RachNYC

My 19 year old daughter and I are flying into London from NYC on August 16 where we are connecting to a flight to Barcelona. We fly back to NYC from Heathrow on August 26.

The (vague) plan is to stay in Barcelona for three nights and then head to the Costa Brava for five nights. The thought is to take a train from Barcelona to Gerona to pick up a car and drive to Begur where we'll stay 5 nights, doing day trips from there.

We have no hotels (or car) booked yet, though I am confident we'll find a good hotel in Barcelona. I just sent an email to Hotel 1898 and am waiting to hear if they have availability. Begur is another story; that town's hotels seem to be sold out - at least the three I tried: Aiguaclara Hotel, El Convent and Mas Comangau.

I am debating what to do. Barcelona will be amazing - lots of people also vacationing, charming and interesting streets to explore, the art of Gaudi and Picasso, and tapas and wine!

For the second leg of our trip we are looking for the charm of the Costa Brava villages, beautiful scenery, and some historic sites related to the Spanish artists. But also restaurants and cafes for people watching. We are not into large, charmless hotel but also not ones totally isolated or popular only with retirees or honeymooners. I know, I am asking for a lot. Traveling with a college junior who will be chomping at the bit to get back to school, who will only have been home a couple weeks this summer, I am especially
eager to plan a trip that will be fun for the both of us!

Thank you for any shared wisdom!
Rachel

Cehegin

Maybe you could try further in land at Bisbal d'Emporda or Figueres(the town where the Dali Museum is).It depends how close you want to be to the beaches.It can be very very busy in August on teh coast so maybe further inland is an option

ribeirasacra

why wait for a confirmation email?
Hotel 1898 is listed in www.booking.com You can reserve it straight away.
How long are you going to stay in London? What are your connecting times between London and Barcelona? These will obviously have an impact on the rest of your vacation in Spain.

Robert2533

You might want to check out the Parador de Aiguablava (www.parador.es/en/parador-de-aiguablava). It has one of the best locations in the area and is only a few minutes away from Begur.

turaj

While I understand August will be very busy keep trying you will find something. We stayed in Cadaques and Calella de Palafrugell and loved both. My daughter is a bit older than yours but I think about the same interests. I strongly discourage Cehegin's suggestion above of Bisbal d'Emporda (we spent one night at the Castello and while beautiful very boring and not on the sea it is just what you don't want in terms of isolated) and we went to the Dali museum in Figueres which is the only reason I see to go to that town.