WEEKEND BREAK IN UP-COAST BARCELONA

I don´t know about you, but in summer I don’t like visiting the Barcelona beaches. Maybe in May or September yes – but in the peak of the touristic season it becomes too crowded and unfortunately sometimes dirty.

The nice thing about Barcelona is that it is close to many other amazing and less crowded beaches – on the south and on the north. Let’s have a look what is available to the north and how to organize a nice weekend break there.

First – the hotel: It is recommendable to first check all the travel and offer websites, including the last-minutes offers as you might be lucky and find some very good deals. Websites you can check are Atrapalo, Rumbo, Destinia, Lastminute and all the group shopping websites like Groupon. Don’t forget to check booking.com and tripadvisor for some opinions, as nobody likes unpleasant surprises when they enter their hotel room. Lately we have noticed a tendency that the prices in booking are higher than the prices on the particular hotel website. So it won’t be a bad idea to check the hotel’s website too for tariffs.

Transport: The up-coast area is pretty well connected with the Renfe trains. For example: a one -way ticket to Calella is less than 5 euros. There are also buses that run daily and of course the option to rent a car (if you don’t own one). If you want to explore hidden secret beaches – a car is definitely the best option.

Where to go: It won’t be wrong to say that all of the villages has their own charm and spirit. Some of them are popular touristic destinations (where you can find many German, French, Russian tourists) Others are mostly visited by the locals and some are popular destinations to all of us who decide to have a beach day outside Barcelona.

So where to go? If you don´t want to travel too much to the north to the famous Costa Brava, the good and close-by options are Ocata, Premia de Mar, Calella, Sant Pol de Mar, and Santa Susanna. If you feel travelling a little bit further to the north you can visit Tossa de Mar and LLoret de Mar which are already parts of Costa Brava. 

Most of these villages have wide and long beach lines, at least a couple of chiringuitos, and in some of them you can find interesting touristic attractions. Like for example in Tossa de Mar there is a beautiful medieval castle which adds an additional charm to the village.

TIP: next Tuesday (24 June) is a public holiday in Spain – if you make a “Puente” (long weekend), you can have a nice 4 day escape!