Santa Margarita volcano

Olot is a town in central Catalonia of Spain.

Understand

Olot is popular with tourists for its volcano and rock landscapes, especially the fagus sylvatica forest of La Fageda d'en Jordà and the extinct volcanoes of the Garrotxa Natural Park.

Get in

There is no rail service at Olot, so the only way to get in is by bus or road.

There are 7 buses daily (5 on weekends) from Barcelona via two different routes (Amer or Banyoles), time travel 2 hr 30 min. Connections are more frequent from Girona, which run hourly on weekdays with some direct buses in just 1 hr travel time, others 1 hr 30 min. From Girona do NOT use the buses via Amer, they're way slower, about 2 hr 15 min!

By car, if coming from Barcelona the best route is using the C-17 autoroute up to Torelló and then diverting thru Bracons tunnel. From Girona, head towards Banyoles, then Besalú and finally Olot. As with the bus, avoid going via Anglès and Amer. From France, at Figueres head towards Besalú.

Finally, there's a cycling route all the way from Olot to Girona following the path of an ancient narrow gauge railway. It closely follows the Amer route.

See

• 1 Santa Margarida Volcano (near Olot). With a chapel inside this is one of the volcanoes of the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, a natural park on a extinct Holocene volcanic field. Free.  
• 2 La Fageda d'en Jordà (near Olot). Fagus sylvatica forest natural park. Free.  
• 3 Espai museístic del Volcà del Croscat. At the Croscat volcano a huge part has been cut out (accidental or intentionally) which allows you to take a look inside of a volcano. Basically a huge and steep quary made of volcano sand/rocks. But it is impressive and huge. Free. (updated Apr 2019)

Do

Hike around in the 1 Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park. (updated Apr 2019).

Eat

Splurge

• 1 Les cols, Ctra. de la Canya, no number, Olot, ☏ +34 972 269 209, lescols@lescols.com. 2 Michelin stars 
• 2 Ca l'Enric, N260 road, km91, ☏ +34 972 29 00 15. 1 Michelin star