Route 01 · Garraf · south of Barcelona
The Garraf coast road to Sitges
Eighty-six corners carved into a cliff, twenty minutes from the hotel.
- Round trip
- 110 km
- Driving time
- 2 h
- Roads
- C-32 · C-31 Costes del Garraf
- High point
- Sea level to 150 m, never far from the water
- Best season
- All year; weekday mornings for an empty road
- Difficulty
- Easy
Why it makes the list
- 23 km of cliff road between Castelldefels and Sitges with about 86 curves
- The Mediterranean below you for the whole stretch
- Lunch on the Sitges seafront, back in Barcelona by mid-afternoon
The Costes del Garraf road is the closest thing Barcelona has to a coast road from a film: the C-31 leaves Castelldefels and is immediately cut into limestone above the sea, with a wall on one side, a drop on the other and a corner every 270 metres on average. It was built in the early twentieth century, and nobody would build it that way now.
It is short, which is the point. Leave the hotel after breakfast, take the C-32 motorway to Castelldefels, turn onto the C-31 and drive the 23 km slowly, because the road is narrow, popular with cyclists and patrolled. The Turbo S in Normal mode with the windows down is the right way to do it. Stop at the Mirador del Garraf for the view back along the cliffs.
Sitges is a seafront lunch: the Passeig Marítim, the white church of Sant Bartomeu on the rocks, the narrow streets behind it. Return on the C-32 for a fast run home, or repeat the coast road in the other direction, which is a different road with the sea on the passenger side.
The road is at its best early on a weekday morning. On summer weekends the traffic is constant and the fun is gone; treat it as a way to get to lunch rather than a drive.
Stops, in order
- 1. Mirador del Garraf
- 2. Port Ginesta
- 3. Sitges old town and Passeig Marítim
