The best thing about living in Barcelona is how easy it is to leave. Within about an hour of Sants you can be in a seaside old town of honey-coloured stone, under the widest Gothic nave in the world, inside a Roman chariot circus or on a cliff path above turquoise coves. These are the four day trips I recommend most, all done in 2025 and 2026 and all an easy train ride from the city: Sitges, Girona, Tarragona, and the stretch of the Maresme coast between Sant Pol de Mar and Calella.
Sitges: the old town and a long lunch
The nearest of the four, 35 km down the coast and about 40 minutes from Sants on the R2 Sud. I spent two nights there in May 2025 and came back for Pride in June, but a single day covers the essentials.
Sitges old town · 5/5
The best hour in Sitges is the walk from the shopping streets up to the church on its rock above the sea. Carrer Parellades was already strung with rainbow flags in May. Behind it, Carrer d'en Bosch has honey-coloured stone mansions with carved window frames, and Carrer de Fonollar runs past the white walls and Gothic windows of Maricel and of Cau Ferrat, the painter Santiago Rusiñol's house-museum. The square in front of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla is the town's balcony.
The flip side is popularity. Summer weekends bring day-trippers from Barcelona, and the lanes by the church fill with tour groups by late morning. Go early, or in the evening when the stone turns gold.
Sofia by Picnic · 4/5
The beachfront offshoot of Picnic, the long-running Sitges restaurant, at the west end of the Passeig de la Ribera. The room is bright and open to the sea breeze, and the kitchen leans Mediterranean with a nod to Formentera and a holm-oak grill. I kept it simple: mussels served in their cast-iron pot, a confit leg with potatoes and blistered padrón peppers, and an aperitivo with an orange twist. It is the kind of long seafront lunch Sitges does better than anywhere near Barcelona.
It is not a bargain: Time Out puts it from about €45 a head. On weekend afternoons the DJ and cocktail crowd turn lunch into a party, so come on a weekday if you want to hear the waves.
To make a night of it: the hotel from my May stay, and a garden restaurant worth knowing about.
Ibersol Antemare – Adults Only · 3.5/5
A four-star on a quiet residential street at the west end of town, a few minutes from the seafront promenade and about 15 minutes' walk from the church. Being adults only makes a real difference to the noise level in Sitges. There is a garden, an outdoor pool, a roof terrace and a small spa with a sauna, a jacuzzi and a Turkish bath, and breakfast is the thing guests rave about most. For a four-star by the sea in late May it was very fair value.
The weak spot is the rooms. Standard doubles are about 20 m² with a shower only, and reviewers keep mentioning tired furniture and small maintenance niggles; service can be slow when the hotel is busy. For two nights of beach and dinners out it works. For a longer stay, ask for a bigger room with a proper terrace.
Le Patio
A French restaurant hidden behind a doorway on Carrer Bonaire, with tables in a walled garden that feels a world away from the bars a block over on Primer de Maig. It is dinner only, and the garden fills fast. The cooking is classic French with Mediterranean touches, and regulars single out the desserts and the set menu (around €29, with a welcome bite and a glass of cava). The complaints are about consistency rather than concept: some reviewers say the food slips on busy nights, a few find the service brusque, and sauces are charged as extras. Book a garden table, and book well ahead around Carnival and Pride.
Sitges Pride · 4.5/5
Come back in June and Sitges Pride is the friendlier, beachier cousin of Barcelona's. The Pride village on the seafront is free, with drag and tribute acts on the main stage until late; I was there on the Friday night until nearly midnight, and by Saturday lunchtime the flags were out all along Carrer Parellades. The usual Pride caveats apply: hotels sell out and prices jump, the late trains back to Barcelona are packed, and the village is shoulder to shoulder at peak show times. Book a room early, or plan on the last train.
Girona: 86 steps and a Gothic giant
A Good Friday day trip in April 2026, about 40 minutes from Sants by high-speed train. Girona's old town climbs the hill above the river Onyar, and the cathedral sits at the top of it.
Girona Cathedral · 5/5
You arrive at Girona Cathedral the theatrical way, up 86 stone steps to a baroque façade; Game of Thrones fans will know them from King's Landing. Inside is the real show. The Gothic nave is about 23 metres wide, the widest in the world, and with no aisles to break it up the space feels enormous and calm. A huge rose window lights the west end, the side chapels glow with old stained glass, and a silver canopy hangs over the high altar. Anyone who cares about design could spend an hour just looking at how that single span holds the room.
Eighty-six steps up, then 23 metres of stone with nothing holding up the middle.
The practical gripes are the ones other visitors raise too. The steps are steep with no shade, and at midday they are a photo queue. When I went, the Apostles' portal on the side was wrapped in scaffolding. The ticket (about €7) is good value because it includes the cloister, the museum and the basilica of Sant Feliu, but allow time for them or it feels pricey for one building.
Le Bistrot · 4/5
A Girona institution since the late 1970s, with a French brasserie feel and tables set out on the stone steps that climb to Sant Martí Sacosta. That staircase, with the baroque church front at the top, is one of the prettiest corners of the old town. The kitchen is known for crêpes and pizzas de pagès, rustic toppings on toasted country bread, and Time Out calls it "a Girona classic". I stopped on my way up to the cathedral, which is the perfect use of it.
You come for the setting more than the cooking, and the tables on the steps are first come, first served at lunchtime. Check the hours before you plan a meal: it closes between lunch and dinner.
Cafe Viaugusta · 3/5
A simple restaurant with a terrace at the foot of the cathedral steps, on Carrer de la Força, the spine of the old Jewish quarter. It is handy for exactly what I used it for: a late lunch straight after the cathedral, when most kitchens in town have closed. The menu is safe Spanish territory, with paellas, tortilla, salads and pasta, and some recent reviewers praise the seafood paella and the friendly staff.
But it is a location restaurant, and the scores show it: about 3.2 out of 10 on Gastroranking from more than 300 reviews. Expect tourist pricing and uneven cooking. If you are not tied to a time, walk five minutes for better food; if you are, it does the job.
Tarragona: Roman Tarraco and a Catalan buffet
A Saturday in May 2026, about an hour down the coast by train: Roman Tarraco first, then the cathedral quarter, a late buffet lunch and an hour on the beach.
Pretori and Roman Circus · 5/5
This is the site that makes Tarragona's Roman past feel real. You walk through the barrel vaults that held up the stands of the chariot-racing circus, some lit like a stage set, past inscribed Roman stones, then climb the Pretori tower: Roman on its two lower floors, later a medieval royal castle and then a prison. At the top is a terrace looking over the circus, the old town and the Mediterranean, and inside there is a big model of the city that explains how the circus, forum and walls fitted together. Entry is €5, which makes it one of the best-value hours in Catalonia.
There are a lot of stairs, the upper walkways have little shade at midday, and it is closed on Mondays. The joint ticket for five Roman sites (€15) only pays off if you see four or more; if you only have time for one, make it this.
El Tiberi · 4/5
A Tarragona institution: an all-you-can-eat buffet of Catalan home cooking in a rustic dining room just off the Rambla Nova. The counter is the point. When I went it held pans of paella and mussels, slow stews, canelons under a golden béchamel, fried chicken, battered fish and spinach with raisins and pine nuts, and the wine list leans local, with bottles from Conca de Barberà and Terra Alta. It is one fixed price and very good value, and it scores 4.4 on Google from almost 3,000 reviews.
It is home cooking, not fine dining. It opens for lunch only, closes on Mondays and gets packed at weekends, so book. The few complaints are about drinks, which some diners find pricey for what they are.
The old town and the beach
- Plaça dels Sedassos: a giant trompe-l'oeil mural fills a whole house front, on the way down from the cathedral.
- The cathedral steps (Pla de la Seu): the Gothic façade and rose window at the top of the old town are best seen from the steps.
- Platja del Miracle: the 500 m town beach below the Balcó del Mediterrani, with fine golden sand, showers and beach bars.
Sant Pol and Calella: lunch, then the lighthouse
A Sunday in August 2026 on the Maresme coast, about an hour up the shore from the city; the R1 runs right along the water.
Lunch in Sant Pol
Sant Pol de Mar is the old fishing village of the pair, whitewashed and low-rise, with lunch terraces under the plane trees by the station. Mine had white tablecloths and dappled shade, which on an August Sunday is all you need.
Far de Calella and the coast path · 4.5/5
The prettiest stretch of the Maresme is the short run between Sant Pol and Calella, where the hills drop straight into the sea. Calella's lighthouse, built in 1859, sits on a headland of golden, weather-carved rock, and the walkway below it has a timber rail, a low stone wall to sit on and turquoise coves underneath. From the top you look one way along Calella's long beach and the other towards whitewashed Sant Pol.
It is not a wilderness walk. The path shares the headland with the old N-II coast road, so there is traffic noise, and there is almost no shade on an August afternoon. Calella itself is a high-rise package-holiday resort; the charm is at the lighthouse and in Sant Pol, so plan the day around those.
