The Gironès, a friendly county for everyone
On a sunny day, in the Parc dels Olors in Celrà, a guide invites a group of six women between 70 and 90 years old to smell and taste sage flowers. Picture by Diego Espada.
The Gironès is a transition region located between the Pyrenees and the sea. It is a territory with a high landscape value, a wide range of leisure and sporting activities in nature and a great legacy of heritage, commerce, services and culture. The capital, Girona, is a city with history, but also modern, cosmopolitan and friendly for all those who visit it.
Part of this offer can be discovered in Els sentits de la descoberta (The senses of discovery), the e-book of inclusive experiences in the Costa Brava and Girona Pyrenees, in which several hosts from the area with different abilities guide us through the experience. The publication includes audiovisual materials with the testimony of these hosts and also of tourism organisations and professionals from the sector who work for inclusive tourism. All audiovisual materials include English subtitles and SSI interpretation. Welcome to the Gironès.
Nature experiences
The Parc dels Olors de Celrà is a garden of aromatic, medicinal and culinary plants that you can visit. You can discover up to 87 different species. The park is surrounded by forest and is an experience of colours, tastes, aromas and textures. Around the garden, there is a therapeutic path, a path made up of different natural elements. If you walk along it barefoot, you will enjoy a foot massage that will stimulate your immune system. The proposal is also adapted to the tourist, in this case, a senior group that enjoys slow tourism, a type of slow and sustainable tourism that proposes to travel calmly, unhurriedly and savouring the destination.
If you want to disconnect, Ca n’Heras d’Adri offers you a space without television or coverage for mobile devices, a rural accommodation with a story in every corner and a restaurant serving local cuisine. All this in a space surrounded by vineyards, forests and fields. A 12th century building designed to enjoy the pleasure of disconnecting.
And if you want to reconnect with nature and with yourselves, you can’t miss a forest bath in the Llémena Valley, an Aromes del bosc activity. Being in the forest, feeling it and being part of it produces a feeling of well-being and happiness that is very beneficial for your health. You can live the experience on paths with little slope and free of obstacles.
Urban experiences
The capital of the region, Girona, is a modern and dynamic city, a city that does not renounce its past and looks forward to the future. It is a city that is friendly to all its visitors. The Tourism Department’s website has a specific section on accessible tourism in the city.
In Girona, you must visit the city walls, the Jewish quarter, the old quarter, the cathedral, the Arab baths, the Basilica of Sant Feliu, the Devesa park and so much more! Today we highlight the Casa Masó, the birthplace of the architect Rafael Masó, one of the most important Catalan architects of the 20th century. It is the only house overlooking the river Onyar that can be visited and has a lift that makes it accessible to people with reduced mobility and/or wheelchair users.
Several groups organise guided tours of the city. Two of them are the Association of licensed tour guides of Girona, which adapts itineraries to the needs of visitors so that everyone can enjoy the city, and Girona Guide Services, which organises a visit to the sets of the series Game of Thrones with details and anecdotes about the filming. The tour can be requested with tablet support and sign language interpretation service.
We end this quick tour at Hotel Casa Cacao, a project by El Celler de Can Roca. Hotel Casa Cacao is a hotel, a bean-to-bar and a tasting space. It has adapted rooms with wide doors and adapted bathrooms. And on the terrace, you can enjoy magnificent views of the old town of Girona.