Tarragona Sports & Outdoors

Take time to meander - losing yourself in the maze of alleys, streets and lanes is one of the Old Town´s principal pleasures. The streets wind and wander with no discerrible order or object. We rewarded ourselves with a cool cup of gelato for our effort! But you won´t do justice to the entire city of Tarragona whenever you won´t visit other parts. So ... do meander, because the cluster of sights around Placa Imperial Tarraco are hearthclutchingly beautiful, and the more secret pleasures of the hushed backstreets are just entrancing.

There are trully more than enough vibrant cultural scenes to see, like the ruins of Theatre Roma and for example the great arena Placa de Braus. Via Forum Local Roma, Placa Corsini, with its beautiful Mercat Central, we ended up at the Rambla Nova, which is probably the most important street of Tarragona. It lead to a great viewing point called Balco de Mediterrani, where we could get great views at the lower parts of the city. All this may seem very though as finding your way in Tarragona might be difficult, but in really distances are short and the signs will help you in getting around. Enjoy!

Equipment: Have a look at Tarragona Packing List.

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Most people try to rush Tarragona on a budget so they end up missing some of the highlights in a whirlwind. The key to seeing Tarragona properly is a game plan, you must know what you want to see before setting out. Before we visited Tarragona we saw on a city map that the small town of Tarragona is divided into three areas - the historical old town, the area near Rambla Nova and the residential near Placa Imperial Tarraco. We visited the city several times, every time we hiked our way through one of the areas.

Our first hike was the old town where the city is one huge archaeological site which received the UNESCO World Heritage designation in the year 2000. It was quite strenious sometimes, but definately worth while! We started at Portal del Roser, made our way to the Correr Major (Main Street) and finally hiked way down until it ended at the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. While most tour guides don't recommend getting lost in the alley´s, this part of Tarragona is the place to get hopelessly lost for half a day. We wondered off through mysterious and steep alleyways leading us away from the crowds. We ended up at Voltes Gotiques (old medieval marketplace), Antic Hospital (beautiful Romanesque Gothic building), mazes of hilly backstreets and deserted gardens. The real Tarragona?

Equipment: Have a look at Tarragona Packing List.

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Tarragona is a city with more than 2,000 years of history. The ancient city of Tarraco was founded in 218 BC and its golden age began in the year 27 BC. The compact town of Tarragona is easy to get around, and the ideal place to explore on foot. Tarragona is Spain, and yet it is a culture unto itself. It was the capital of the ancient Roman Empire and its legacy of monuments can be admired in the streets to this day. Historical buildings to stroll around include the 12th century cathedral, numerous churches, a circus, forum and the defensive walls of the Passeig Arqueologic reveal delights at every turn. Time to explore it!

We can honestly state that the best way to explore Tarragona is by foot and the second best way is also by foot! Besides giving you the opportunity to roam the narrow streets and the cosy squares, it is the quickest way too. If you really want to, you can cross the city in approximately 25 minutes. Remember that sometimes it might be quicker (and nicer!) to take a few short-cuts into picturesque alleys instead of following the masses of tourists. Maybe this is easy for us to say as we stayed for a longer period of time and not like most of the tourists only for one day. But even when your stay is rather short, do try to get away from the crowds and just have a 'look around'. Tarrogona is simply a perfect place to walk for a few hours and pretending to know where you are.

Equipment: Have a look at Tarragona Packing List.

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We definately like to explore all the cities, National Parks, monuments, et cetera whenever we go on a journey. But an other important part of our summer vacation is a day at the beach. We usually have some classic beach activities that help us to not miss a moment of the beach fun day. Building a sand castle is always a popular activity Iris likes to do. We brought along a variety of sizes pails and containers used for building. After that we used seashells, driftwood and stones to decorate the sand castle.

Iris also loves the treasure hunting aspect of beachcombing. Relinde took Iris for a long walk on the beach, brought along a plastic pail to collect treasures like seashells, rocks, driftwood and sea glass. Sam and Iris also enjoy digging a big hole and bury me in it :-). The only thing I always ensure is that I´m well past where the waves come in. Relinde doesn´t like to be buried, so as an alternative we buried her up to her knees. Just as much fun anyway. Besides the La Savinos Beach this kind of recreation also can be done at the Llarga Beach and La Mora Beach at Tarragona.

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The wide open sands of the beach make it the perfect place to fly a kite, toss a frisbee, or play a game of footbal. Just watch Sam and Iris following me all over the beach whenever I shoot the ball. Sand volleybal is also another fun activity if the beach (like at Tarragona) has nets up. Being barefoot in the sun makes these everyday sports seem much more exciting.

The weird thing about us is that whenever we do visit the beach area we also want to sniff the culture surrounding it. We just can stop ourselves. Therefore we, for example, saw the Tamarit Beach with its beautiful castle facing the beach. This Castell de Tamarit was built in the 14th century and adds some historical flavour to this beach area. When we visited the city of Tarragona we had a nice look at the El Miracle Beach which is an urbanized and very crowded beach, placed under the Balcony of the Mediterranean of the city. And finally at our last day we spended a few hours at L´Arrabassada Beach which is bordered by a walk with palm trees, where we had access to the Seafront Promenade Rafael de Casanova who comes from the Beach of Miracle, or for the August Route, ancient highway of Barcelona.

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When we booked our trip to Tarragona we knew that our wooden house would be situated very close to the La Savinosa Beach. This is a semi urbanized beach, 350 x 30 metres of fine golden sand with calm and slightly deep water. When we first arrived at this beach we noticed that the stretch at the east is becoming closer as it approached a few rocks that stops the winds. The La Savionosa Beach is not so crowded and to reach it we passed some small dunes and certain vegetations.

They clean the beach every day and we know this, because they were still doing this when we arrived around 09:00h. We also saw some wastebins, showers, parking spots, public phones, lifeguards, chiringuitos, restaurants, umbrellas and hammocks. As a family we always like to go to the beach. It´s the ultimate playground for kids, both big and small, of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers and beyond. The beach offers an incredible number of attractions you can do for families who are looking for an entertaining day, like us. And sometimes, when we left the beach by the end of the day we wrote down a message on the wet sand on the beach with the pieces of driftwood or shells.

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We kept on hiking and even saw the Catedral (Cathedral) rising over the Old City walls. We also had a stop at a corner tower where the walls were refortified with fallen Roman-era carvings during the pre-Moorish period. Most experts now believe that around 150 / 125 BC the wall was considerably enlarged in length, height and width, being extended to surround the entire settlement as far as the port. From that time on it served not only a defensive purpose, but also defined the urban area. This second phase wall had a lower megalithic base, between 1,5 and 2 metres high (one of two rows of stone), which was built up with ashlars that formed compartments.

On the other side of the Old Town from Portal del Roser, at the point where the old walls end, we finally arrived at ´our` reconstructed medieval tower. Jihaaa, we were there! Right at that spot we had some excellent views over the remains of the Roman Circus. So whenever you´re in Tarragona and you´re in need of a walk with historical magnificance, remember the Passeig Arqueologic we just bounced at by accident.

Equipment: Have a look at Tarragona Packing List.

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We walked along and on the defensive wall, the first major construction undertaken by the Romans. They began with it not long after they arrived in the area. This initial encampment was the origin of the future city of Tarraco. I can only assume that the first wall was a simple wooden stockade. We read that the fact that the settlement became a bridgehead for the disembarkation of reinforcements for Rome made it necesarry to built stronger defences. The first stone wall was built between 217 and 197 BC with Cyclopean stone and towers at vulnerable points. The perimeter walls were six metres high and 4,5 metres thick. The towers were higher, of which three of this period have been preserved.

As we already wrote, we actually wanted to visit the medieval tower we saw when we drove by it with our car. The fact that we ended with a huge hike next to and right at the Old City walls was a big plus! We didn´t know that this achaeological promenade was even there and we were happy to have found it. We saw nice manicured gardens next to the Iberian-Roman walls and had a view of the walls with a medieval tower in the background and artillery bastions from the early modern period in front of the walls.

Equipment: Have a look at Tarragona Packing List.