathedral is worth a good look round. I'd generally try to keep out of the sun at midday.

Pocket picking olympic training ground is down the old rope walk "Las Ramblas" so take extra care and take nothing you will not miss.

Other train journeys include to the Freixenet (and other fizz producers) These guys do a tour http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spa...et-winery.html but you can just catch a train and the entrance is something like 300 metres from the station.

More fun is the visit to Torres http://www.torres.es/wps/portal/web/...04J4010457_WCM by train

danon

Girona, Tarragona and Sitges are all easily reached by train.
For CB you probably need a car...
Which Hilton did you book?

kimhe

You are in Barcelona during the major festival of the year, La Mercè, celebrating the city's patron saint Mare de Déu de la Mercè and marking the end of summer.

Lots of spectacular events, parades, processions, concerts, fireworks etc etc. The central dates are September 20-24, but plenty of La Mercè activities around town both before and after these days.
http://barcelona.de/en/barcelona-la-merce.html
http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...-la-merce.html

Last years program: http://merce.bcn.cat/en/programa-per-dia

Smeagol

The Costa Brava is a wonderful area and I can recommend a wonderful village about 1.5 hours from Barcelona ( by car) it's called Begur, slightly inland ( many beached 2 or 3 km away) wonderful village with fantastic restuarants and a buzzy town square, the ruins of an old castle look down on the village. Beware though that a lot of the good restuarants close on either a Monday or Tuesday, so time your visit after these days. From here you are about 40 minutes from Girona, 10 minutes from the lovely restored town of Pals and close to Pubol - where Dali had a home.
We went last year and loved it so much we went back 3 weeks ago. Cadaques is about 1.15 hours away and if you are into Dali you could go to Figures for the museum.

Begur would be a wonderful base for a few days to explore this wonderful region. Ideally though you would have a car BUT that said the motorways were easy to drive and never crowded.