Catalonia

We wanted to return to Peratallada, one of our favourite villages, so we planned the trip to drive there with stopovers on the way and back.

First stop was at Vilanova i la Geltru, a coastal town 40km south of Barcelona. It proved to be a good place to stop, as it was a nice town to walk around, shop, visit the beach and have a nice dinner.

En route to Peratallada we stopped off at Begur a pretty village with a ruined medieval castle and overlooks the town.

We walked up to the castle for the views, then down to the old town where we had a tasty snack lunch at L’Autentic. There were lots of nice little craft shops but unfortunately many were closed for siesta. We really liked the look of Begur and think it’s a place we will return to.

Peratallada was as cute as ever although it was sad to see several shops and restaurants closed and the village was much quieter than last time we were there.

We stayed again at the lovely Hostal Blau and enjoyed our blue room with outside terrace and the most delicious breakfast.

Vilafranca del Penedes was our next stop.  We drove there on a slightly different route to avoid the busy Barcelona motorways, and enjoyed the views of the amazing Montserrat mountain range in the distance.

Vilafranca del Penedes is part of Catalonia’s wine and cava region and originally we had hoped to do a bodega tour or some wine tasting, but most places were closed because of Covid.  Even the wine museum which we planned to visit was closed early.  We just had to make do with sampling some of the local wine and cava in the bars and restaurants! 

We were advised just before we left that the hotel we had chosen was no longer available, and the hotel we then tried to book in its place advised us that it was closed due to Covid, but that they had booked us into their sister hotel Domo. We weren’t expecting too much but it proved to be fine and was in a good location.    This town was fine for a stopover, but it’s unlikely to be somewhere we’ll return to.