liiat

Hi,
I wrote 3 days ago and received only one answer (thank you Alec, you helped a lot)
but I need more details about public transportation between Barcelona and the towns of costa brava.
T h a n k s

andrewinla

It is not too expensive to rent a car and make the drive.

I dont know about train. But when we thought about it the train seemed expensive. We had great time with our own rental car. saw much more this way.

ABARKIE

Hi,

Can I suggest you try

www.Renfe.es

And also BArcelonabus.com

Also if you are traveling to Girona try Ryanair.com for there bus service

Hope this helps

jd_dallas

In part it depends on where you want to go. The train to Girona and Figueres is very easy and inexpensive, but you still need a car to explore the coastal areas. There is a bus from Barcelona to the Costa Brava airport, where you can rent a car. We chose the train to Girona and drove from there to Aiguiblava, where we stayed for 2 nights in March, using the car to explore during the days.

SydneySteve

We have similar plans in September and have done some research. We arrive by train from Madrid and we leave by train through the Pyrenees and will visit Val de Nuria as well. Having not been to Barcelona before the question is, after two days of sightseeing in the city, where is the best place to pick up and drop off a rental car and hop back on the train to the North after 2 days of Costa Brava ?

We are thus looking for the best location to stay in Barcelona, have access to the rail system and rent a car. So maybe the way to go is to take the train to Girona and hire a car ! The car appears to be an essential way to see Costa Brava given the nature of the coastline. It would be good to find great accomodation there on a hill somewhere relatively remote and looking over the coast - i.e. somewhere you can drive in and out of and not in the middle of some tourist strip. We would also be delighted and most grateful to receive Meribel's files on this Region from Meribel or any of her disciples. Our email address is [email protected] . We will post here with what more we can find out.

jd_dallas

Steve, I sent Maribel's file a second time and hope that you have received it.

We were in Barcelona and the Costa Brava area in March and yes, a car is essential in Costa Brava. I did not want to drive in or near Barcelona if it could be avoided. We picked up a car in Girona and dropped it there, without any difficulty.

There are at least a couple of threads on this board regarding accommodations on the Costa Brava. Maribel highly recommends the parador at Aiguiblava, where we stayed. The view is fantastic. I was not as taken with the town as is Maribel, but the hotel itself if fine; you need to book well in advance. There is also a family owned hotel in the same town, and accommodations in Roses, Cadaques (both out of the way but very attractive towns), and several other towns right on the coast. I suggest you do a search here for "Costa Brava" and/or "Costa Brava hotels," and you should find some good ideas, as I did.

If we go back, both my wife and I would like to stay a few days in Cadaques. It is quite remote, but the atmosphere is terrific.

Maribel's suggestions that we tried in Barcelona were uniformly great.

SydneySteve

File Received - Thanks John and Meribel. We will be in that Region in early September. My wife is looking forward to returning to Costa Brava after 25 years. She is specifically searching for the small restaurant in a rocky cove where patrons seem to arrive mainly by boat as she recalls. I am particularly looking forward to the visit to Val de Nuria and the Villefranche line back down to the French coast. Thanks again.

jd_dallas

Steve: I suspect your wife will be in for a shock when she sees how much develepment has taken place along the coast. One thing we really liked about Cadaques is that it is less developed than other towns we saw.

I don't have a clue about the restaurant, but some posters here know a lot more about the area than I do.

SydneySteve

John. I was interested in your comments about Cadaques and the Costa Brava Region. I would be interested to obtain any of Meribel's notes on Costa Brava and the Pyrenees. Rather than take the train on to Ribes de Freser and Val de Nuria after Costa Brava, I am researching whether to take three days and travel along Costa Brava, maybe stay two nights at Tossa de Mar or further north and one night and a full day in the Pyrenees. The roads in the Pyrenees look a little challenging though and particularly with a low powered rental car ! Has anyone hired a car and visited the Pyrenees Orales. Any advice would be appreciated.

marcy_

We just got back from Spain (last night!- a trip report is coming!), and we rented a car at the end of our stay in Barcelona, and drove to the Costa Brava area, where we stayed for three days. We picked up our car at the train station (Sants) in Barcelona, and had no trouble at all driving out of the city.

It was great having a car to drive around and explore the area. We did drive up to the Pyrenees, and loved the drive! Our rental was a BMW-- no problem with power, but the inclines weren't that terrible, really.

I agree about Cadaqués-- it was a very charming town. There isn't much to do right there, though, except relax, and it is remote, so it just depends what you're looking for.

We had driven along some of the coast farther south and thought that it was pretty tacky and overdeveloped.

Look for my trip report coming up soon, and I will post a lot more impressions of the area!

SydneySteve

Marcy. Thank you for your comments and we would be very interested to read your trip file. Any information you have on driving through the Catalan Pyreenees would be greatly appreciated. Did you get to Ribes de Freser and take the Cremellaria Cograil to Val de Nuria ? Thanks again and best wishes.