Girona

2024

Girona is a small, attractive and friendly city in Cataluña / Catalonia, 105 kms from Barcelona. Popular with tourists, it has almost all the facilities you need for a holiday – an array of cafés and restaurants (including lots of vegan ones (@b12_bar on Instagram) and a Natural Wine bar), a host of sights and museums and a beautiful park – de la Devesa.

I will be adding photos and information to this blog over time but for now, here’s some useful stuff and pretty pictures.

Culture

The Bolit Centre of Contemporary Art is excellent. All the exhibitions I’ve seen there have been interesting and inspiring. Helpfully, it’s next to the Tourist Information on Rambla de la Libertad.

The Jewish Museum and the Museu Trésor de la Catedral (next to the Cathedral) are both well worth a visit.

Trains

It is not hard to get to Girona overland. Please consider ditching the plane in favour of the climate and saving carbon emissions.

Here is one way to get to Girona: Eurostar train from London to Paris (book in advance and take advantage of offers by email if you can, as tickets are very expensive.)

SNCF train from Paris to Toulouse overnight (my late June ticket cost €20 (not a typo!) booked well in advance, with a Carte Avantage (senior). The return day-ticket (single) cost €104, also with a Carte Avantage (senior). The SNCF app works much better now.

SNCF train Toulouse to Port Bou via Perpignan (1 hour stop-over) €21.40. Fast train Girona to Barcelona €18.

There are two types of trains – slow, stopping ones (eg Port Bou to Llançà to Camallera and Girona (ends at Barcelona)) which are cheaper; and high-speed ones which are more expensive. It’s hard to book tickets online (RENFE is the national company), so better at the station. Do it in advance (note that, as with the correos / post office, you’ll need a queue ticket from the machine which is in Catalán so, again, allow time to use your translate app if you don’t have the language). The machines that are used to book your tickets are slow, you will need your passport, and the staff tend to be brusque. You may find someone who speaks English.

At the Spanish train stations, the process of ‘getting on’  is more like an airport procedure than that which we’re used to at a British station, so allow yourself time to put all your luggage onto the conveyor belt. There is also a slow and careful ticket checking system. This applies in Girona and Barcelona.

On the plus side, the Barcelona-Paris train guard announces in French, Spanish and English, and addresses you as, ‘dear passengers’.

Changing money

You cannot change £ stirling into € euros at the Correos / post office. Nor can you do so at the Santander Bank unless you already have an account with them. Note: they and Caixabank both charge €7 to take money out of the ATM, so you are advised to get fewer, bigger amounts at one time rather than smaller sums more often. The ATM at the train station only charges €5. It’s not in the main concourse, but in the building through the car park, the bus / train station, downstairs.

You can change money at the airport, so I’m told though I haven’t tried. Also it’s possible at the big El Corte Inglés department store on Barcelona Street a bit out of the centre (worth a visit if you like shopping or have to replace something that got broken in your air bnb!)

Shops, cafés etc take cards and cash so if you’ve remembered yours / have enough, you’ll be fine.

Buying stamps

Although you can buy postcards all over the city, you can only get stamps from the post office / el Correo. It is open all day until 8pm and has a book swap.

Other people’s blogs

10 Top Things to do in Girona

Please note that driving in the centre of Girona is not at all recommended – the streets are very narrow and even if you can get in you might not be able to get out again! There is a very large car park by Park de la Devesa (see link in opening paragraph).