heart2travel

Hi all helpful travelers out there. We are going to be in Barcelona this summer. 6 of us total. I thought it looks pretty spectacular to drive from Barcelona along the Pyrenees . I have a couple questions if anyone has done this trip.
1. Is it any more wonderful on the French vs. Spain side?
2. Great stops along the way, ( could certainly spend a night or 2 somewhere.)
3. How many nights does San Sebastián deserve? Any accommodation suggestions?
4. I originally thought we would go on the Spanish side and come back on the French side but that seems like a lot of driving. We can always drop car and hop plane back to our departure airport before going back stateside. I am flexible on how many days we need for this journey but I was thinking of 5? I should note there are 4 adults and 2 kids but they are 16&13. Very inquisitive and well traveled..
Thanks for any help in advance.
Kim

sandralist

You might get partisans for either France or Spain answering your question #1, according to their partisan bias. I'm not sure many people do both.

I did the trip the other way, going from San Sebastian to Barcelona, and sort of zig-zagging my way down, crossing the border several times. I went to France first, then crossed back over to Spain south of Ax-en-Thermes, then back to France -- then back to Spain, then back to France again, and then traveled along the French Catalan coast and the Costa Brava to Barcelona. I think we did it in 10 days, but maybe it was less or more --- and we included spots most people would not bother with (like Collioure and Perpignan and Vic and Girona) if they were looking to be a bit more straightforward.

We basically roadtripped the whole time, mostly one night stands, maybe 2 nighters -- and no reservations. However, we were quite ahead of the summer season, and while there are lot of ski lodges up there with lots of rooms, they might fill up with hikers.

I would say that our interests were to see historic towns as well as spectacular scenery. Someone just focused on scenery -- and especially if you wanted to hike -- might have picked a much different route. We were really happy with most of everything we saw -- although I found much of the lower elevations on the Spanish side of the southern Pyrenees a bit uninteresting -- and I regret I took the advice not to go through Andorra at any point. I understand that it much of it is built up and ugly, and gets traffic jams on weekends, but I would have liked to have seen the parts that are not ruined, which I understand still exist.

It is pretty hard to find it a fantastic place. I'm not sure you should be too concerned about picking "just the right" route.

sandralist

Sorry -- that last paragraph should have begun: "It is pretty hard NOT to find it a fantastic place."

I also can now note here the one place we drove through and found totally abhorrent was Lourdes. Could not want to get out of there, and it took no more than 20 minutes to do so, and it still wasn't fast enough.

heart2travel

Thank you for your advice sandralist, I had been looking at the map and wondering if criss crossing was a good idea. I too bought we would head to he costa brava first. We are also interested in history, sightseeing and food and wine of course.! Might be fun to throw in a short hike or two for the kids sake.
Any favorite towns both along the costa brava and the journey along the Pyrenees ? We are not afraid of off the beaten path spots.....
Kim

sandralist

For beachy-beauty on the Costa Brava, I liked Callela da Palafrugell the best. For history and charm, Vic (which is inland). and the very quiet antique Castello d'Empuries. I'm not a Dali fan, but lots of people go to the sights and towns associated with him nearer the French border.

I didn't see any towns in the mountains and foothills on the French side that I would name as destination towns, but most of them have some charm or interest. Ditto most of the towns I saw on the Spanish side foothills/mountains, but I didn't seen any of the ones closer to San Sebastian, and maybe there is some wowser I missed. I think if you sketch out a route, and pick some likely areas for lunch and overnights, you can begin to zero on the likely towns, and choose which looks more interesting.

tower

we particularly enjoyed the drive from Barcelona to San Sebastian by mostly driving the French side. We followed several of the typical Tour de France mountain passes....the roads still had the greetings the fans left for certain participants. Armstrong's name was everywhere...who would have guessed the fall from grace in the offing?
It was autumn and beautiful....color changes were reminiscent of my native New England's fall foliage.

The Pyrenees scenery was majestically illuminating.

<b>The route:</b>

We drove fom Barcelona to spend the night at country parador Cardona (recommend). In Andorra, we spent the night at the Andorra Park Hotel (recommend) away from the crowds and the traffic, then we turned south and north to the passes ("Col"d'aspin, Col Peyresoude, Col Tourmalet) as far as Pau where we spent our third night. Just outside of Pau you come across a giant sculpture of a bike rider on the Tour de France.

From there we drove to Biarritz and enjoyed a few nights in that vicinity at nearby Bidart (Hotel L'Arche, highly recommend...still on our Top-Ten list!)...on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic and sandy beaches with interesting rock formations...smashing! (agree wih SandraList, we avoided Lourdes..maybe that's why my bad knee still hurts!!).

We finally drove on the autopiste to Bilbao and the Guggenheim, and then backtracked to San Sebastian, visiting "El Bosque Pintado" (the painted forest) just outside of Gernika (Guernica). Remarkable!(highly recommend...see pix below). Gernika is a clean, well-laid out town. No way to imagine the hell on earth that occured around 80 years ago.

We spent a day in SS,and drove back to our hotel in Bidart for a few more days. Not being foodies per se, we had a satisfying late lunch and nowhere do I have the name written down. Please, no firing squad.

The journey was most memorable and throughly enjoyable. We did drive through a portion of the Spanish Pyrenees after leaving Andorra, and I'm sure if we had continued in Spain, we would have found it also eye-popping.

tower

Kim..hope the above info helps..try to see this amazing site, too:

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...ForestOfSpain#

http://www.pbase.com/txirloro/elbosque

Robert2533

When driving from Barcelona to San Sebastián, you can do the French side, but it can be boring if you are following the highway until you get to Pau. We generally recommend head up to the Val d'Aran before crossing into France, before crossing back into Spain at Roncesevalles.

There are many "great stops" along the way, but where you stop will depnd on how much time you have. It's easy to spend a week, but we normally do the trip in three days.

Donostia-San Sebatián deserves a minimum of three days if you enjoy good food and wine. Where you stay will depend on you budget.

kja

I'm planning a trip in the opposite direction, and hope you don't mind that I jump in....

Assuming weather permits, my current plan is to leave Donostia / San Sebastian early and drive to San Juan de la Pena. After visiting there, I thought I would drive on to Torla, where I could take of an hour or so to stretch my legs in a scenic area. And then drive on to Taull, where I plan to spend the night. I know that this plan will require a LOT of driving, but I think it should be do-able. Do you agree?

heart2travel

Thank you everyone, tower great pictures. I think my niece and nephew would love the painted forest.
Kia great that you jumped on. When are you planning your drive? I will plan out a route and decide how many days to devote to the drive and then I may have more specific questions.
Kim

Michael

If going via the French Pyrenees, consider the Cirque de Gavarnie and the Pic du Midi d'Ossau as destinations. The latter involves and cable car the mountain and then a little train to the base of the peak.

For other sights along the Pyrenees:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...717915043/show

britiberico

The wonderful autoroutes on the French side and the magnificent autopistas on the Spanish side are well away from the mountainous areas - for obvious reasons.The north-south routes over the passes are very accessible but you will need a lot of time to thread your way through them without having to backtrack.If you want to hike in the mountains my suggestion is to drive for 2 or 3 hours along the autoroute/autopista and then head towards the mountains and look for a place to stop the car and hike.

Mark_chin

Hi, we just returned from 2 weeks in spain. Not sure if its in time for you but I would like to share our experience to repay people who had given advice for our trip.
We drove from Barcelona to pleasant Girona-stayed 3 nights, visited Dali museum and drove around Costa Brava as day trips. Visited quaint towns Ullastret, Pals, Peratellada, Aiguablava, Begur and La Bisbal(ceramics town). In particular Peratellada and Aiguablava are the most beautiful.

We then drove from Girona to Salardu in Val d'Aran(stayed overnight) passing castle town Besalu along the way. The drive to Salardu is quite long (about 5 hrs driving time) and winding in parts but very scenic. Besalu is very nice and Salardu is absolutely beautiful like out of a fairytale.

We then drove to Val de Tena staying at Aparthotel Piedrafita lodge at Piedrafita de Jaca. There you can go for a short hike and admire the incredibly beautiful Pyrenees scenery.
Departed the next day to San Sebastian but not before we took a short detour to Banos de Panticosa (hot spring resort by a lake). The moment we arrive we regretted not spending another night there. Its just so gorgeous. Gran Hotel is just by the lake(with spa and thermal swimming pool). En route to SS we drove by castle town Olite(worth a visit), Pamplona-SS.

Stayed SS for 4 nights and ate our hearts out.
After that we flew back to Barcelona (6 nights) by Vueling.