To escape this crazily hot weather and polluted city, that was the idea. Vall de Núria is not too far (3h journey more or less), reachable by train, amazingly pretty place in high mountains and never disappoints with its beauty.

All I needed to do was to convince couple of people to camp with me, buy a tent (I didn’t have one until now hahahah) and pack some essentials for one night and two days adventure in the mountains.
7am already at the train station to catch a 2 hour train heading towards France (R3 Rodalies, Puigcerda direction). Jumping off the train at Ribes de Freser (I also really like this small town, been here million times) and hopping onto Cremallera train which takes us up to 1900m altitude to Vall de Núria. The train also stops in Queralbs, if you fancy hiking up 1km elevation and enjoy amazing views, you can do this. I am normally going down that trail, and it’s the best part of Vall de Núria trip.
Once we have arrived in Nuria, we built our home for that night in small but cozy camping slot, packed day trip backpacks and started our little hike. We headed up towards Coll de Noucreus but due to the strong wind, clouds and massive temperature drop we haven’t reached the top (it was soooo close thou, but safety first, these are high mountains so hail and snow is posible all year around and can come very suddenly). Cows, horses, marmots, wild flowers, little mountain river and other gorgeous things followed us all the way up. Clouds and strong wind followed us coming back haha. Even thou we thought it might rain it didn’t at all. We had and amazing sunny evening at the camping, ate dinner with a sound of a small river which was just next to our camping and the night was pretty too, no strong winds or rain at all. The temperature dropped t0 10C so good sleeping bag is a must if you don’t like cold. Camping had a cold shower and nice clean bathrooms even with loads of toilet paper. Next morning we went to look for some coffee and cafeteria opens at around 8:40 so after big nice breakfast we headed back down to Queralbs. And as already mentioned this is my favourite part as the way to Queralbs is full of massive gorgeous waterfalls, mountains views and cute old bridges. As always I went to my fave spot for a quick cold dip into the river (water is pretty cold but so so good). The way down is around 3h long if you don’t stop and enjoy the views and of course more if you do. Once we have reached Queralbs we ended up in a foam party with lots of local kids but this soapy random shower after a night in camping was really needed and so much fun. A little cold beer reward also happened and of course some decent lunch in Queralbs. Walking all day with heavy backpack made us a bit tired, also some of us slept in very thin sleeping bag so it was a bit chilly that’s why we only headed down the second day and chilled quite a lot. We got cremallera back to Ribes Enlác – which is train station and straight to the train back home to stretch our legs on a comfy coach.
Walked – 18km and 650m up first day and 14,4km second day with some 500m descent (I didn’t track this one haha). You can find all these trails on Wikiloc (my fave app ever, for which I am paying money and I think its really worth it) and also you can check my trails recorded on this app and become my buddy .
Train tickets – A.recurrente Barcelona-Ribes- which is 10e for unlimited trips to this destination. Cremallera to go up one way (Ribes Enlac-Nuria) is 22e per person. Camping 10,5e per person. Going back with walked till Queralbs so the cremallera ticket Queralbs-Ribes Enlac is 6e per person. 38 euros on transport in total. Food was a mix of what we have brought and some snacks bought up in Nuria – there is plenty of options where to eat up there, hotel restaurant, bar, cafeteria, 2 little food trucks. All the info can be found on Vall de Núria official website.
This weekend wasn’t plant very well but as we like to say let’s mistake and better do it not perfectly than not to do it at all. No regrets as it was such a nice escape, with lots of fresh air, lost of wild animals, breathtaking views, great company and beautiful hikes. Will repeat very soon. This time better prepared.
You can check more of my adventures on my instagram










xoxo
Dom