Priorat Vineyard Curves
A 404 km loop
Open this ride in the planner →
Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. 404 km round from Vilassar de Mar - plan on about 7 h 21 of riding. The stops in between: Sant Feliu de Pallerols, near Prats de Lluçanès, near Bonastre and El Prat de Llobregat. The climb of the day is la Marina del Prat Vermell. It tops out at about 1,200 m.
Roadbook
- Vilassar de Mar
fuel
Vilassar de Mar is a Maresme town with salt in its blood. It stretches along the coast northeast of Barcelona, between the railway, the main road and a broad sandy beach, with fishing boats pulled up on the sand and an old centre of narrow streets and low whitewashed houses. Behind the town, fields and greenhouses climb toward the wooded hills of the coastal range, and on a clear day you can see along the shore toward Mataró and back to Barcelona.
The town's history lies at sea. In the nineteenth century Vilassar de Mar produced many sailors and ship captains who traded with the Americas, and the town still has a maritime museum and a long tradition of nautical schools. Some of the grander houses in the centre were built with money made in Cuba and elsewhere. Today the Maresme is better known for its agriculture: strawberries, peas and especially flowers, grown in greenhouses on the slopes, and Vilassar de Mar hosts the large flower and ornamental plant market of Catalonia.
The coast road, the N-II, runs along the shore beside the railway, a slow and often congested route through a chain of towns, with traffic lights and roundabouts. It is pleasant early in the morning, with the sea on one side, but on summer weekends it is crawling with beach traffic. The C-32 motorway inland is faster and tolled on some sections. The better riding lies behind the coast, where small roads climb through the hills of the Serralada de Marina and the Montnegre-Corredor park to cols with views over the sea, before dropping into the Vallès plain.
The rides from here go north and south. The Cap de Creus ride runs up the coast through the Costa Brava, with its cliffs, coves and coastal roads, to the rocky peninsula near the French border. The Priorat ride heads the other way, past Barcelona and inland to the terraced vineyards and slate hills of one of Spain's great wine regions. Both deserve an early start to avoid the city's traffic.
Vilassar de Mar has fuel, cafes, bakeries and restaurants, many serving seafood and rice dishes. The beach is clean and popular in summer, and a swim at the end of the day is easy. Parking near the beach can be scarce in high season, but bikes usually find a spot. Keep an eye on the speed cameras along the N-II.
- Sant Feliu de Pallerols, on the way back
swim
The river Brugent runs down the Vall d'Hostoles between wooded slopes, and in summer its clear pools, gorgs in Catalan, are where the people of the valley go to cool off. The point lies near Sant Feliu de Pallerols, a small village in the Garrotxa, between Olot and Girona, and on a hot afternoon on the way back from a long ride, a dip in the river is exactly what the body asks for.
The valley follows the route of an old narrow-gauge railway, the Carrilet, which once linked Olot with Girona, and its trackbed has been turned into a greenway for walkers and cyclists, running gently downhill through the forest and past the villages. The countryside is green and lush, with oak and beech forests, meadows and old stone farmhouses, and the cliffs of the Collsacabra rise to the west.
Just to the north lies the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone, a natural park of extinct volcanoes, lava flows and beech forests around Olot. The most famous volcanoes, Santa Margarida and Croscat, are easy to visit, and the Fageda d'en Jordà, a beech forest growing on a lava flow, is particularly beautiful in autumn. The volcanic soil makes the area very fertile, and the local cuisine, known as volcanic cuisine, uses products like buckwheat, potatoes, beans and pork.
The river pools are cold, clear and often quite deep, with rocky banks, so be careful getting in and out. There are no lifeguards, and after heavy rain the river can rise quickly. The roads in the valley are pleasant, winding through the forest along the river, and the road over the Coll de Condreu to the west climbs through the cliffs of the Collsacabra with great views. Fuel and services are available in Olot and Girona, and there are bars and restaurants in the villages of the valley. The best time for a swim is from June to September.
- Food stop near Prats de Lluçanès
food
The Lluçanès is one of those Catalan districts that most visitors never find. It is a high plateau between the plains of Osona and the Berguedà mountains, a land of rolling fields, oak and pine woods, Romanesque churches and isolated farmhouses, the great stone masies that are typical of rural Catalonia. Prats de Lluçanès, a small town of a few thousand people, is its main centre.
The landscape is open and airy. From the higher points of the plateau, you can see the Pyrenees to the north, often snow-capped until late spring, and the Montseny massif to the east. The roads here wind gently through fields and forests, with long views and very little traffic. They are a joy to ride, with flowing corners and good surfaces, although some minor roads can be narrow and bumpy.
The Lluçanès has a strong rural identity. In 2023 it became its own comarca, separate from the neighbouring districts, after years of local campaigning. Its villages are quiet and traditional, with Romanesque churches scattered across the countryside, some of them over nine hundred years old. The local food is hearty: cured sausages such as fuet and llonganissa, mountain cheeses, and dishes based on pork and game.
For practical matters, Prats de Lluçanès has shops, bakeries and restaurants, while Vic, the nearest large town, has everything else. Vic is also worth a stop for its huge main square and its famous market, as well as its cured meats. Weather can be changeable on the plateau, with cool mornings and fog in winter. Take a break in Prats, enjoy a meal of local produce, and then continue towards the vineyards of the Priorat, where the roads get even more interesting.
- Photo stop near Bonastre
photo
Bonastre is a small hill village in the Baix Penedès, inland from the coast between Tarragona and Barcelona, surrounded by vineyards, olive groves and pine-covered hills. It has a castle tower, a church and narrow streets, and from its edges the views stretch over the vines to the Mediterranean. It is a quiet place, a world away from the beach resorts on the coast.
The Penedès is one of the most important wine regions of Spain, the home of cava, the sparkling wine made by the traditional method, and of many still wines. The vineyards cover the slopes in neat rows, with stone farmhouses and wineries scattered among them. El Vendrell, the main town of the district, was the birthplace of the cellist Pau Casals, and his seaside house at Sant Salvador is now a museum. Near the coast, the Arc de Berà, a Roman triumphal arch on the old Via Augusta, still stands beside the road.
The riding around Bonastre is a delight. The roads wind through the vineyards and climb into the hills, with good surfaces and light traffic. The hills of the Montmell and the roads towards the Priorat offer more challenging curves and higher altitudes. In summer, the heat can be intense, and the roads near the coast are busy with tourists. In spring and autumn, the weather is ideal, and the vineyards are at their most beautiful.
Do not expect a pump in Bonastre. El Vendrell or the other towns of the Penedès covers fuel and food. A meal in a local restaurant, with grilled meats, seafood and a glass of local wine for the evening, is a classic experience. The Priorat lies to the south-west, with steep vineyards and some of the most winding roads in Catalonia.
- Near El Prat de Llobregat
finish
The Llobregat delta is flat, green and noisy in equal measure. Jets climb out of Barcelona's airport over the sea, the city's port stretches along the coast to the north, and between them lie fields of artichokes, orchards, marshes and pine-backed beaches.
The delta was built by the river over thousands of years, a fertile plain that fed Barcelona for centuries. Two local products are famous: the artichokes of El Prat, sold under their own protected name, and the Prat chicken, a breed with distinctive blue legs that is a Christmas delicacy in Catalonia. In the early 2000s the mouth of the Llobregat was shifted south to make room for the port's expansion, one of the larger engineering projects on this coast.
Nature hangs on in surprising ways. The Delta del Llobregat nature reserves protect marshes, lagoons and pine woods by the beach, with hides where you can watch herons, egrets, waders and other birds, and the area is an important stop on migration routes. The beaches of El Prat are long, open and often almost empty compared with those of the city, with dunes and pines behind them, though the roar of planes is constant.
For riders, the delta is mainly a place to begin and end. The roads are flat and straight, with roundabouts, lorries and airport traffic, and the B-22 and C-31 lead quickly onto the motorways. Head north and west toward the Pyrenees and the N-260, or south along the coast toward Tarragona and the Priorat. Within an hour the delta's flatness is behind you and the first hills begin to climb.
El Prat has fuel, cafes and supermarkets, and the town centre has restaurants serving Catalan food, including the local artichokes in season, which runs roughly from late autumn to spring. Gavà and Viladecans to the south also have every service. Wind can be strong on the open delta, especially in the afternoon when the sea breeze picks up, and the area around the airport is heavily policed, with speed cameras on the main roads. Keep it gentle until you reach the mountains.
- Castelldefels
scenic
Castelldefels is where Barcelona goes to the beach, and where the coast suddenly stops being flat. Behind the town's long sandy shore, the limestone hills of the Garraf massif rise abruptly, and just south of town the coast road begins its famous run along the cliffs to Sitges. A castle on a small hill, rebuilt many times, gives the town its name and keeps watch over the plain of the Llobregat delta to the north.
The beach is the heart of the place, several kilometres of fine sand with chiringuitos, beach bars, and a lively crowd in summer, when kitesurfers fill the water on breezy days. Planes from Barcelona's airport pass low overhead as they climb out over the sea. Away from the beach, Castelldefels is a prosperous residential town, popular with the wealthy, including many of Barcelona's footballers.
The road to know is the C-31 south toward Sitges. Once past the last houses, it clings to the cliffs above the sea, through tunnels and around a series of tight, blind bends, with views straight down into the coves and over the water. It is narrow and busy at weekends, with cyclists and cars, and police watch it closely, so ride it calmly and enjoy the scenery rather than chasing a time. Inland, small roads climb into the Garraf Natural Park, a dry landscape of scrub, limestone and pine where you can find a Tibetan Buddhist monastery among the hills, and the Modernista wine cellars at Garraf, designed by Gaudí, stand beside the coast road.
The rides from here go in very different directions. The Priorat ride heads southwest along the coast and inland to the slate vineyards and mountain villages behind Tarragona, while the Cap de Creus ride runs northeast past Barcelona to the rocky peninsula near the French border, where the Pyrenees meet the sea and Dalí made his home at Portlligat.
Castelldefels has everything: fuel, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, many serving paella and seafood on the beachfront. Traffic on the C-32 motorway and around the town can be heavy in summer and at rush hour, and parking near the beach in July and August is a challenge, though bikes usually have more options. For the best of the coast road, go early in the morning, when the light is soft and the traffic is still asleep.
- la Marina del Prat Vermell
pass
This is not the Barcelona of postcards, and that is half its charm for a rider. La Marina del Prat Vermell sits on the flat ground between the southern slope of Montjuïc and the Zona Franca, the city's great industrial and logistics zone, with the port cranes on one side, warehouses and new apartment blocks on the other, and the motorway ring roads that make escape from the city fast. It is a neighbourhood in transition, long a pocket of workers' housing among factories, now slowly being rebuilt.
Look up and the mountain tells a better story. Montjuïc's seaward face is covered by the Montjuïc cemetery, a vast terraced city of tombs and mausoleums that steps down toward the port, a strange and moving sight from the road below. Above it sits the castle, which held prisoners through several wars and was where the Catalan president Lluís Companys was executed in 1940. And for motorcyclists the mountain has its own legend: its park roads were home to the 24 Horas de Montjuïc endurance race for decades, and Grand Prix cars raced there until the 1970s. You can still ride the climb past the Olympic stadium and the gardens, with the city spread below.
From here the rides head out fast. The Ronda Litoral and the B-10 connect to the motorways west and north, the A-2 and AP-7, which lead toward the Priorat and the Pyrenees. Traffic in and around Barcelona is dense and aggressive, scooters filter everywhere, and the ring roads have speed cameras and variable limits, so stay alert. Early on a weekend morning the industrial streets are nearly empty, which makes it one of the calmer places in the city to start a long day.
The Priorat ride is a world away from these warehouses: dark slate hills, terraced vines and village churches inland from Tarragona, with some of the best small roads in Catalonia. The N-260 weekend climbs the length of the Pyrenees, a famously winding road with mountain towns and long views. Both deserve an early start and a full tank.
There are fuel stations along the main avenues of the Zona Franca, and the neighbouring areas of la Marina de Port and Poble-sec have bars and cafes for a coffee and a bocadillo before you go. For a longer pause, take the bike up Montjuïc for a view across the port, which is especially good at sunset when you return.
- Back to Vilassar de Mar
finish
Back at Priorat Vineyard. That is the ride.