How to get to and from Girona on a day trip

What to do and see in Girona in one day

On a day trip to Girona you’ll mostly be spending your time exploring the old city of Girona. The streets are delightfully narrow and winding and, for me aimless strolling is part of the joy of these old cities. However, if you’re short for time, or don’t love getting lost, your best bet is to begin your Girona day with a walking tour. There are plenty to choose from and these two are my particular recommendations:

👣 MexicoCassie walking tour recommendations in Girona

⭐️ History, legends and food tour of Girona – this is a fun tour that’s full of great info as you explore the city. It also includes a few traditional snacks to help keep the energy up

⭐️ If you’re short on time then this 90 minute mysteries and legends tour of the old city is a great option

Barri Vell (Old Town)

Passeig de la Muralla

Taking a walk on the ancient city walls of Girona is a fun and free activity.

You can explore the medieval extension to the Roman walls that took place between the 9th -14th centuries as you follow the walkways along some of the longest Carolingian walls in Europe. There are various towers to climb too, offering great views over the city and beyond.

🔎 Finding the entrance to the city walls wasn’t easy as it’s not especially well highlighted or mentioned anywhere. To save you the time we wasted looking for it, you need to enter the Jardins dels Alemanys. You should then see a sign to the Torre Gironella, this is where you can ascend. The walkway runs for few kilometres of wall.

Girona Cathedral Basilica of San Feliu

For me, the most interesting thing about this church is the multitude of different architectural styles you can see within its construction given.  Building work began in the 11th century in a typical Romanesque style and didn’t end until 1961. You can see 13th century gothic fashion in the church, in fact, here you’ll see the widest Gothic nave in the world (23m/75ft). The 12th century Gothic century cloister and bell tower also still remain. The main façade is Baroque – work began on it in 1606 and it was only finished in 1961. 

The Banys Àrabs

Despite the name, these 12th-century “Arab” baths were built in Romanesque style and have nothing to do with Islamic architecture. It’s a small but atmospheric spot with beautiful stonework and a unique layout that was actually inspired by traditional Roman baths (again, not Arab!). It’ll take you maximum 20 minutes to wander around here. It’s very small. 

Pont de les Peixateries Velles 

This bridge is considered to be something of a Girona icon. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1877, ten years before his masterpiece, the Eiffel Tower.

From here you get nice views along the river of the colourful river houses, the Casas de Onyar. It can get crowded but it’s worth a stop here for a photo or two (and sunsets are great from this point too). 

Because this bridge is located between two others, you can get great photos of it from either of the following: Pont de Pedra – built in 1850, or Pont de Sant Agustí.

Museums in Girona

I did not, surprisingly for me, visit any museums in Girona. My kids begged me to give them a break and for once I acquiesced.

Museu d’Història de Girona – artefacts found in Girona from the Roman period to the modern day.

Museu d’Història dels Jueus (Museum of Jewish history) – a small museum of the city’s Jewish past. We did stop in here briefly to check out the free exhibition.

Museu del Cinema-Col·lecció Tomàs Mallol (Cinema Museum) – anyone interested in the history of film will love this museum that houses artefacts from the 1800s onwards.

Museu d’Art de Girona – some reviews focus on how heavily religious the art here is, while others mention that there’s a good amount of Catalan focused art.

Where to eat in Girona

I don’t much like recommending restaurants in cities. There are so many excellent options to choose from and everyone has their own needs and tastes.

We, for example, had planned to eat ramen in Girona as one of my kids was craving them. We actually ended up in a Japanese restaurant eating sushi as the ramen bar was closed. This probably isn’t what anyone else is hoping for when they book a restaurant in Girona.

☕️ Syra Coffee – this Barcelona based chain serves incredible quality coffee

🍫 Rocambolesc – on the corner by the Pont de les Peixateries Velles, you’ll find the Rocambolesc trio – confiteria (candies), bikini (local toasted sandwiches) and the gelataria (ice creams). We tried two of the three – candy and ice cream. The chocolates and jelly sweets we bought were delicious and of an extremely high quality. My kids also bought themselves a non-melt ice cream. The ‘regular’ style ice creams also looked great but sadly I was feeling full of chocolate so skipped the ice cream. 

⭐️ Michelin star El Celler de Can Roca – this extremely famous restaurant will of course require a reservation. People consistently rate this as one of their best ever dining experiences. I’d have included it in my own plans had I not been travelling with my ungrateful teens 🤣.

🍽️ My personal lunch choice would have been Taverna d’El Forment

🥓 La Fàbrica – brunch spot that everyone raves about

🍷 I highly recommend stopping for a coffee or a drink on one of the plazas, too

So that’s a rundown of what there is to do in Girona. Here’s the rundown of how I used my one day in Girona:

The MexicoCassie 1 day in Girona adventure

Pont de Pedra – we began our adventure right here before heading for coffee at Syra Coffee. We didn’t know anything about the chain but my kid wanted to wander into Ale Hop (of course), which was just opposite so while they were in there, the rest of us grabbed coffees and excellent pastries and waited on a bench outside.

We then wandered to the Pont de les Peixateries Velles to take photos and get extremely distracted by the chocolates in Rocambolesc Confiteria (bag on my arm in photo above 🍫🍫). 

From here we walked along to the Plaça de la Independència and the Pont d’en Gómez where we crossed into the old city. We paused for two minutes in the Jardí de Sant Feliu to read the info about the city and admire the first fly art of the day.

Officially we were looking for the entrance to the city walls as this was our main plan. Of course, we got distracted a few more times, most notably by the Cathedral and the Arab Baths, both interesting to explore (as long as you’re not fourteen). 

Once we’d finally found the city walls after a few wrong turns and maybe some heated words, we very much enjoyed our stroll along the walls, climbing a couple of towers for views over the city before heading back into the Old City for lunch.

After lunch at the averagely decent Japanese, I half heartedly tried to persuade the kids into a museum (they’re generally very good about museums so this time I let them off the hook) and then we had a nice hour or so aimlessly wandering around the Old City.