Barcelona and Girona in 7 Days: A Day-by-Day Itinerary

Spain · 7 days

Four days of Gaudí houses, markets and evenings in the old quarters — all on foot and by metro.

Day by day

Day 1 · 3 placesLanding and a first evening on La Rambla

airport → center: Aerobús or metro L9, 35–45 min

La Rambla
A mile of plane trees, living statues and flower stalls running from Plaça de Catalunya down to the sea. This is where you meet the city — and where you keep your bag in front of you.
Aeroport Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (BCN)
This is where you land. The Aerobús reaches Plaça de Catalunya in 35 minutes; metro L9 is cheaper but needs a change.
Mercat de la Boqueria
A market under an iron roof right off La Rambla: jamón, oysters, cups of cut fruit. The back rows are cheaper and better than the first.

Day 2 · 4 placesGaudí: Sagrada Família and the Eixample

one neighborhood all day, 10–15 minutes between houses

Basílica de la Sagrada Família
They have been building this basilica since 1882, and that is not a figure of speech — the cranes are still up. Inside is a forest of stone trees and windows that flood the nave orange by late afternoon.
Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau
A hospital built as twenty mosaic pavilions in a park, on the theory that patients heal better among gardens. Ten minutes from the Sagrada Família and four times emptier.
Casa Batlló
The dragon house on Passeig de Gràcia: scaled roof, bone-shaped columns, not one straight line. The ticket is steep, but the audio guide shows the house as its owners lived in it.
Casa Milà · La Pedrera
A stone wave with chimney warriors on the roof. The roof is the reason to come — it opens by day and again in the evening under lights.

Day 3 · 4 placesPark Güell and the modernists

park on the hill, then downhill on foot or by metro

Park Güell
Gaudí’s failed housing estate, now a park: the serpent bench in broken tile, the gingerbread gatehouses, and the whole city laid out below the terrace.
Casa Vicens
Gaudí’s first house, 1885: no waves yet, but every inch in green tile with marigolds. Opened to the public only in 2017, and there is no line.
Palau de la Música Catalana
A 1908 concert hall with a stained-glass sun coming through the ceiling — the second reason in this city to say “you can build like that.” Tours daily, but a concert is better.
Parc de la Ciutadella
The city park, with a waterfall a young Gaudí had a hand in and rowboats on the pond. This is where you catch your breath between museums.

Day 4 · 6 placesThe Gothic Quarter and the sea

the old town on foot, the beach toward evening

Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia
The Gothic cathedral keeps thirteen geese in its cloister, one for each year of the martyr Eulàlia’s life. An elevator goes up to the roof.
Palau Güell
Gaudí’s first big commission, a palace in an alley off La Rambla: dark inside, with colored mushroom chimneys on the roof. Easy to fit into the last day — ten minutes by metro from Sants.
Plaça del Rei
A stone well of a square where, the story goes, the monarchs received Columbus after the first voyage. A whole Roman city sits underneath, entered through the history museum.
Museu Picasso
Five medieval palaces holding the early Picasso — what he painted as a teenager in this city, long before cubism. Closed Mondays.
Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar
A church the port workers carried on their own backs for fifty years in the 1300s, hauling stone from the quarry by hand. Inside it is empty and very tall.
Barceloneta
The old sailors’ quarter and the city beach right behind it: narrow streets with laundry overhead, then sand and sea ten minutes later.

Day 5 · 5 placesTrain to Girona and a first evening by the river

Barcelona-Sants → Girona, 38 minutes on the fast train

Cases de l'Onyar
Yellow, red and ochre houses hanging straight over the water — the picture of Girona. Look from the bridges, best in the last hour of light.
Catedral de Girona
Ninety steps up, and then the widest Gothic nave in the world — 23 meters without a single column. Inside hangs the Tapestry of Creation from around 1100.
Estació de Barcelona-Sants
The city’s main station, where the fast train to Girona leaves. Come twenty minutes early — bags go through a scanner.
Estació de Girona
Girona’s station. The old town is a 15-minute walk across the bridge; a taxi is pointless.
Rambla de la Llibertat
The main walking street under stone arcades: cafés, shops, and the whole town out for the evening. This is where Girona has dinner.

Day 6 · 6 placesAll of Girona: walls, cathedral, Jewish quarter

the whole day inside the old walls

Passeig de la Muralla
A walk along the top of the 9th-century wall around the whole old town: towers, gardens below, mountains on the horizon. Free, and no shade whatsoever.
Pont de les Peixateries Velles
The red iron bridge Eiffel’s company built two years before his tower. This is where the photo of the river houses comes from.
Call Jueu · Museu d'Història dels Jueus
One of the best-preserved Jewish quarters in Europe: staircases a meter wide and a museum of the community expelled in 1492.
Basílica de Sant Feliu
A church with a chopped-off bell tower two minutes from the cathedral: Roman sarcophagi set into the walls and a 14th-century stone Christ inside.
Banys Àrabs
Romanesque baths from the 1100s built on an Arab plan: eight columns around a pool and light falling from the dome. Small, and very quiet.
Monestir de Sant Pere de Galligants
A 12th-century Romanesque monastery outside the old wall, now the archaeology museum. The cloister with its carved capitals is the best part.

Day 7 · 1 placeBack to Barcelona and the flight home

Girona → Barcelona-Sants 38 min, then out to the airport

Estació de Barcelona-Sants
The train from Girona comes back to the same station. Leave the suitcases in the lockers and spend the last hours light.