When the mountains are calling, you have to listen. This fall, after living in Barcelona for two months, I had to get out of the city. Fortunately, a friend of mine had already booked a trip with Get Your Guide and invited me to tag along. Now, I had never used Get Your Guide before nor had I really booked trips through organizations. I’m a DIY/budget/go with the flow traveler at my core. I love to find a good deal and wing it. However, I had two reasons that encouraged me to pay 109 euros for this day trip. Well, three. First, my friend was already going. Second, it was my birth month so I had a “treat yourself” mentality. Third and most importantly, it’s a bit trickier to plan a day trip to the mountains when you don’t have a car and I really really wanted to see the Pyrenees this fall. The experience was fantastic in many ways—but if you’re considering a trip to the Pyrenees, should you go guided or DIY? Here’s my honest review and what I’d recommend.

We met in the heart of Barcelona, not far from the Palau de la Musica Catalana early in the morning where we were greeted by a gregarious older man who kept pretending he had already met everyone, just a hint of the personality he would be giving the rest of the tour with. My friend and I felt young because we were the babies of the group. Ours was a blend of mostly middle-aged to older people from a variety of countries. Everyone was traveling with someone (just a PSA for solo travelers that maybe there won’t always be other solo travelers to befriend).

After our small tour bus made its way out of the city, we were rolling on our way to Vic, a beautiful medieval town about an hour to the north of Barcelona. Our guide took us on a quick tour around town and introduced its history. Vic was founded in the first century AD by the Romans and has seen a variety of influences over the centuries. Fun fact: Vic (and Catalonia as a whole) was under Ottoman rule for less time than other parts of Spain, contributing to Catalonia’s distinct culture. The architecture in the town was lovely, with layers of its history visible in its buildings with romanesque architecture and modernism co-existing.

*the paintings, the columns, the dark wood… I was obsessed*

The highlights were the cathedral and the market. Now, after living in Spain for nearly two and a half years, I have nearly gotten to the point where if you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all (after all, La Seu in Mallorca with its rose windows stole my heart a long time ago and I see La Sagrada Familia every time I leave my house). This one was pretty on the outside, but fine. The building had a lovely blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque influences. However, the crown jewel was the paintings inside by Josep M. Sert, painted in the early part of the 20th century. They took my breath away honestly, and paintings don’t usually have that effect on me.

*a little merienda of Vic sponge (pa de pessic) while waiting for the rack railway*

Then we were off on our own with a whopping one hour of free time. Lunch was not provided on this tour so we were left with three options: have an early American-schedule lunch in Vic, buy some local goods for a picnic, or wait to eat something at the restaurant in the mountains. We didn’t really make a choice and just winged it, ultimately having a picnic on the mountain with things bought from the gift shop (more on that later). It was a market day, so we wandered the market instead. It was a normal Spanish market, but the things that stuck out to me were the vast quantity of mushrooms being sold. It really let you know you were in a mountain town in the autumn. I wished I had the ability to bring the delicate things back with me, but oh well. There were so many clothes, so much produce, and so much fuet, but we indulged in the local pastries. We split melindros and pa de pessic, light pastries perfect for dipping in coffee on a crisp day. The first I would equate to lady fingers and the second to a sponge cake. They were delicious. I also wanted to get fuet (a typical cured meat in the region), but I didn’t have a knife and didn’t want to just start gnawing on it.

Then quickly enough it was time to get back on the bus and head to Vall de Nuria. The whole trip was worth it by the luxury of being able to stare out the window at the mountains with Lord Huron playing through my headphones. A lovely drive later, we arrived at a small rack railway station to take us to the valley. And oh that was a gorgeous train trip. We climbed through the mountains and then passed through a tunnel that came out on a large lake cradled in the mountains. The Vall de Nuria is also a ski resort. Unfortunately, there was the stark reminder of climate change as our guide told us there usually was already snow by that time of year and there was nothing. We were given some options, but there wasn’t really much time to devote to many things (hiking, lunch, the cable cars…). My friend and I were ambitious so we hit the ground running, speed walking down the trail to the other side of the lake, taking some pictures and booking it back. Our plans to get lunch from the place’s limited restaurant were foiled by long and incredibly slow lines, so we got some snacks from the gift shop and were first in line for the cable car after their lunch break. The views were amazing, but we didn’t linger long. We took some pictures and came right back down, hoping to try the restaurant again. Thank God we barely had time to get a couple sandwiches and scarf down half before meeting the tour guide.

From the Vall de Nuria, we took the rack railway back down and had a stroll through the lovely stone mountain town of Queralbs, where we just walked through the town, took some pictures, and then walked back and got back on the bus. I swear that stone buildings surrounded by mountains are the best aesthetic. It was tiny, but beautiful. It made me a bit homesick for a place that isn’t even my home because it reminded me of Gatlinburg, Tennessee (a whopping eight hours by car from my house). After living on a Mediterranean island for two years, the mere presence of tall trees, rocky streams, and wood and stone buildings make me miss Tennessee.

Review

The Pyrenees Mountains Day Tour was an incredibly convenient way to see the mountains from Barcelona. Your transportation is organized, itinerary planned, and you’re accompanied by a knowledgeable tour guide. I thoroughly enjoyed the excursion and would recommend it to anyone looking for a convenient, stress-free way to visit the Pyrenees from Barcelona. All you need to know is that you’d like to see the mountains and show up, they handle everything else. I’d recommend this tour to anyone looking for a seamless experience.

Thoughts

However, if you are like me and prefer the build-your-own adventure approach, rent a car. The tour was great, but I personally would have preferred to have more time to actually do a hike (hiking was advertised and I do not consider walking around a flat lake a hike unless you are 80). Vic is about an hour and a half train from Barcelona and is about an hour by car. Vall de Nuria is not accessible by public transport, but it looked like a beautiful area for a road trip and to go by car as much as you can (there comes a point where rack railway or hiking is the only way to continue). There’s nothing like driving through the mountains with The Lumineers playing through your speakers. All in all, the tour was mostly paying for the accessibility to these places. While the guide was informative, if you’re feeling adventurous and want more freedom, look into renting a car.