After couple days in Barcelona looking to rent car and drive up north via Costa Brava shoreline. any suggestions as far as places to eat, stay, see? Def. going to make Monserrat a stop....and other ideas within hour or two from the coast. 2 NJ gals...so safety is important. thanks!

I did a trip report on this area when we were there in April with lots of recommendations. I think if you click on "artlover" you can access it.

artlover,
im not very good at this yet....i clicked art lover but see bunches of messages.....what was the subject line and was the date you posted in april? thanks so much for helping out!

Much of the coast is very built up with high rises a la Atlantic City. We spent a few nights in Cadaques which is absolutely lovely, so you might plan to include that town...

i cant believe you said atlantic city...heading there for next weekend! ha! thanks for your comment. anyone else ever drive up that way let me know!

PVD..I said Atlantic City cause you are from NJ!! Really there are lots of totally built-up towns with high-rises along that coast so do some more investigating so you can find the more charming towns...I think the old part of Tossa might be a good start...and Cadaques further north, of course..

Now if you want a casino.....they actually have one in Barcelona that we visited one night..

pvd,
I'm not very good at this either, so I"m cutting and pasting the Costa Brava part of my trip report below. Hope it helps.

COSTA BRAVA

This was one of the true highlights of the trip—I LOVED this area. The Parador Aiguablava was simply beautiful, the setting, with a cove on one side and the Mediterranean on the other, was breathtaking, the room was large (for a Parador), and the restaurant was excellent. We stayed 3 nights and I could have happily stayed longer.

HIGHLIGHTS

The magical village of Pals where we wandered for hours along twisted midevil streets and found the delightful shop of Pan Planas on Placa D’Espanya 8.

The sedate village of Peretallada.

Girona—was only there a few hours, but loved what I saw—the overall feeling—the old city, the outlying park. This is one place I certainly would like to explore more in the future.

Empuries—awesome beyond our expectations!

The village of Rupit—while a bit of a drive out of our way, it was really worth it!

Casa Gala. As much as I disliked Theatro de Dali, I really liked Casa Gala, especially the coffee table in the living room and the garden.

Parador Cardona. Worth the overnight—not as thrilling as Leon, but worthwhile for a night and the restaurant was very good.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

The Theatro Dali in Figueres
Don’t even get me started on this—DD and I can’t begin to have a civil discussion about this, but I’ve never been a big Dali fan, and I’ve never been so negatively affected by a museum in my life. I couldn’t get out of this place fast enough. If you’re a big Dali fan, you’ll like it I guess, but otherwise, I’d say skip it.

Figueres—the entire town just didn’t appeal to me at all.

Besulu—(maybe we went to the wrong place, but except for the footbridge, I was disappointed and glad all the tourist buses came here and not to Pals and Peretallada.

The Parador at Vic (my least favorite so far)

After the Parador at Cardona, we stopped in Montserrat on our way back to Barcelona (to catch our flight to Mallorca)…so will report on that next.

When we went for dinner at the Parador, a woman said “hi” to us, and I said “hi” back. She said, “You look familiar. Weren’t you at Vic (the Parador)?” I told her we were and was truly impressed with her memory. Turns out, she—Becky and Scott from Maryland, were also at the Parador at Augiblava and were also celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary! Not only that, but their son is in college in Seattle, where we live, and their daughter is studying abroad in Barcelona (ours had been in Italy), so we had much to talk about. On a sadder note, their kids had friends at Virginia Tech, so that added a sad note to the evening, but we really had a lot of fun comparing notes and such. And the dining room at the Parador was fabulous, as was the food. Reasonably priced too. I’m so impressed with the Paradores!

Anyway, Becky and Scott been to Montserrat and Becky warned me that by all means we should park at the bottom and take the shuttle to the top. They didn’t and she said she was scared and nauseous from the drive. And as you know, I have issues with DH’s driving as it is, so oh boy, was I grateful for this tip which I’m passing on to you.

One thing I found very strange in Costa Brava were the young women in miniskirts or shorts and boots standing alone the highway by themselves in rather deserted areas. Makes me wonder if prostitution is legal in Spain. Also makes me feel rather sad for them.

After visiting Montserrat, where we heard the amazing boys choir singing, were impressed with the short prayer given in SEVEN languages (!) and enjoyed the paintings at the art museum, we drove back to Barcelona, returned the car, and checked in to the HOTEL TRYP BARCELONA AEROPURETO which was fine—very high tech, clean, and with a free airport shuttle to make our morning flight to Mallorca.

art lover,
wowow thank you soooo much for the info....gonna print and read over wknd.....appreciate it very much!

you're welcome
hope it helps