Getting around Girona Province

The Province of Girona the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Cataluña (Catalonia in English). Its long coast is generally referred to as the Costa Brava.

🚘 This trip is based on you having access to a car.

→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to driving around Spain

We flew into Barcelona El Prat airport where we picked up the car we rented through Discover Cars. It was a quick and painless process and the car we were given had 22km on the clock, pretty sweet 😉

🚌 If you want to explore the region but really don’t want to drive, I recommend basing yourself in Barcelona or Girona and either using public transport from there or booking yourself onto tours.

👣 Top recommended tour: from Barcelona, this 8 hour tour takes in the small towns of Besalú, Castellfollit de la Roca, Santa Pau, Banyoles and a short hike.

Highlights of this Girona adventure

⭐️ The views everywhere will take your breath away. Every single day I exclaimed over the mountains in the distance, sighing at their beauty as ever new angle and field changed my interaction with them.

🌋 Exploring Garrotxa National Park – home to medieval towns and extinct volcanoes. You can even take a hot air balloon ride over the Garrotxa Park marvelling at the volcanic craters and tiny medieval villages from above

🍲 The cuisine – think menus del día consisting of three incredible courses, fabulous pastries and perfect ice creams

🏰 Amazing architecture – from medieval castles to weird, modern surreal buildings and everything in between. From Barcelona, this 8 hour tour takes in the small towns of Besalú, Castellfollit de la Roca, Santa Pau, Banyoles, highlighting the gorgeous architecture in the region

Girona road trip activity details

Under each location you’ll find the highlights of what to there is to do/see, and some suggestions of where to eat and stay.

✈️ From Barcelona airport we drove directly to our rental apartment in the tiny village of Castelló d’Empúries where we stayed for the entire week.

Castelló d’Empúries

The town of Castelló d’Empúries was established around 1,000 years ago. Today just 12,000 people live here and there’s a decent amount to do and see for visitors.

What to do in Castelló d’Empúries

🔎 There are two museums, the Flour Mill & Eco-Museum (Ecomuseu Farinera de Castelló d’Empúries) and the Museu d’Història Medieval de la Cúria-Presó. I didn’t visit the first because we have a flour museum in our home town, and the second wasn’t open very often.

🔎 Wander the narrow streets of the old town, visit the large Basílica de Santa Maria, kind of see the old synagogue (today it forms part of the gorgeous old Can Sanllehí, which is actually where we stayed), don’t miss the lavadero (old wash house).

🦋 Just outside of town is the Butterfly Park, which would be a good option if you’re in town with small kids,

What to eat

We enjoyed a truly excellent meal El Portal de la Gallarda, a restaurant with a gorgeous terrace and extremely friendly and welcoming staff. 

Where to stay

🏨 MexicoCassie rental recommendation: Can Sanllehí – there are three apartments in this incredibly beautiful historic building. All share some communal rooms but also have plenty of private space. The terrace and garden are a massive bonus on top of the great showers, comfortable beds and lovely owner.

 Day 1 – Figueres and Roses

Figueres

Figueres, is the birthplace of Salvador Dalí and here you’ll find the famous Teatre-Museu Dalí (the Dalí Theatre-museum) as well as the Casa Natal de Dalí.

Teatre-Museu Dalí

We went to the Teatre-Museu Dalí on our own. We didn’t book a tour but we did book tickets in advance (on the official website, everywhere else is more expensive), which I highly recommend you do if you choose to visit.

The building was designed by Dalí and built on the remains of the municipal theatre. It is home to the largest collection of his works anywhere in the world.

The building itself is weird and interesting to see, but the gallery did nothing for me, to be totally honest. If you like his work, you’ll enjoy it, if you don’t care for his work, you probably don’t need to visit. 

👣 If you want to visit with a tour from Barcelona, I recommend this one that includes entrance to the museum (many don’t) as well get to visit other Dalí locations.

Castell de Sant Ferran

We took a walk up to this 18th century military fortress where we had a lovely time exploring, exclaiming over the views and playing in the extreme winds.

➕ Also in town you’ll find the Museu de l’Empordà and Museu del Joguet de Catalunya (Toy Museum).

Where to eat in Figueres

We chose to eat at Indian Chef. We live in Spain so when we travel we’re not necessarily always looking out for traditional food. Sometimes we’re looking for what we struggle to find in the south of Spain (Indian cuisine being one of these things). This was an excellent meal that more than satisfied our curry needs.

Where to stay in Figueres

🏨 Hotel Duran – this is a good mid-range hotel right in the centre of the city. Beds are comfortable and the included breakfast is excellent.

Roses

Figures is a half day event so we headed to the Roses for the afternoon. Roses is a popular Costa Brava beach town, that can be extremely crowded in summer but in early April, was delightfully empty.

Roses (also called Rosas in Spanish), is an ancient city, being founded, as it was, by the Greeks in the 4th century BCE. They named their settlement Rhodes and created a busy trading port here. In the 3rd century BCE, the Romans beat the Greeks in the Battle of Rhode and set about creating a bustling Roman port town.

Ideally, Roses deserves more of your time than a quick visit, especially if it’s warm. We visited when the Tramuntana wind was in full force, which made it hard to be outside for long. I definitely plan to return.

We strolled along the beach for an hour or so, enjoying the magnificent views around the bay. We had excellent ice creams and then went to check out the Museu de la Ciutadella de Roses.

Museu de la Ciutadella de Roses

There is a small and interesting museum here as well as a large site where you’ll find Greek, Roman, Visigoth and Medieval ruins all on one site.

What else to do in Roses

Visit the Dolmens in Cap de Creus Natural Park including the largest in the region, the Creu d’en Cobertella.

Hang out in the old town, enjoying a drink or an ice cream on the beach at sunset (or any time of day).

🚂 Enjoy the tourist train that runs from Roses through the Cap de Creus nature park

🛥️ Take a boat ride to Cadaqués, around the Cap de Creus, Cap Norfeu (in a glass bottom boat), Cala Murtra, and more – Check out Don Pancho and Els Blaus de Rosas for more information (I haven’t been with them but they appear to be the main providers)

Where to stay in Roses

🏨 Hotel Spa Mediterráneo Park – this is a resort & holiday area so take advantage and enjoy this gorgeous hotel with enormous comfortable rooms, two great pools and fabulous food. It’s also just 200m from the beach.

Day 2 – Castellfollit de la Roca, astounding lunch and erotic forest gallery

Castellfollit de la Roca

If I’m honest, visiting this small medieval town was the catalyst for our entire trip. I saw photos of a small town perched high up on a protruding cliff and knew I had to get there to see it for myself.

🌋 Thanks to ancient volcanic action in the region, we have this protrusion of basalt rock some 50m high and 1km long. The ridge was formed by the layering of two separate lava flows, one around 217,000 years ago and the other 192,000 years ago (apparently).

What to do in Castellfollit de la Roca

It’s a tiny place so you park here and then walk through the town admiring the views as you do. At the far end is the Mirador Plaça de Josep Pla, an observation deck with delightful views over the area. There’s also a church, Església Vella, that has a tower you can climb (€1/person )for fabulous views over the town.

Once you’ve admired all you can from up here, head back to the car and drive down to the view point for views from a different angle. 

Passarel·la – Mirador de Castellfollit de la Roca– this bridge is the best spot but be warned you can’t drive down here. You’ll need to leave the car just past the turning point in a lay-by where there’s also a bus stop. There are various options for short hikes around here too, if you’re in a hikey mood. I always am but this trip, everyone was under the weather so we opted for a 45 minute stroll then headed back to the car and to lunch.

Where to eat

Basàltica Pizzeria – for excellent pizza with excellent views, head here, or, if you’re after a proper dining adventure, skip to the next section.

Where to stay

🏨 Ca la Reia – if you get the opportunity to stay in this gorgeous little apartment in Castellfollit de la Roca I highly recommend grabbing it. It is located right in the middle of the old town, and offers a fully equipped kitchen, terrace with great views and a garden.

Tour recommendation

👣 From Barcelona, this 8 hour tour takes in the small towns of Besalú (see below), Castellfollit de la Roca, Santa Pau, Banyoles and a short hike.

Eixida Espai Cultural i Gastronòmic, Montagut

If you also want to eat here, please be smart and book a table. We did not and wound up with their last table, in direct sunlight. It was extremely hot until we were able to move inside. It was still worth it though, that’s how amazing the experience is.

Both food and staff here are great – staff were very kind about translating everything from Catalán to Castellano for us (I don’t know what their English is like, sorry, I’d imagine it’s good). 

There are two menus here, one for around €26 per person and one for €45 or so. We opted for the cheaper. The starters are a surprise (there were three of them) and all were excellent. You then choose your main course and dessert. This was a 5⭐️ meal for sure. 

Bosc de Can Ginebreda – Parc d’escultures

Not too far from Banyoles (also looked like a good place to stop as it has a large lake) is this amazingly odd forest sculpture garden. Most of the sculptures are of naked people, some are overtly sexual and erotic and some are slightly political. We had a really fun couple of hours wandering around the forest. There are apparently 100 sculptures in 7 hectares of forest. 

💶 Note that it costs €4 per person and you have to feed your four euro coins into a machine to gain entry. There’s a machine to give change for notes but you absolutely must show up with cash or you’ll have wasted the drive. 

Day 3 – Olot, volcanoes & Besalú

Olot

Olot is home to a really cool volcano museum called Espai Cràter. Everything is in one room and it’s all hands-on screens or activities. Weirdly for such a hands on museum, my bigger kid, the one who loves screens and whacking buttons, didn’t love it but the rest of us did. It’s a super interesting place. 

We spent a couple of hours in the museum, had a decent lunch and then climbed the Volcà del Montsacopa to enjoy views, lying in the crater and generally being outside. 

⭐️ Did you know that you can take a hot air balloon ride over the Garrotxa Park marvelling at the volcanic craters and tiny medieval villages from above?

Where to eat

This is a decent sized town so there are plenty of good restaurant options.

Where to stay

🏨 Hotel Can Blanc – just outside of town, this gorgeous traditional Catalan hotel will wow you with its outdoor pool, access to nature, amazing breakfasts and extremely comfortable rooms.

Besalú

Drive time: 1hr30 from Barcelona / 40 minutes from Girona

This is a well known and touristy medieval town but as one of the best-preserved medieval villages in the region, it’s still well worth your time as it’s super fun to explore. The entrance to the town over the medieval Pont de Besalú with its defensive towers, is really cool. Once in the town you’ll find tourist shops, snack shops, bars and even a Circus Museum, which is pretty interesting. 

Besalú is a great place to relax for a few hours.

Where to stay

🏨 Els Jardins de la Martana – situated right next to the famous bridge (photo above), you absolutely can’t beat this hotel for location! Rooms are comfortable, many have balconies with amazing views and the breakfasts are exceptional.

Recommended day trip

👣 From Barcelona, this 8 hour tour takes in the small towns of Besalú, Castellfollit de la Roca, Santa Pau, Banyoles and a short hike.

Day 4 – Girona

The capital city of the region, this is a bustling place, full of tourists but it doesn’t feel overcrowded. It has a beautiful, medieval walled city and you could definitely spend a few days here if you wanted to. We made do with a day trip this time but for sure we’ll be back.

→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to taking a day trip to Girona

What to do and see in Girona

Banys Àrabs de Girona – built in 1194, these baths are a nice stop as you explore the city. Take a look around this building, and don’t miss the views from the roof.

Old Quarter – Barri Vell, explore the old town, enjoy its narrow streets and beautiful buildings

Medieval Walls – free to climb but hard to find the entrance. 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. There is apparently a few kilometres of wall you can walk along, we walked for a while until we were hungry (it was lunch time).

Pont de les Peixateries Velles – this small bridge across the Onyar River may remind you of the Eiffel Tower, because it was built by Gustav Eiffel’s company in 1877, just before the Eiffel Tower. It’s nice, and the views from here of the colourful buildings along the river is popular with visitors. 

➕ Museums there are a few museums here to visit. I wanted to but my kids had had enough so we contented ourselves with chocolate shops and sushi for lunch. Parc de la Devesa also looks like a fun place to explore if you’re in town for more than a day.

Where to eat in Girona

We chose to eat at a Japanese restaurant because the noodle bar my son chose for us was only offering take away 🤣. If I had been in charge of our food plan, I’d recommend Taverna d’El Forment.

Where to stay in Girona

🏨 Pensió BellMiral – if you love history and tradition then this hotel will blow you away! With its ancient stone walls and traditional furniture, you’ll be transported back in time if you stay here (although the included breakfast is modern and wonderful 😉)

Recommended tours of Girona

👣 History, legends and food tour of Girona – this is a fun tour that’s full of great info as you explore the city, tasting as you go

👣 Game of Thrones fan tour – any GoT fans will love this short walking tour around Girona since there are two important sites here, Braavos and King’s Landing. This tour will help you figure out how the city was transformed

Day 5 – Greek & Roman Ruins at Empúries & L’Escala

Empúries Ruins

Wow, these are some special ruins – here you’ll find the remains of an ancient Greek trading city on the beach, an extremely informative museum (one of the best I’ve been to recently) and the ruins of a smaller Roman town. The Greek ruins (above) have views primarily over the ocean, while the Roman ruins face the mountains.

My kids had planned to hang out together and not come exploring this site but in the end they came in and even managed to look around the museum. 

L’Escala

We then headed into nearby L’Escala for lunch and a walk along the coast. We ate lunch in a decent restaurant near the Monument a la Gent del Mar. There are many restaurants to choose from along this bay and the next. The views here were possibly my favourite of the entire trip and even if lunch hadn’t been good, I’d have still loved every second for the view. 

Day 6 – Outdoor day – Sant Joan les Fonts & Fageda d’en Jordà

Sant Joan les Fonts 

This is another small village in the Garrotxa volcanic region. We visited here as its a great spot to see 700,000 year old lava flow Les Tres Colades (photo above).

There are plenty of great walks/hikes to do around here. I recommend heading to the very helpful Tourist Information to pick up a map and talk to the staff to find your best route. 

Where to stay

🏨 Mas Colom – this is a traditional country house with sun terrace. It offers family rooms and a play space for kids. The included breakfast is wonderful. Perfect for families looking for peace and quiet.

Fageda d’en Jordá

This is a lovely beech forest within the Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa. There are a variety of walks you can do here (there are maps as you enter), bathrooms and even a small shop. We took a picnic and joined locals enjoying the sunshine.

Day 7 – Barcelona day

Not technically in Girona Province, if you’re starting and finishing in Barcelona, why not take the day to enjoy the city?

Barcelona is undeniably beautiful and it is obviously a massive draw for people visiting Spain. I’ve spent a lot of time there but had never taken my kids before purely because of the huge numbers of tourists in the city; I don’t love crowds and I know that the city is suffering with overcrowding right now. However, being right there, of course we visited.

→ Read the MexicoCassie guide to spending one day in Barcelona

Spain is a big country (for Europe) with many, many fabulous places to visit. My personal preference is always to explore away from massive crowds of people, not to deliberately throw myself into a busy spot. However, after a week of exploring the countryside north of Barcelona, my kids were curious about the city so in we went:

We spent our day at the Sagrada Família and the Park Güell (both pictured above).

We opted not to take a tour of the Sagrada Família, thinking the kids wouldn’t love it but they actually told me they would have loved to go inside (this tells you a lot as my kids have ZERO interest in churches normally).

⭐️ 👣 If I were going to take any tour in Barcelona it would be with Take Walks. I love this company and have taken a few of their tours in both Sevilla & Madrid and love the way their present the cities. The tours are good value, extremely fun and you come away enthused and with new knowledge.

We wandered around for a while then walked the 25 minutes or so up to Park Güell, stopping at CLOUD for genuinely some of the best ice cream we’ve had in Europe. It’s decently priced (it’s far enough away from major tourist spots to not be a rip off) and the flavours were incredible.

Park Güell was actually a major disappointment for us all. I suspect this has a lot to do with the crowds as I do remember loving it on previous occasions but this time it felt like a massively overhyped tourist draw.

I get it, you see somewhere hyped as a ‘must do’ in a city you’re visiting. It’s in all the blogs, everyone features it on Instagram so you want to see it too. I recommend taking a breath, thinking about your own interests and planning based on those, not with FOMO in mind. Who cares if you don’t see a park or a museum that doesn’t truly interest you, or might be waaaaay too busy when you’re there? We’re living in a time when we all appear to need to follow the whims of others rather than our own hearts and I don’t think this is doing any of us any favours.