During our visit to Spain, we did a day trip from Barcelona to Bagà and it did not disappoint! Bagà is a small medieval town dating back to the 9th Century A.D with a population a bit over 2,000. Less than an hour and a half drive from Barcelona, you enter a completely different world. This Pyrenees town in Catalonia is the only village in the area to still have its medieval center. Baga consists of old buildings, cobblestone streets, the sound of birds chirping and barely any tourists around. It’s such a contrast to the busy city life in Barcelona.
Although Baga is one of the less common day trips, it is well worth a stop and can easily be combined with another day trip. Bagà is located on the same highway that gets you to Montserrat, Spain and the country of Andorra. It’s only a few minutes off the main highway, so it isn’t even much of a detour. It’s located about 45 minutes past the exit for Montserrat Monastery on the C-16 and it’s about an hour and 15 minutes before getting to Andorra la Vella, Andorra on the same highway. It’s quite unlikely you’ll have time to travel to all 3 places in one day unless you’re not spending much time in the other 2. However Bagà is a fairly quick stop. The main area you want to see is tiny and beautiful. You really only need about an hour there.
There’s several options to get you there. You can hire a driver, take a tour, go on the bus or rent a car and drive it yourself. The bus option takes well over 2 hours, while driving takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to drive the 76 miles. I recommend renting a car and visiting it yourself. There’s lots of rental car options in Spain and they were quite inexpensive compared to other places. I’m going to provide a map that shows you exactly all the places you want to see and considering how close they are to each other, you won’t find it difficult at all. It’s fairly simple to drive in Spain and getting to Bagà is just one highway to get you directly there. The city is located just a few minutes off that main highway and there’s plenty of free street parking for the walking portion.
I’m going to share with you everything you need to travel to Baga on your own.
HOW TO GET THERE
If you map it on your phone from Barcelona to Bagà, it’s going to take you on highway C-16. When it tells you to get off highway C-16, just follow the directions on your phone (it’s super simple) and you’re going to drive just a few minutes until you come to Avinguda del Districte Forestal. This is the main road along the edge of Bagà’s city center. You are going to park on Avinguda del Districte Forestal around the intersection of Carrer Pendis. Click here and it’ll open on your map if you’re on an iPhone. There’s free street parking all along this road. Just park wherever you find a spot (there was plenty of space the day we went). The rest of it you’re going to see by foot.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO SEE
Now walk to Carrer Pendis because that is the street you’ll walk to enter the city center just a block ahead. The city center is small, just a handful of blocks (mostly not drivable), so you’re going to walk all of this area. Circled in red is where you want to park and circled in blue is the area you want to walk around and see. The few blocks around the Centre Historic Bagà (circled in blue) is the beautiful area I took all of my photos in. This is where you want to explore.
These blocks are narrow walkways with lots of stairs and beautiful wood doors lining it. You’ll cross paths with a handful of locals that only speak Catalan and maybe a small group or two doing a tour. We saw around 15 people the entire hour and a half we were there, half of them locals hanging out outside or in the bakery and the other half were one couple (tourists) wandering the streets alone and another very small tour group. We were there at around 11 AM on a Saturday. I was expecting to see a lot more people than I did. With a population not much over 2,000 it’s not surprising that there isn’t a ton of people out and about in this small section of the city.
The only shop we saw open was a little bakery called Forn de Pa Obiols, which is right in the city center. This place is a gem! They were baking fresh bread and you could tell that it was the local spot where everyone buys their baked goods. We tried a croissant and an apple pastry that were both incredibly delicious and under 3 euros total. It doesn’t even come up if you search the name on maps, but I promise you it’s there and you can’t miss it. It’s on Carrer Major to one side of that large plaza in the city center.
This town is such a beauty and truly one of my favorite parts of our week in Spain. I love a small quiet town that isn’t overrun by tourists. It feels so authentic (unlike a lot of travel experiences). I highly recommend adding this stop if you can during your next Spain trip. The second I arrived and heard the sound of birds chirping and a creek running (this is right by where we parked), I knew I was going to love this place!
Since photography truly is my favorite form of expression, here is my photo diary of our morning in Bagà. Enjoy!!!
Last, but not least, the only family photo we took in Bagà was a selfie, since I didn’t bring a tripod on this trip. But these are my favorite people so we had to take 1 photo together.
If you make it to Bagà please let me know! I’d love to hear more about your experience in this beautiful little town. I’m certain that you’ll love it as much as I do. Also, if you’re visiting Barcelona as well (which you likely are if you’re going to Bagà), then check me out on social media where I shared tons about our trip, including favorite restaurants, rooftop bars, things to see, etc. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world so I have lots to share. I’ll be adding some more about Barcelona on here soon too. Happy Travels!!!
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