This is a private trip with mainly private tours where these are included. The Gaudí night visit will be shared with other visitors, but we promise they won't bite.

The simplest way is to fly into and out of Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN).

But you may also want to consider taking the train to Spain from Paris, from where it's a six-hour ride through the French countryside and across the Pyrenees to reach Barcelona. We work with a lovely hotel right by the Gare de Lyon station to make life easy if you want to stay a night or two in the French capital.

It's a journey which works well either before or after the trip - if you'd like to know more or discuss ideas, just let us know when you send an inquiry.

Whilst Barcelona and Girona are year-round destinations, the Costa Brava is best visited between April and October. Spring and fall are always going to be the very best times, with warm weather, consistently low rainfall, fewer crowds and fairly long days. The summer can be hot, hot, hot and it's also when the Spanish holidaymakers are on the move, so it can be busy too. So we prefer to steer clear of July and August.

We spend a great deal of time visiting, staying in and getting to know the best hotels in each area we visit. The hotels we have selected for this trip tend towards the premium end of the scale, which is to say they are all very lovely without being overly luxurious or expensive for the sake of it.

Please inquire for full details of where you stay.

The activity level on this trip is generally decided by you as you go, but it's designed to get you out and about exploring, with plenty of downtime in between.

In Barcelona, you'll put a good few kms on the clocks of your shoes. We provide a self-guided route which can be a half or full-day activity. We also give instructions on how to download a rather brilliant audio tour on your smartphone, which sends you down sidestreets and round corners using your phone's GPS. In both cases, you can walk as much as you want and take a break whenever the mood takes you. If you just want to watch the world go by from a bustling terrace or seaview hangout, you can go do just that.

The eBike excursion is designed for everyone. As long as you can ride a bike in a straight line, you'll be fine. Having a private guide means you can adapt things to you, so if you want to cover less ground and spend more time in one specific area, that's usually just fine.

On the coast, we still provide plenty of ways for you to get out and about walking, but generally the pace is a little slower. The walks we provide notes for are around 6-10km in length, and all relatively flat. They typically take around 3-4 hours each, but it's nice to stretch them over the course of a day with stops to swim in the sea and have a bite to eat on a terrace.

Oh yes, absolutely. In many ways, this trip is designed to put you in the company of local people at every stage. That might mean a pedal through one of Barcelona's old 'village' neighborhoods with our man on the ground there or seeing Cadaqués from a local's perspective with your guide.

No, though you'll find that Catalan is actually the lingua franca in these parts. In Barcelona and Girona, you'll be just fine. The only time you might struggle is if you go to a local neighbourhood restaurant away from the tourist centre (there's a good one by Sants station). The language might be in Catalan only, though everyone speaks Spanish so if you've got some of that, this would be the time to use it.

On the coast, in smaller restaurants and villages, English is less commonly spoken. But with some basic Spanish and some pointing and gesturing, again you'll have no problems. Part of the charm is going to places where English is not the dominant language in our experience.

As part of the creation process, we have designed a 9-day version of this trip. So if you have less time to play with, the first step is simply to look at this alternative itinerary. Beyond that, we can tailor the trip in certain ways, making sure that we retain the essence of this itinerary through the pacing and content.

Using the high-speed train network, it's also easy to add time in cities such as Madrid, Seville or Paris (as mentioned above) to either end of the trip.