Barcelona is a sun-soaked Mediterranean city bursting with extraordinary Modernista architecture vibrant street life world-class food and golden beaches — offering every traveller an irresistible blend of culture history and effortless Catalan charm along Spain's spectacular northeast coast.
Spain: Figueres – Teatre-Museu Dalí; Salvador Dalí museum
🎨 Figueres and the Magnificent Moustache of Salvador Dalí
Sadly, we had to drag ourselves away from Girona and head north. It had been a magnificent start to the holiday — the sort of place that makes you feel clever for choosing it in the first place.
📍 Why Figueres?
The town of Figueres — the Catalan word for fig trees, since you ask — sits in the Alt Empordà comarca of Catalonia and is the provincial capital of the province of Girona. More importantly, it is the birthplace, on 11th May 1904, of one Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Púbol. Or, as most of us know him, Dalí. The chap with the moustache.
Now, the primary reason for this trip to Spain was to celebrate my dad’s birthday — entirely his fault, and he should be grateful we didn’t just send a card. But being me, I had decided to expand the whole thing into a full cultural immersion. I have long admired Dalí’s extraordinary, surrealist, completely bonkers body of work, and had always wanted to visit the museum in Figueres and his home at Port Lligat, a tiny fishing hamlet just up the coast near Cadaqués. Luckily, I have a wife who has learned, after many years of marriage, that agreeing to my travel whims is considerably less exhausting than arguing about them.
🚗 The Journey North
The journey up from Girona was mercifully short — about 37 kilometres, which was a blessed relief given that we were still recovering from the kind of bone-deep travel fatigue that only budget airlines and early morning alarm calls can truly inflict. Arriving in Figueres late morning turned out to be rather good timing. We managed to beat the worst of the tourist rush and walked straight into the Teatre-Museu Dalí without too much queuing, which felt like an absolute victory.
⚗️ The Exhumation — or, DNA Testing the Surrealist
The museum is also, rather wonderfully, the site of Dalí’s burial — he died in January 1989 and is interred in a crypt beneath the stage. At the time of our visit, there was a rather entertaining controversy bubbling away. A tarot card reader by the name of Pilar Abel had gone to the courts claiming that Dalí was her biological father. I’ll pause to let that sink in. A Spanish court had duly ordered his body to be exhumed for DNA testing — which is exactly the sort of magnificently absurd situation that Dalí himself would probably have planned. The exhumation eventually took place in July 2017, and when they carefully raised the silk handkerchief covering his face, they found that his iconic waxed moustache was still perfectly in place in its famous “ten to ten” position. Much to the evident delight of the chap who’d embalmed him back in 1989. The DNA test, incidentally, proved negative. The tarot card reader was not his daughter. Presumably she hadn’t seen that one coming.
🏛️ The Museum Itself
The building’s history is remarkable. It was originally the Municipal Theatre of Figueres, built in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was gutted by fire during the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and left as a roofless shell for decades. In 1960, Dalí — by then a world-famous figure — approached the town mayor, Ramón Guardiola, with the idea of rebuilding it and turning it into a museum dedicated to his work. The project took years, finally opening to the public on 28th September 1974.
What Dalí created was not so much a museum as a total work of art in its own right. The building itself resembles something between a Moorish castle and a fever dream — painted a deep terracotta red and encrusted with a peculiar frieze of golden plastered croissants. The roofline is bristling with giant egg shapes and Oscar-like figures that look as though they’ve wandered in from a very strange awards ceremony. It houses a remarkable selection of his works, drawn primarily from his own private collection, and from the moment you arrive, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about whose imagination you have walked into.
The entrance to the museum sets the tone immediately and gives you a pretty clear warning of what lies ahead. There is a jarring jumble of Roman and medieval symbolism plastered across the façade — the sort of thing that makes you stop, tilt your head, and wonder whether you’ve misread the guidebook. Above the main door stands a figure dressed in a deep-sea diving suit, one of Dalí’s recurring obsessions, flanked by a group of women carrying enormous baguettes balanced on their heads. Entirely normal. Nothing to see here. Do move along.
Inside, the museum is arranged around a central open-air courtyard, and the first thing that grabs your attention is a 1941 Cadillac — a rather handsome old beast — sitting in the middle of it all, festooned with statues and forming the centrepiece of an installation called Taxi Plujós, which translates, brilliantly, as Rainy Taxi. Apparently, if you put a coin in, it rains inside the car. We did not try this. We were British, and queueing for indoor rain felt a step too far.
The rest of the museum is a relentless parade of surprises, optical illusions, hidden jokes and visual provocations. It contains a very substantial slice of Dalí’s life’s work — though not the headline pieces, which are scattered across galleries and private collections from New York to Tokyo, as if he couldn’t quite bear to let anyone have too much of him in one place. What remains is more than enough. It is the kind of place that produces genuine sensory overload — the walls, the ceilings, the floors, all demanding your attention simultaneously. You come out slightly dazed, blinking in the Catalan sunshine, and wondering whether any of it actually happened.
The Sala de Peixateries — the old Fishmongers’ Hall, which gives you some idea of Figueres’ glamorous past — houses a wonderful collection of Dalí oils, including the deeply unsettling Autoretrat Tou amb Tall de Bacon Fregit (Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon, painted in 1941) and the rather more straightforward Retrat de Picasso (Portrait of Picasso), a tribute to his great rival and occasional sparring partner. Gala — born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova in Russia in 1894, and Dalí’s wife, muse, business manager, and frankly the person who probably kept the whole show on the road — appears throughout the collection with the quiet persistence of someone who knows exactly how important she is.
The Mae West room is a particular highlight. You climb a narrow set of wrought iron stairs to a specific viewing platform, and suddenly the entire room — sofa, fireplace, paintings — resolves itself into the unmistakeable face of the Hollywood actress. It’s one of those moments where you feel simultaneously delighted and slightly embarrassed that you needed to be shown where to stand.
Alongside Dalí’s own work, the museum also holds other collections, the most striking of which belongs to Antoni Pitxot, a Catalan artist and close friend of Dalí who later became director of the Dalí Foundation. Pitxot’s pieces use rocks, pebbles and other natural objects arranged into paintings and installations that coalesce, almost magically, into human forms. Clever stuff.
This place was, without question, genuinely magical.
🌊 Roses, Lidl, and the GPS That Nearly Caused an International Incident
By the time we had finished our visit to the Teatre-Museu Dalí, we were thoroughly hot and rather wilted. The museum had been extraordinary, but Figueres itself had not exactly grabbed us by the lapels on our brief trundle through it — which, as it turned out, was an entirely unfair first impression, though we didn’t know that yet. What we did know was that we needed a beach, and we needed it fairly urgently.
Not too far away along the Costa Brava sat the seaside resort of Roses — or Rosas in Castilian Spanish — a town that has been occupied since the ancient Greeks established a settlement there around 776 BC, calling it Rhode. The Romans came later, as they always did, and then the Visigoths, and then various medieval powers who built an enormous sixteenth-century citadel, the Ciutadella de Roses, which still dominates the town. All of which is very impressive historically, and none of which we were thinking about in the slightest. The name Roses sounded wonderfully inviting. We imagined something fragrant and picturesque. As is so often the case, the name bore absolutely no relation to the reality of the beast, and Roses did not fail to disappoint — a fairly standard-issue Spanish package resort, doing brisk business in factor-30 and inflatable flamingos. But it had a beach. It was warm. We lay down and fell asleep to the combined soundtrack of lapping waves and what appeared to be the entire population of northern Europe on holiday. Sometimes that’s quite enough.
When we woke, the decision to leave Roses was, it’s fair to say, not a difficult one. We decided instead to drive out to the Cap de Creus Natural Park — a spectacular, wind-scoured headland that juts into the Mediterranean at the most easterly point of the Iberian Peninsula and, indeed, of the entire Pyrenean mountain chain. It is genuinely one of the wilder and more dramatic stretches of coastline in Spain, a UNESCO-listed landscape of jagged rocks, scrubby garrigue, and water of an implausible blue. By now it was a glorious afternoon, and the winding road out to the headland was genuinely lovely. We had rather optimistically hoped to find a hidden cove, deserted and perfect, in the manner of people who watch too many holiday programmes. This coastline, however, is magnificently rugged precisely because it is nearly impossible to get down to the sea. We bumped hopefully along to the very end of the road — literally the end — where we found a private resort that had rather cleverly positioned itself at the only accessible spot. We turned around.
On the way back towards Figueres we did, however, make one deeply satisfying discovery: a Lidl. Karen’s face lit up in a way that the Costa Brava scenery frankly hadn’t managed. We loaded up with provisions for the evening and headed back feeling considerably more cheerful.
On reaching Figueres I had, with great confidence, plotted the hostel address into the GPS. I followed its instructions faithfully, as one does, right up to the moment it directed us into a pedestrian zone at moderate speed, which caused a certain amount of alarm among the people who were, quite reasonably, trying to walk through it. I dropped Karen off to seek human intelligence — always more reliable than a satellite — while I circled around trying to look like someone who had done this on purpose. Eventually we found somewhere to park, hauled our bags up to what turned out to be a perfectly decent room, and discovered, with something close to genuine joy, that it had air conditioning.
The hostel sat right in the heart of the old town, which turned out to be considerably more charming than our earlier drive-through had suggested. We ate our Lidl picnic in the courtyard, revised our opinion of Figueres upwards quite substantially, and then headed out for a gentle wander through the old streets before returning for a thoroughly well-earned night’s rest.
In summary …
- Figueres is about one and half hours north of Barcelona. For fans of Dalí, the excursion is worth the effort
- Whilst most of Dalí’s more famous pieces are spread around the world this museum shows off his creative genius.
- The parking is limited so it is best to get there early in the day, especially in the summer (this also avoids crowds, heat etc)
Planning Your Visit
📍 Location
Teatre-Museu Dalí is situated in the heart of Figueres, in the Alt Empordà region of Catalonia, Spain. The museum occupies the site of the former Figueres Municipal Theatre, rebuilt and transformed by Salvador Dalí himself.
Plaça Gala i Salvador Dalí, 5 17600 Figueres Girona, Spain
🚆 How to Get There
By train: The most convenient option from Barcelona is the high-speed AVE or AVANT service from Barcelona-Sants to Figueres-Vilafant station, which takes just under an hour. A shuttle bus connects Figueres-Vilafant to the city centre. The slower regional RENFE R11 service (Barcelona-Sants to Portbou) stops at Figueres central station, which is approximately a 10–12 minute walk from the museum and takes around two hours. High-speed TGV services also connect Paris to Figueres-Vilafant.
By coach: Sagalés operates intercity coach services from Barcelona’s Estació d’Autobusos Nord to Figueres, with the journey taking approximately 2 hours 45 minutes. Additional intercity services are operated by MOVENTIS and TEISA, connecting Figueres with various towns in the region.
By car: Figueres lies approximately 140 kilometres north-east of Barcelona via the AP-7 motorway, a journey of around 1.5 hours. The museum is well signposted from the city centre, and public car parks are available nearby.
🌐 Website
📞 Contact Telephone
+34 972 677 500
🎟️ Entry Fees
Tickets purchased online are less expensive than those bought at the ticket desk. Booking in advance is strongly recommended, particularly during the peak season from April to September.
General admission: €18.50 (online) / €20.50 (ticket desk)
Reduced admission (students aged 18 and over with proof, juniors aged 9–17, Carnet Jove holders, pensioners aged 65 and over, and those with a 33% or higher degree of disability and one companion): €15.00 (online) / €17.00 (ticket desk)
Guided visits: €26.50 (general) / €23.00 (reduced)
Groups (25 people or more): €14.00 (online) / €16.00 (ticket desk)
Free admission: Children aged 0–8; those with a 50% or higher degree of disability and one companion; ICOM members (valid membership card required)
Note: ticket purchase at the entrance is allowed until 45 minutes before closing time; rooms close 15 minutes before the stated closing time.
🕐 Opening Times
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday throughout most of the year, with daily opening in July and August. Hours vary by season:
January–June: Tuesday–Sunday, 9:30 am–6:00 pm (10:30 am–6:00 pm in some winter months)
July–August: Daily, 9:00 am–8:00 pm (night visits also available in August, 10:00 pm–1:00 am)
September–December: Tuesday–Sunday, 10:30 am–6:00 pm (closing at 4:15 pm in November–December)
Best time to visit Catalonia
🌸 Spring (March to May)
Spring is one of the most rewarding times to visit Catalonia. Temperatures rise gradually from around 12°C in March to a comfortable 22°C by May, and the countryside bursts into colour with wildflowers and blossoming orchards. Tourist crowds are still manageable, prices are relatively modest, and the light is exceptional for exploring both Barcelona and the rural interior. Rainfall is moderate — expect occasional showers, especially in April — but long sunny stretches are common. The Costa Daurada and Costa Brava begin to wake up without the summer crush, and the Pyrenees offer excellent hiking as snow clears at lower elevations. Cultural highlights include Sant Jordi Day on 23 April, Catalonia’s romantic and bookish answer to Valentine’s Day, when the streets fill with roses and stalls of literature.
What to pack: Lightweight layers, a waterproof jacket, comfortable walking shoes, a light jumper for evenings, sunscreen, and a compact umbrella.
☀️ Summer (June to August)
Summer brings wall-to-wall sunshine, a vibrant festival calendar, and the full buzz of the Mediterranean coast. Temperatures in Barcelona hover between 25°C and 30°C, while inland towns such as Lleida can push well above 35°C. The beaches are at their most inviting, though the Costa Brava and Barceloneta fill rapidly — book accommodation early. The human towers of the Castellers festivals, open-air concerts, and local festes majors give summer a distinctly Catalan character. The Pyrenees are perfect for trekking and cycling. The main drawback is the heat and the sheer volume of visitors, particularly in July and August; expect queues at major attractions and premium prices across the board.
What to pack: Lightweight cotton and linen clothing, swimwear, sandals, a high-factor sunscreen, sunhat, sunglasses, a reusable water bottle, and a light cardigan for air-conditioned restaurants.
🍂 Autumn (September to November)
Autumn is arguably the finest season to visit Catalonia. September retains summer warmth — sea temperatures remain swimmable well into October — but crowds thin noticeably after the school holidays end. The inland landscapes of the Priorat wine region and the Garrotxa volcanic zone turn amber and gold, and harvest festivals celebrate local produce with considerable enthusiasm. The Festa de la Mercè in late September is Barcelona’s biggest annual celebration, a week of free concerts, human castles, and fire-running through the old city. October brings cooler, crisper days ideal for long walks, and November is quietly beautiful, though rain increases towards the end of the month.
What to pack: A versatile mid-layer fleece or light jacket, smart-casual clothing for evenings, comfortable walking boots, a packable rain mac, and a light scarf.
❄️ Winter (December to February)
Winter in Catalonia is mild by northern European standards, though Barcelona can feel brisk and damp, particularly in January and February. Coastal temperatures rarely dip below 8°C, making the city very walkable — museums, galleries, and restaurants are far less crowded, and hotels offer their best rates. The Christmas markets, particularly those around the Sagrada Família and Plaça de Sant Jaume, are genuinely atmospheric. Inland, the Pyrenees come into their own: resorts such as Baqueira-Beret offer reliable snow and excellent skiing from December through March. The far south of the region around Tarragona enjoys more sun and can feel almost spring-like on clear winter days.
What to pack: A warm coat, thermal underlayers, waterproof boots, knitwear, gloves and a hat for the Pyrenees, and waterproofs for city days.
🗓️ Overall Best Time to Visit
If a single season had to be chosen, autumn — particularly late September and October — offers the most complete Catalonia experience. The weather is warm without being oppressive, the beaches remain usable, the cultural calendar peaks with the Festa de la Mercè, and the crowds that define high summer have retreated. Prices settle to a sensible level and both the city and the countryside feel genuinely alive rather than overrun. That said, Catalonia is a region of remarkable seasonal variety: spring suits the curious and the cost-conscious; summer belongs to those who come for the sea and the spectacle; winter rewards those drawn to skiing, atmospheric city breaks, and an unhurried pace. There is, in truth, no wrong time — only the right season for what you are looking for.
Where to stay?
1. Hotel Peralada
Hotel Peralada Wine Spa & Golf sits in the village of Peralada in Catalonia’s Alt Empordà region, roughly seven miles from Figueres and within easy reach of the Costa Brava coast and the Pyrenees. The five-star property is part of a wider resort that includes a 14th-century castle, a golf course, and a winery. The hotel itself has 54 rooms and 10 suites, with a spa that focuses on wine therapy treatments. Dining is a serious business here — chef Paco Pérez oversees the restaurant, drawing on local Empordà produce and Peralada’s own wines. It works well as a base for visiting the Dalí Museum in nearby Figueres, though many guests seem content to spend most of their time on site.
2. Hostal Can Xicu
Hostal Can Xicu sits in the centre of Capmany, a small village in the Alt Empordà region of Catalonia. The building was once part of the village’s medieval wall and castle, and a careful restoration in 2017 kept much of that character intact — stone walls, an interior courtyard, and an old stone well are all still there. There are just three double rooms, two of which can be converted into quadruple rooms, each with a private bathroom, air conditioning, flat-screen TV, minibar, safe, and free Wi-Fi. One room includes a jacuzzi bath. Guests can use a garden and terrace, and breakfast is available nearby. Free bikes are also on offer, which suits the area well — the surrounding countryside of vineyards and olive groves is well worth exploring at a gentle pace.
3. La Casa dels Lledoners
La Casa dels Lledoners is a small bed and breakfast in the village of Masarach, in the Alt Empordà region of Catalonia. The property is housed in an 18th-century building and has two rooms, both with private bathrooms, air conditioning, and flat-screen TVs. Some rooms have a terrace. A continental breakfast is served daily, with guests frequently praising both the food and the hosts’ warmth and local knowledge. The surrounding area is well suited to hiking and cycling, and the location puts you within easy reach of the Dalí Museum in Figueres, Peralada Golf Club, and the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes. It’s a straightforward, well-run place with consistently high guest ratings, starting from around €137 per night.
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