Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain
TL;DR I really enjoyed Spain and as an American tourist I felt like we were able to have safe and fun experiences at a fair price with outstanding weather. I highly recommend each of you to put Spain and Tarragona at the top of your travel list if you have not visited yet.
We are sitting on Carnival Pride at the moment looking at the beautiful Spanish coastline and we realized we never shared a post about Tarragona! We had a wonderful time and wanted to be sure to capture our experience before we move on to other places.
In a few brief conversations we had while staying in Tarragona, local Tarragonians were surprised to hear that we’re visiting this city from America. I relay that I don’t like Barcelona. It gets a chuckle but also a knowing head nod… Barcelona is pretty, but it’s a Mecca for tourists and it’s quite expensive.
Tarragona has tourist attractions (pretty big ones actually!) but was the perfect city to stay in while waiting to board our next cruise ship.
What can you see there?
The Rambla Nova provides hours of strolling pleasure for people-watching, shopping, dining, and general exercise.
The beach scene is easily accessible to the city. In a few short minutes you can be sitting on soft, golden sand or frolicking in the water of Playa Miracle. There are also several great beaches that you can drive to, or if you’re up to it, walk there.
Most visitors seem to be here for the ancient Roman ruins. It’s one of the things that drew me here as well. There are several well-preserved sites that you can walk through. Funny enough, modern Tarragona is built into and around them. One evening, we stopped for a drink at a local craft beer place. We were on a patio drinking a West Coast IPA, brewed by Catalonians, just a few feet away from 2000 year old Roman ruins: a few feet away was the north section of the circus where the chariots raced. So awesome! We are not sure at what point this will stop being novel, but we are consistently amazed at how modern and historic buildings mesh together.
What’s the food like?
Delicious. Especially if you’re into seafood, ham and cheese, also potatoes.
Breakfast was typically a small pastry and coffee for around 2€.
We dined at sidewalk cafes or picked up items for beach picnics. The Central Market (similar to the one we visited in Valencia) housed a variety of vendors selling fresh fish, meats, cheese, many hams, and fruits and vegetables.
I fell in love with the Bikini. It’s a basic sandwich and they even cut off the crust just like how Nanny made my sandwiches when I was a little girl. This bougie version was made with ham, cheese, and truffles!
What was our Airbnb like?
We rented a great place right next to the train station. This put us about 10 minutes from the city center and only 5 minutes from the beach. The apartment was cute and nicely decorated. It felt really “homey” and was perfect for us. There were four(!) ways to brew coffee (we chose Nespresso), and a full kitchen for us to keep our ham and vermouth cold.
What did we miss?
There were two places that were on our list that we didn’t end up getting to visit.
1. Ferrari Land at PortAventura World. Home of Red Force, the fourth tallest roller coaster in the world, and a sister coaster to Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. This theme park is only about 15 minutes away from Tarragona in another beach town called Salou, just one train stop away. That area has more hotels and seemed like a fun beachy place if staying at a resort is more your style.
2. Priorat wine region. Priorat is too rural to try to visit without a car. Tours are available but they were expensive and we were looking at the last minute. The countryside appears picturesque, so we will squeeze it in next time!