Tours in Barcelona

You feel the sea before you see it in Barcelona, somewhere around Barceloneta, where the grid of the old fishing quarter gives way to open water and the paella places start setting their tables outside. Walk the other direction and the city folds into Gothic stone, narrow lanes that open suddenly onto a square with a church front or a line of washing strung between balconies. This is a city that rewards wandering without a map more than most.

The obvious names are obvious for a reason. Sagrada Familia pulls your eye upward from streets away, its towers still unfinished-looking in a way that feels deliberate rather than accidental. Park Güell sits above the city with its tiled benches and views over the rooftops to the sea. Las Ramblas gets crowded and touristy, but duck off it into El Born or Gràcia and you find quieter squares, small bars, shops that have clearly been run by the same family for a long time. La Boqueria market is worth the crush just for the colour of it, fruit stacked like something out of a painting.

Barcelona is also a good base for leaving Barcelona, and that is where our one tour here comes in. A day out to Girona takes you into a different kind of old town, one built on a hillside with a river running through the middle of it, crossed by an iron bridge that locals will tell you more about if you ask. From there the road winds inland to Peratallada, a stone village so quiet you can hear your own footsteps, the kind of place made for sitting with a glass of wine and no particular plan. The day ends at the coast, in Calella de Palafrugell, where whitewashed houses line a shoreline path and the water turns a colour you don't quite expect from a map.

If a long private day through Catalonia's inland towns and coastline sounds right, that tour is below. If you'd rather stay in the city and go deeper into something else, a local guide here can usually arrange it.