Port Aventura is Spain's largest theme park. 2-hour drive from Girona. The park has five themed areas based on civilizations (Mediterrània, Far West, México, China and Polynesia), and one area based on Sesame Street (SésamoAventura).
Portaventura's mascot is Woody the Woodpecker. The park was owned by Universal from 1998 to 2004,[1] but now has nothing to do with Universal, so it's odd he's still the mascot.
Notable rides:
Uncharted, a mixed-reality coaster, which often has >2 hour queues.
Shambhala is a roller coaster in the China area. It beat three European records as it was the fastest (134 km/h) and tallest roller coaster in Europe. It is 76 m tall and had longest drop in Europe at 78 m (2 m underground).
Dragon Khan is another roller coaster in the China area. With 8 inversions, it held the record as being the roller coaster with the most inversions in the world, from 1995 to 2002.
Street Mission is an interactive Sesame Street dark ride. This is the park's main children's ride, and often has long queues. You are given 3D glasses and a "clue detector", which is basically a laser gun, but you can only shoot cookies with it, not the Sesame Street characters.
There is a train that takes you around the park. There are three stations, and you can get on and off at any of them. The train takes around 30 minutes to do a full loop of the park. It has four carriages.
Ferrari Land is next to Port Aventura, It opened in 2017.
Notable rides:
Red Force is Europe's tallest, fastest roller coaster and the second-tallest, second-fastest roller coaster in the world. It has a single-rider line that's only aroudn 5-10 minutes long.
There is a PortAventura app which gives you real-time queue times, and also a map for navigating the park.
Save money by bringing your own food with you into the park
There are water fountains around the park. Bring your own bottle.
The real-time queue times are not always accurate. 45 minutes might actually be 20 minutes, and 30 minutes might actually be an hour.
If staying at the main hotel, go to the buffet dinner as early as possible. At 7:30 PM, there is barely any queue, but by 9 PM, the queue is about an hour long.
People staying at the main hotel can enter the park half an hour early.
PortAventura's play areas are a good break from the rides. There's one in SésamoAventura, and another in China. The one in SésamoAventura is next to a train station, so your kids can play there while waiting for the train to come.
Bosc de les Escultures de Joan Carolà is a free 1 hour walk through a forest to find strange sculptures. 25-minute drive from Girona.
ParcArt is a park with a lake and different sculptures. 20-minute drive from Girona. €7 entry, children aged 0-5 enter for free.[2]parcart.net | @parcartcassa | Veïnat de Matamala 8, 17244 Cassà de la Selva
The Fundació Mona is a centre that rehabilitates abused chimpanzees and macaques. A guided tour costs €10. Website: https://fundaciomona.org. 20-minute drive from Girona
Montseny is a national park a 50-minute drive from Girona. In winter, it sometimes snows there, and can be the closest place to Girona to see snow. If the snow is unexpected then the roads might be unprepared, making driving dangerous if you don’t have snow tires. There is a restaurant there called Avet Blau. https://parcs.diba.cat/ca/web/montseny
The Ruïnes d'Empúries is the ruins of two ancient cities, one Greek and one Roman. 45-minute drive from Girona.
El Terracotta Museu de Ceràmica (Terracotta Museum) is a pottery museum in an old ceramics factory.[3] 40-minute drive from Girona.
Activ Natura is an adventure park in Santa Susanna, near Barcelona. It offers paintballing, laser combat, quad biking, ropes course. The minimum age for paintballing is 16. https://www.activnatura.com. 45-minute drive from Girona.
Magma Centre Lúdic Termal is a thermal leisure centre in Santa Coloma de Farners. It includes a central thermal pool, indoor and outdoor jacuzzis, a swimming pool, outdoor spas with waterfalls and massage jets, a children’s pool, a steam bath (hammam), dry saunas, contrast showers, and an ice pool. There is also an on-site buffet restaurant called Magnatum. https://www.magma-cat.com/@magmatermal
Balneario Vichy Catalan is a 3-star hotel in Caldes de Malavella. They have a spa.
Andorra is a 3-hour car journey from Girona. It is not part of the EU, but it uses the euro as its currency. You should switch off roaming on your phone when entering Andorra, because roaming charges are extremely high (since Andorra is not part of the EU or EEA).
Castell de Montsoriu is one of Catalonia's most impressive castles. The castle is a 40-minute drive from Girona. There is public parking but it's a 2.8 km walk (about 30 minute walk) from the castle.[4] The castle is closed to the public but you can get inside with a free tour. The tours are every weekend at 10:15 AM and 12:30 PM. You can sign up for one of the free tours (for groups of up to 8 people) at https://www.montsoriu.cat/home/jornades.
Barcelona is Spain's second-biggest city and can be reached from Girona by AVE (fast train) in just 40 minutes.
Banyoles is a nearby town with a large lake, which is nice to walk around. It's said that a dragon lives in the lake, called the drac de Banyoles. Banyoles hosted the rowing events of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Figueres is the birthplace of Salvador Dali and a 40-minute drive from Girona. It has a Salvador Dali museum called Teatro-Museo Dalí ("Dalí Theatre and Museum" in English).
Vic is a town with a population of around 50,000 people. 55-minute drive from Girona.
Vilablareix is a small town (population around 4,000[5]) and a 10-minute drive from GIrona.
BesalúBesalú is a medieval town a 35-minute drive from Girona. It has a picturesque Romanesque bridge. One of its attractions is a circus museum called Circusland. It used to be the Museum of Miniatures and Microminiatures but this closed in 2019.[6]
Santa Coloma de Farners (sometimes shortened to SaCoFa)
Sant Martí de Llémena is a 30-minute drive from Girona.
Sant Llorenç de la Muga is a town about an hour drive from Girona.[7]
Lloret de Mar is a tourist town on the Costa Brava, famous (or infamous?) for its nightlife, discos, and nightclubs. There’s a bus that goes from Lloret dr Mar to Girona.
Cadaqués (or "Dali-town" as we call it) is a seaside town famous for being the place where Salvador Dali lived. It has a Salvador Dali museum called Casa-Museo Salvador Dalí.
Scenic, rocky coves, less sand, more charm.
If you go in July or August, get there early, because around 12 pm to 1 pm, they close the road that enters the town to tourists to prevent gridlock (Cadaqués is quite small).[8]
Empuriabrava is a boat town. It has 25 kilometres of canals, which is about half the canals in Venice. Wikipedia calls it a "residential marina" and says Empuriabrava is "the largest residential marina in Europe". It also has a lot of parking spaces. Every single road has free parking spaces along it.
