My wife and I will be in Barcelona in early August and we are planning on visiting some of the nearby wine regions such as Priorat, Rioja and Navarra. I am hoping that someone on the forum has visited these areas and could recommend wineries to visit and/or other attractions in the wine regions that they particularly enjoyed.

I visited a number of wineries in Priorat 2 years ago. The area is beautiful and the wines generally excellent. You'll also love Barcelona. We'll be back there in just under two weeks. Do a search for Barcelona on this site and you'll find a lot of information.

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Didn't do any wine region stuff when I was there, but unless you are seriously averse for some reason, make sure you go to all the important art destinations (Dali museum, Miro museum, the park with all the Gaudis...) Really incredible stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by winetarelli:
Didn't do any wine region stuff when I was there, but unless you are seriously averse for some reason, make sure you go to all the important art destinations (Dali museum, Miro museum, the park with all the Gaudis...) Really incredible stuff.

Interesting! The wife and I are considering Barcelona as a base for our first European vacation next year. It sounds like a lot of people have been there and recommend it from this board.

I did a search and found a ton of recommendations, but I didn't see anything about traveling in the area. We are considering traveling to Valencia, Pamplona, maybe San Sebastion and hopefully Paris for a few days from Barcelona. Does anyone have information as to the best means of travel out of Barcelona? How are the roads? Is it worth it to rent a car and drive? Can you take trains to some of these places? Can you take a train from Barcelona to Paris?

Your help is much appreciated!

Roads around Barcelona are fine. If you're driving west/south, the toll road's great.

Thanks Board-O, do you know how the trains are for traveling to France or Italy?

No, I've never taken a train in Europe.

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Originally posted by Board-O:
No, I've never taken a train in Europe.

Really? That kind of surprises me. You've traveled so much in Europe I would have just assumed you would have traveled by train at least some of the time.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
No, I've never taken a train in Europe.

anyone?

I took an overnight train from Barcelona to Cinque Terre via Milan in 2003. If you've never done it, you gotta try it. Sleeper class that was the size of your bathroom with bunk beds, a shower, and toilet. The price came with 3 course dinner. Unfortunately, the dining car wasn't smoke-free.

Eurorail and the Spanish lines are super. Clean, quiet, and well run. Have taken rail between major cities in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland etc.

Only way to go.

We enjoyed Valencia - I actually prefer Madrid to Barcelona - but that is just me.

Never traveled from country to country, but within Spain the trains are fine. Get your tickets in advance as some of the stations ticket lines are sort of ridiculous if you need to get them from a person.

Also - Spain is quite huge - we flew rather than training for part of our trip - ie. train from Madrid to Sevilla via Cordoba - flew from Sevilla to Valencia - drove to Barcelona via Priorat and Tarragona.

Board-O: Thanks for the great links. Looks like you had an amazing experience in Priorat. Where did you stay while you were there?

Don't miss San Sebastian. It is one of my favorite places in Europe. Also, the Dali museum in Figueres is great.

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Originally posted by wet:
Board-O: Thanks for the great links. Looks like you had an amazing experience in Priorat. Where did you stay while you were there?

We took a suite here. I'd go back.

Does anyone have any comments on the Sant Marti area with respect to hotels? We will be going to Spain next month and will spend a few days in Barcelona. There is a 4.5 star hotel on Hotwire for a reasonable price in the Forum-Sant Marti area. Looking at some maps it doesn't look that far from the (adjacent?) old city and some of the hotels I could find appear to be on the water. TIA for any thoughts/comments.

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Originally posted by Jcocktosten:
We enjoyed Valencia - I actually prefer Madrid to Barcelona - but that is just me.

Never traveled from country to country, but within Spain the trains are fine. Get your tickets in advance as some of the stations ticket lines are sort of ridiculous if you need to get them from a person.

Also - Spain is quite huge - we flew rather than training for part of our trip - ie. train from Madrid to Sevilla via Cordoba - flew from Sevilla to Valencia - drove to Barcelona via Priorat and Tarragona.

It's not just you Jcocktosten, I also preferred Madrid over Barcelona. The latter is a great city and the Gaudi architecture is unique and cool, but Madrid was more fun and the food is better.

You got that right about it being a big country too. Next time we go back, it will be for at least 3 weeks, which still isn't enough to do it justice.

BTW, for future reference to anyone interested, we stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar in Barcelona. A Hotwire deal for US$140 per night. The hotel is not in the old part of town, but it's a 5 minute walk to a subway station, which is 6 stops from Jaume I. Really easy. Highly recommended and for that price you won't get a better room in the city.

If it is where I think it is - there is also a killer wine store nearby - we picked up a Trio Infernal there

Hi MLV. It's near the El Maresme-Forum subway stop, if that rings a bell. Where Diagonal meets the Mediterranean. I didn't find the wine shop, but we didn't explore the area around the hotel that much.

Got it - the store was the same one in your Madrid thread - not too far from the big Corte Ingles department store