Girona & Costa Brava Tours from Barcelona

Girona

The old town climbs from the Onyar river, whose bank is lined with the ochre and red houses that appear on every photograph of the city. Above them sit a cathedral with the widest Gothic nave in the world, a run of intact medieval walls you can walk, and El Call — the Jewish quarter, among the best preserved anywhere in Europe. The 12th-century Arab Baths are included in the coach day's ticket.

Two hours is a real visit here; two and a half, on the small-group van, is comfortable. An hour and forty on the train day is brisk.

Tossa de Mar

A walled headland with medieval towers standing over a curved beach, about 45 minutes from Girona and the only stretch of Costa Brava these tours reach. An hour to an hour and a quarter covers the walls, the old town inside them and a drink or a swim.

It is the stop most affected by weather. In summer it is the reward at the end of a long day; in a February wind it is a walk around some ramparts.

What the train costs

Renfe runs about 31 services a day between Barcelona Sants and Girona: 38 minutes on the fast AVE and Avant trains, around an hour forty on the regional, with fares from roughly €17 up to €50 depending on the service and how far ahead you book. There is also a coach from Barcelona Nord in about an hour and a half for around €18.

What the train cannot do is Tossa de Mar — that needs a further bus from Girona — or Montserrat on the same day, since they are in opposite directions. If Girona is all you want, go alone. If you want the three of them in a day, that is what these tours are for.

What to see in the old town

Girona repays a plan. The cathedral has the widest Gothic nave in the world at 22.98 metres and a flight of ninety steps in front of it that has appeared in more than one television production. El Call, the Jewish quarter, was home to one of the most important Jewish communities in medieval Catalonia until the expulsion of 1492 and is now a dense grid of stone lanes with its own museum.

The city walls — the Passeig de la Muralla — can be walked for most of their length with views over the rooftops and the Ter valley.

• The cathedral steps and the nave, the widest Gothic vault anywhere
• El Call and the Museum of Jewish History
• The Arab Baths, 12th century, included on the coach day
• The Onyar houses from the Pont de Sant Agustí — the photograph of the city
• The city walls, best walked in the hour before the light goes

The Costa Brava half

Tossa de Mar is the village these tours reach, and it is the right choice for a short stop: the Vila Vella walls are the only fortified medieval town centre left on this coast, they sit directly above the beach, and an hour covers both. Further north the coast gets better and harder to reach — Calella de Palafrugell, Begur and Cadaqués are all superb and all beyond the range of a day that started at Montserrat.

If the coast is the reason you are going, take a train to Girona and a bus onward rather than booking a three-stop day, or treat these tours as what they are: a way to see three different kinds of Catalonia in a single, long day.

The calendar

May to early October is when the combination makes sense — Tossa de Mar is warm enough to swim in from about June, and the light on the Onyar houses lasts into the evening. Girona's Temps de Flors festival in May fills the old town with flower installations in the courtyards and along the walls, and it is the single best week to visit the city.

From November to March the coast stop becomes a walk around some ramparts in the wind, and the day is worth reshaping: take the bus-and-train tour, which drops Tossa de Mar and returns at 17:40, or go to Girona alone on the train and give it a whole day.

What to eat and where

Girona is a serious food city — it is the home of El Celler de Can Roca, three Michelin stars and repeatedly ranked among the best restaurants in the world, which needs booking months ahead and is not a day-trip lunch. What is a day-trip lunch: the tapas bars around Plaça de la Independència and the Rambla de la Llibertat, and xuixo, the fried cream-filled pastry the city invented.

The coach day gives free time in Girona around 15:30 for exactly this, and sells a lunch package as a separate option if you would rather have it arranged.

Before you book

Each of these is stated on the operator's own listing or, where marked, comes from traveller reports. Prices and terms were read in August 2026.

• Cheapest, all three stops: the coach day at $107.75, with the Girona Arab Baths included.
• Small group and a pickup at your door: the van at $128.10, with 2 hours 30 in Girona.
• Home early: the bus-and-train day, back at Sants by 17:40 — but it drops Tossa de Mar.
• Girona alone: the train from Sants, 38 minutes, no tour needed. Fares are on the transfers page.