It is no secret that I travelled extensively at the beginning of the year. I was fortunate enough to see many new European countries and cities, and among all the travelling, one of my favourite trips this year was my trip to Spain with my two friends, Christina and Izzy.
Izzy, myself, and Christina in front of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
Like most people, Spain has always been on my bucket list of places to travel, with Barcelona being the main attraction. So, you can imagine how excited I was when I booked a plane ticket to the Catalonia region.
Spain was my last big European trip before I came back home to Canada, so I wanted this trip to be perfect. Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect trip, even if Instagram may show people how picture-perfect it looks, but my trip to Spain was pretty darn close.
I have so much I want to write about during my trip to Spain that I will divide it into a few blog posts. This blog post will mainly be about the planning that went into this trip. The others will be about what I did when I was in Spain, so stay tuned for those!
I was only in Spain for four days. It was a short trip, but most of my European travel was never more than 4-5 days because of my schooling in the Netherlands (with Portugal, Switzerland & Italy being the exception). However, even though I wasn't in Spain for long, I took advantage of my time there by seeing three cities without completely draining myself of exhaustion.
I feel that is a common mistake when travelling in Europe. There is so much to see, and you can easily fall into the trap of wanting to see it all but then end up draining yourself on the long train rides, lugging around suitcases, and heat exhaustion all just for an Instagram picture or the bragging rights of saying "I've been to this place."
I've fallen into that trap more than once before, so I was adamant about not wanting that to happen with my trip to Spain.
Initially, Christina, Izzy, and I planned to stay in Barcelona for all four days while we were there. Barcelona is a beautiful city, and I recommend travelling there if you get the chance; however, it is costly compared to the rest of Spain, so be prepared. It won't be a cheap travel. This reason was our motivation when we decided to change our plans and stay in a smaller town close to Barcelona and only make a day trip to Barcelona. We researched, comparing the costs of staying in Barcelona versus a smaller town and the potential experiences we could have in each location. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make to save a little bit of coin and see another city in Catalonia.
Like most university student intellects, if you need answers, you don't go to Google nowadays; you go to TikTok.
Christina, Izzy, and I sat in our kitchen without laptops and phones, scrolling on TikTok to find smaller beach towns near Barcelona where we could stay. That's when Izzy came across Tossa de Mar, about an hour and 15 minutes drive North of Barcelona.
Now, this place was beautiful. It was small, cute, not too touristy, and not very expensive. This little town checked off the boxes in our heads, and we quickly looked for hostels in the area. The only problem was that we had already booked our flight to Barcelona airport, and we were arriving at night, so there would not be any trains or public transport heading to Tossa de Mar when we needed to get there. That led us to another idea of renting a car.
Renting a car in Spain was a game changer. I didn't realize how much relief it would be not having to rely on public transportation. As a Canadian who only takes the Burlington Go Train maybe three times a year, I know that sometimes public transit and trains can be overwhelming, especially in Europe. Even though I have become very familiar with how the system works in Europe, every country is different and, most of the time, never in English. So, for a short trip like Barcelona, having a car was convenient because we could drive to Tossa de Mar and Barcelona and still have the extra energy to drive to another city in Catalonia, Girona.
You're probably thinking, why would you rent a car if the whole point was to try to save money by not staying in Barcelona? Renting a car wasn't like a 'cheap alternative'; it's expensive to rent a car, but in our eyes, it was worth it because we had the freedom to go anywhere in Catalonia during the four days we were in Spain and didn't have to worry about missing any trains and getting stranded somewhere. We considered the cost of the car rental against the convenience and flexibility it would provide. Having the car preserved a lot of our energy, and we were willing to do a lot more.
That is what made my Spain trip stand out amongst my other trips. In Tossa de Mar and Girona, we weren't part of any big tourist crowds, and nothing felt Americanized or like a vast tourist trap. If we hadn't rented a car and only stayed in Barcelona, we would have never got to experience Tossa de Mar and Girona.
The one day we spent in Barcelona was enough for me. I loved the city, saw the main attractions, and got a feel for it. We visited the iconic Sagrada Familia, strolled along the bustling La Rambla, and enjoyed authentic Spanish cuisine. However, although the city is beautiful, the vibe there for tourists isn't as welcoming compared to other big European cities, which shocked me. There has been a rise in protests in Barcelona because of the cost of housing due to mass tourism. Although we didn't witness any protests, I did see a few signs and posters around the city. That was something I had in mind when I went there, and in the end, I was happy to be there just for the day.
Even though I was there for just one day, I have so much I want to share from that day trip to Barcelona, so my next blog post will be all about that! I'll also discuss Tossa de Mar and Girona in future blog posts, so stay tuned for all the Spanish content coming your way!
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