Top Things To Do In Tarragona Spain
Beaches
Tarragona is an hour 20 minute local train ride from Barcelona. It is a very scenic drive and made the packed train ride very manageable.
It is one of the largest sea ports in Spain with a population of approximately 133,000 people.
The Tarragona train station is very close to the port and most of the city is up quite a steep hill – so you will definitely need a taxi or uber if you are staying around the old city area.
One of the main attractions in Tarragona are the beaches. There are quite a lot of beaches surrounding the city but the two main ones that are closest are El Miracle and La Arrabassada.
Arrabassada Beach is by far the nicest one close to the centre of town. It has the Blue Flag accreditation which means it maintains the purity and safety standards.
It has nice white sand and is 550 metres long and 65 metres wide with a wooden walkway along the edge where you can access cafes, bars and restaurants.
There are sunbeds and umbrellas for hire and lots of water activities as well.
The walk to the beach is really pretty around the headland and certainly worth taking the scenic route to the beach.
The beach is very popular with locals and day trippers from Barcelona. There is always something happening, either a sporting activity or dancing or just a bar playing music. It has a really great atmosphere.
Balcon de Mediterranean
The promenade around the headland where the La Rambla Nova begins has spectacular views. You can see all of the port area with its many yachts and across the main beach areas and down into the spectacular Roman Amphitheatre.
The amphitheatre is one of the best preserved in the world and one of the only ones on a beach. There were gladiator fights here in the 2nd century.
At night there is a re-enactment of the gladiator fights. There is a large screen, actors and a light and sound show that is absolutely amazing. The sound is incredible and the actors do such a great job you feel like you are watching actual gladiators.
You can actually see and hear most of the show from a higher view point. There is a restaurant and bar that overlooks the amphitheatre and has the best views while sipping wine.
There are many roman buildings and ruins around Tarragona including the city wall which was built around 300BC and the city gates. These are World Heritage sites.
Walking through the old town you can visit the open air museum of the city walls.
La Rambla Nova
The Rambla Nova is the main shopping area of Tarragona. It stretches from the Balcon De Mediterranean to the main traffic area. It is lined with shops and restaurants and is another entrance into the Old Town. It is a very popular spot for local families to walk and chat with each other.
Off to one side is the food market. This is a lovely old building that houses many fresh food stores, including lots of seafood. You can buy the fresh food there and take home to cook or, you can do like we did, and you can eat the fresh food right there.
You can watch people slicing the huge tuna for sushi as well as jamon. The markets are some of the best we have seen in Spain and it’s worth taking the time to check it out if you are in Tarragona.
The favourite thing about La Rambla Nova for us was the life size statue called Castellers. This is a statue that recreates one of the stunning traditions of Tarragona of human towers or Castells. Tarragona is famous for Castells and this statue is a great representation of them.
Castells of Tarragona (Human Towers)
Watching the human towers in Tarragona is one of the most memorable and amazing things we have seen in all of Spain.
We arrived in the Old Town and found a spot on the stairs of the Cathedral. There were literally hundreds of Spanish people in their Castell uniforms of white pants, turquoise top, black belts and red scarves.
They begin with the base – pinya – where all the strong men join together to support the tower.
The towers can be up to 10 levels high and can have 1, 2, 3 or 4 people in each level.
Once the pinya is set, someone signals to begin stage 2. That’s when the band starts and the levels are built one by one until the smallest person (generally a child) climbs to the top and throws their hand in the air, and then they start the disassembly.
A successful castell is when the tower is assembled and disassembled in complete succession.
It is fascinating, exciting, nerve wracking, amazing, scary, and just fabulous to watch.
There are videos on our instragram at Beach Travel Wine in the story highlights of Tarragona. Please take the time to go and have a look.
Old Town of Tarragona
The old town of Tarragona is a full of cobblestone streets, Roman ruins and buildings and small windy streets.
You enter the old town through city gates. There are many plazas with restaurants and bars surrounding them. The bigger plazas have entertainment most nights. We watched a group of swing dancers one night for hours.
There were some local characters around the plaza areas as well which was fun people watching time.
Each night we walked to the old town and enjoyed the family atmosphere, the food, especially the paella, the wine and of course the entertainment.
The Tarragona Cathedral sits up high in the middle of the old town. It was opened in 1170.
Favourite place to drink wine in Tarragona
Lyle’s favourite place to have a glass of wine was at Arrabassada Beach at sunset.
Leanne’s favourite place was Bar JB. Being a Jimmy Barnes fan, she just had to have a drink there. It was a cute little authentic bar in the old town.
You can listen to the full episode all about the best things to do in Tarragona below.