Thanks for a great report. You might fall in love with Seville, Granada or San Sebastian. I could return there every year. Barcelona is one of the world's great cities and must be a great place to live and work. Andalucia and the Basque country just make me want to go back again and again.

Barcelona is one of the world's great cities and must be a great place to live and work"

I don't know if it is a great place to live and work ( only the locals could answer that one), but it is sure a fantastic place to visit .

Interesting notes on your travels.
About Vic, the square is not dirt it´s sand based, maybe dirt is what you use in USA, but it sounds awful. It´s been like that for a long time, people like it here it´s a new fashion. The Morning market is on Tuesdays and Saturdays and
it´s worth a visit.
Rupit is a lovely place to visit, it´s quite unique. Did you know there are planning to make a version of it in China? Cadaqués is also on their list! Chinese have interesting ideas...
And remember if you travel around Catalonia or Barcelona, if you try and say a few words in Catalan, Catalan people will be very happy and pleased. In Barcelona Catalan is used but with spanish as there is a lot of inmigration and many people living there from other parts of Spain or foreign countries, but outside Barcelona the catalan languege is used much more as it´s a first language for a lot of families. And it´s simialr to spanish, but different enough with many different words, but a lot similar to french, possibly because they are our neighbours.
Enjoy your holiday.
Adam.

Great trip report. Thanks so much. Although I have been to Barcelona before (1984), this summer I am heading back to Barcelona and Catalonia for two weeks with my wife in July. Your itinerary sounds wonderful. Our current plan has us being in Barcelona for six days and then heading to Gerona for a week, but doing many day trips from there to surrounding towns. I have a few questions and look forward to your response or those of other members:
1. Why did you choose a hotel rather than an apartment for those days in Barcelona?
2. We also plan to rent a car for our time outside Barcelona, however, I am thinking of taking the train to Gerona and renting the car there. Did you have any problem finding parking spots for your overnight stays in the different towns you stayed, including Gerona?
3. I do a lot of mountain hiking and scrambling here in the Canadian Rockies. If we make a trip into the Pyrenees what do you recommend? Where? How long? Overnight? My wife is not into mountain hiking but I would love to go into the Pyrenees and have that experience of seeing those beautiful mountains.
4. Anything you regret about how your time in Barcelona was spent? I know you mentioned a couple of places you wish you could have spent more time at but apart from those, any regrets?
5. Given the time of year we are heading to that area I know that it will be extremely hot and very crowded. Are there certain things we should be doing ahead of time in terms of reservations to make sure that we get to see the things we want to see without having to stand in line for hours? Back in 84, there was absolutely no line-up at the Sagrada Familia in July but from what I hear tourist traffic has changed all that.

I suspect I will have more questions in the days to come and I hope you don't mind me trying to pick your brain (or those of other experienced Catalonia travelers) Thanks so much.

svincent,
I'll try to answer some of your questions.
1) For some reason, we have never rented an apartment during our travels, so it just didn't occur to me to rent an apartment in Barcelona. I admit, though, that when I'm on vacation, I don't like to cook, not even breakfast, so we don't feel the need to have a kitchen. We like to try different restaurants & we look for reasonably priced ones. We chose the apartment in Girona because of the location & the photos looked beautiful. We did buy food at a market one day & did have lunch back in our apartment, but that is unusual for us to do that, although it was fun shopping at the market.

2) We didn't have any problems finding parking spots for our rental car. Both hotels had either a garage or reserved parking spots for their guests.

3) Re: the Pyrenees, we drove as far as Ripoll, which is a lovely small city, might be a good spot to overnight for a couple nights & do some nearby hiking. We didn't have time to do any hiking. An acquantance of mine sent me her itinerary from last June when they did do some hiking in the Pyrenees. I don't have time right now but I will search for her email & I can copy & paste her itinerary & post it here.

4) I wish we could have had more time in Parc Guell, & if we had more time, it would have been nice to see Tibidabo & Montserrat, but other than that, we have no regrets as far as our sightseeing goes.

5) You should check to see if you can buy tickets for Sagrada Familia in advance of your trip. There were long lines in October; we got there by 8:45am, it opens at 9AM. The first day we went there for 10AM & the line was too long. I can only assume that it will be even more crowded in July.

If I think of anything else, I will post again & I will try to find that email about hiking in the Pyrenees.

Thanks a lot for the responses. Very helpful.

Thanks so much for the trip report .. the details in the report is what really distinguish it from the norm .. i am heading out in March and some of the places/cuisines is gonna top my list.

Hi. We were considering a week split bt Barcelona adn the Costa Brava in May but was concerned the Costa Brava region was more of a summer destination. Would there be plenty open in May? thanks

"Would there be plenty open in May?"
Yes, the season usually starts at Easter

plambers,
Everything was open in October: restaurants, stores, Dali's house, so I assume everything will be open in May, and as Pvoyageuse states, the season starts at Easter, which is end of April this year. I think May would be an ideal time of year to go because you won't have the summer crowds.

Manojgeorgethomas, thanks for your compliments!

We were there this past may and most everything was open, In Cadaques they were busy preparing the area, drilling, painting etc, but still most places were open. It wasn't crowded at all. We couldn't even get a reservation on the day we wanted for the Dali house, had to take one the next day Be sure to make a reservation for the house tour.

We were in Cadaques and the Costa Brava this past December. It was beautiful and "open". The work along the coastal road in Cadaques in still ongoing.

Near Girona,in Madremanya, we stayed at La Placa, which we highly recommend. The restaurant here is also amazing.
www.laplacamadremanya.com/

Thanks for your wonderful trip report. We're bringing our granddaughter to Barcelona in April and you've provided me with more ideas!

This trip report is wonderfully helpful! Wondering about renting a car or taking day trips from Barcelona. The train to Gerona and renting a car there sounds interesting. Any more thoughts along these lines?

Hi Images, thank you for your compliments. I envy you that you are returning to Barcelona in April!!! It's one of my favoriate cities.

virginiafish, if you take a train to Girona, you won't need a car unless you plan on driving through the countryside & Pyrenees like we did. But if you are only staying in Girona, you don't need a car. It's a small city & we walked everywhere.

Your trip report has been terrific in planning our Spain trip - just wanted to say thank you!

Partmtn,
Thank you for your compliment. It's always nice to know that the time involved in writing my report was worth it and helpful to fellow travelers.

When are you going to Spain and what is your itinerary?

Barcelona is the first and last part of our honeymoon trip. We'll be there for 2.5 days at the end of June and plan to do a few Gaudi sites as well as Citadel Park & Barcelona Cathedral, mostly just enjoy the atmosphere of the city. Then we're returning July 9th from a trip to Croatia & Venice and we plan to rent a car to drive around the Basque region plus a night in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls on Monday morning before returning to Barcelona for our flight home on Tuesday.

Hi Kwoo, Just returned. Yes, we needed a car, as we drove around Costa Brava--loved it. Trip report to follow soon. Great trip and thanks for all the help.

Hi Kwoo...For the past five years I periodically go on a scanning jag for old pre-digital pix.. Here are some selected shots of Barcelona (1999, scanned in 2005)), in case you are revisiting your report. I expect eventually to scan Cadaques and Girona and both the French and Spanish Pyrenees. I've already scanned Sevilla during Holy Week 1997, which I can post if anyone is interested.
stu

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

Virginiafish: Which apartment did you stay in in Barcelona?

http://www.vrbo.com/239622#comments We were very pleased with the cleanliness, location and provisions in the apartment. Jose, the owner, is very helpful and accommodating to your needs. The apartment is quiet and secure. There are all the needed amenities within easy reach-pharmacy, bakery, supermarket and local, reasonably priced restaurants. Unfortunately, on our last night, we had a backpack swiped from our rental car as we got gas at the station diagonally across from the apartment. One must be ever-vigilant. I would stay at this apartment again, nonetheless.

Just re-visited my report to get some info & saw the latest comments in May. Stu, I enjoyed looking at your photos of Barcelona. For some reason, we never saw the Sardana dancers.
Virginiafish, did you write a trip report?

What a wonderful trip report! Thank you for sharing your trip with us, Kwoo.

My husband and I will be making our first trip to Spain at the end of September this year. I was delighted to find this TR since we are planning a very similar trip. I feel much better about renting a car for the portion of our trip outside of Barcelona now that I've read this.

Thanks again!
Tammi

bookmarking, thank you

Thanks for all the good information. Great report, enjoyed it very much.

Thanks, Kwoo. Your report has decided me to go to the Costa Brava, specifically to Girona, instead of San Sebastian.

Bookmarking

bookmarking

Thanks for all of your compliments. Glad to hear my trip report is helpful.

Hi Kwoo! Thank you so much for posting all of the details of your trip. I just posted a reply to an existing thread (to which you also recently replied) because I'm planning a trip to this region in June. I could use your advice if you have any time and are willing to give me some feedback. If you click on my name you'll see my post from a few minutes ago.

Thanks so much!
Amy

Hi Kwoo-
Thanks for your comments on the post I added to doodled's itinerary plan. I will start my own thread very soon after I iron out a few additional details.

Wanted to explain that we planned to leave Spain via Bilbao/Madrid because we are also interested to spend some time on the Basque Coast but now I'm beginning to wonder if splitting the trip between Barcelona/ Costa Brava and San Sebastian/Bilbao is going to be too hectic. While we do like to explore and enjoy the outdoors we'd like to maximize the relaxation, too! We haven't bought the plane tickets yet so I guess we can still decide whether or not to focus on the Costa Brava and enter/exit via Barcelona.

PS: I did find out that automatic cars are available for rent by major rental agencies.
Thanks again!

Hi Kwoo, I didn't write a trip report mostly because, after this wonderful trip, on the last hours, our backpack was stolen with our tour books and my notes and notations, making it hard to recreate. I will try to write a short one soon, though, as I always find them so helpful!

Hi virginiafish,
That's too bad about your backpack being stolen! It would be nice if you could write a short report. I love to read about other's trips, especially to places I have been because then I can really relate. And it brings back wonderful memories!

Kwoo, I tried to reconstruct the trip, but without our books, or notes, it is difficult. We stayed in an apartment in Barcelona, loved Runner Bean tours, saw the usual sights for 4 days and then, went up the coast. We stopped at the botanical gardens along the coast, hiked along the coast in Tossa del Mar, and stayed in Girona for 3 nights at the the Hotel Historic, which was perfect in all ways. We drove up to Cadaques, spending an afternoon, and went to the Dali museum in Figueres. We could not "do it all" and I wish we had more time in Costa Bravo. Your help was invaluable in planning!

virginiafish - sounds like a great trip. there's a current thread by someone who wants to go to Paris and Amsterdam after staying in Barcelona, and I was trying to encourage them to stay on and explore the area, but lacked the detailed info.

this sounds like exactly the sort of trip i wanted to suggest.

annhig: if you can point me to their thread, I would be happy to help them out. this forum has helped us plan so many wonderful trips and I like to "give back".

bookmarking!

virginia - I'll have a look for it.

here it is:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...don-7-days.cfm

Kwoo,

Thanks for this trip report. It helped me make a similar plan. The recommendation of Cadaques was one thing I hadn't thought of.

I am in Boston area too and have a daughter who studied in BCN for a year.

Hopefully I'll manage a trip report. After Cadaques we are staying near Ripoll and Le Seu d'Urgell before returning to Barcelona. I was just looking at possible mountain biking excursions today. We are off on Thursday and will be going to Spain after a week in Italy.