Catalonia travel guide: when to go, what to see and how to plan it

Barcelona needs three full days. The Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Batllo and La Pedrera all require a timed ticket bought online, often several days ahead. The Gothic Quarter and El Born are walked on foot, between the cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar and the Picasso Museum. Montjuïc gathers the national art museum, the Miro Foundation and the Olympic stadium. To unwind, the Barceloneta beach or the more local Gracia district. Watch for pickpockets on the Ramblas and in the metro.

From Blanes to Cap de Creus, the Costa Brava alternates schist cliffs, pine woods and coves. The cami de ronda, a former customs path, links Calella de Palafrugell, Llafranc and Tamariu on foot in a few hours. To the north, the Cap de Creus natural park ends the Iberian peninsula in a chaos of rock, with Cadaques and Dali's house at Portlligat. The Medes Islands marine reserve offer the best diving on the Catalan coast. July and August are packed, so prefer June or September. See the dedicated region of the Costa Brava.

Girona lines its colourful houses above the Onyar, keeps one of Europe's best-preserved Jewish quarters, so-called Arab baths and a walkway along the ramparts. Its cathedral steps stood in for scenes in Game of Thrones. Forty minutes away, Figueres holds the Dali Theatre-Museum, Catalonia's most visited, which the artist conceived as a total work. The circuit is completed by the castle of Pubol, given to Gala, in an Emporda of vineyards and stone villages.

To the south, Tarragona was Tarraco, capital of the Roman province. An amphitheatre facing the sea, a circus, a forum, the Pont del Diable aqueduct and the Passeig Arqueologic along the walls make up a UNESCO-listed set seen in a day. The flatter, family-friendly Costa Daurada adds the PortAventura park, the seaside and festival town of Sitges, and the Ebro delta, a huge wetland of rice fields and flamingos, best explored by bike.

The Catalan slope of the Pyrenees suits winter skiing, at Baqueira-Beret in the Val d'Aran, and summer hiking. The Aigüestortes National Park and its Sant Maurici lake concentrate high-altitude lakes and peaks. The Boi valley keeps nine UNESCO-listed Romanesque churches with tower belfries. The road-free Vall de Nuria is reached by a rack railway from Ribes de Freser and serves as a base for walks to the glacial cirques.

An hour from Barcelona, the Montserrat mountain raises its pinnacles above a Benedictine monastery where the Black Madonna is venerated and the Escolania, one of Europe's oldest choirs, sings. To the south, the Penedes produces most of Spain's cava, tasted in the cellars of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia. Inland, Vic holds one of Catalonia's finest markets, and the Valls area celebrates the calçotada, a meal of grilled sweet onions, from January to March.