Getaway to Vallès Oriental: Montmeló, Granollers and La Roca

Dishes based on Catalan and Mediterranean recipes, with excellent ingredients from local suppliers, and in a warm, family and intimate setting. This is the Aroma Restaurant in Sant Celoni, opened just over a decade ago. You can choose from several set menus.  

Four decades of work have earned this establishment is reputation, which might be defined as something more than a restaurant because it has several distinct areas to eat depending on if you are holding a function, a business presentation or having lunch or dinner with your partner – if this is the case, you should know that they have a dining room for romantic candlelight dinners. The menu is very comprehensive, with around one hundred dishes of local, traditional and creative cuisine.  

The restaurant is located in Can Magre, a 16th century country house, and has several spacious dining rooms. If you go in summer, the terrace is very nice, where you can also have lunch under the porch. The range of dishes is very wide, including rice and noodle paellas, pizzas, grilled meat and fish. Leave room for the delicious desserts.  

The Lucerón restaurant offers a lovingly created cuisine based on local products and some specialities with a long history, from the time when Antoni Lucerón and his wife first opened a restaurant in the 1970s. Today it is run by their daughters and they are committed to lovingly-cooked food very well presented at the table.  

'Trinxat' (mashed potatoes and cabbage), duck confit or beef stew. Onion soup, cannelloni or duck liver with Pedro Ximenez wine reduction. At Can Collet del Pla they cook quality dishes using local ingredients. You won’t go hungry. This country house on the outskirts of Sant Antoni de Vilamajor also boasts different dining rooms (and therefore different atmospheres), with a warm welcome and good service. And on summer evenings they expand their selection of dishes with a tapas menu to savour while you enjoy the breeze blowing off the peaks of Montseny.  

Can Cuch opened its doors as a hotel-restaurant in 2011, so, despite being a house dating back to the 10th century, it still smells new. It oozes charm from every corner, with cosy well-appointed rooms, a chill-out terrace with spectacular views of the El Vallès region, and a wine cellar in a natural rock cave. Just the spot if you're after an unforgettable romantic getaway.

Rural tourism establishment in a 12th century country house in Montseny Natural Park. It was refurbished in 1993 and now has eight rooms, each one boasting spectacular colours and views, all with private bathroom, and three accessible for disabled people. It offers guests a restaurant service, sharing the table with the owner's family.  

In the spa town of Caldes de Montbui it’s a good idea to stay in an establishment that offers spa and thermal treatments, and Vila de Caldes Balneari does all of that, and under medical supervision. Its recently refurbished rooms are all elegant and have views. If you want to dine on the premises, Burg & Gintònic is a contemporary-style lounge/burger restaurant.

This hotel is strategically located near a motorway exit, a five-minutes drive from the Circuït de Barcelona–Catalunya racetrack, 15 minutes from La Roca Village shopping centre and only 20 minutes from Barcelona. All of its 101 rooms are soundproofed, and the hotel has meeting rooms and a restaurant, Transit, which specialises in Mediterranean cuisine. There is also a swimming pool and a solarium.

Aparthotel in the town centre of Granollers, and therefore well connected, with 84 apartments of 35 m2, all of them with bedroom, sitting room, kitchen and bathroom; ideal for a maximum of four people, two adults and two children. Car park, gym, several meeting rooms and a restaurant with sophisticated dishes are several of the assets of this establishment.  

Over the last decade, the old Roca Umbert textile factory has become the centre of cultural life in the capital of Vallès Oriental. The building contains different spaces including the municipal library, opened in 2005, the Centre Tecnològic i Universitari, the Espai d'Arts, which provides services and resources to the region’s artistic community with the aim of promoting contemporary creation, and cub, a space given over to rehearsals and musical production. Special mention must be made of La Troca, a unique space that hosts a dozen entities related to the world of popular and traditional culture.

Not many places can claim to have been wine and champagne production facilities before becoming a theatre with a program of dance and children’s and professional drama. The building is very beautiful both inside and out, and retains its original cellars. What was once the wine vat is now the sound and light booth. A place, then, that offers some added value when attending a show, and a good example of how to convert old buildings to other uses.

On the ground floor here there is the tourism office of Caldes de Montbui, an obligatory stop-off to find out everything you need to visit the town. You can also take advantage of your visit to see everything that Thermalia has to offer, from the history of the town’s spas to an important selection of works by the sculptor Manolo Hugue, who lived in the village for many years, and a number of pieces by his friend Pablo Picasso. The temporary exhibition room also features interesting exhibits.

The museum’s collection covers various fields, including archeology, art, decorative arts, ethnography and numismatics. The Natural Sciences are also studied here since an extension was built in 1987. The museum is therefore multidisciplinary, as you will discover when you explore its permanent and temporary exhibitions which will help you to learn more about past and present of Granollers and its surroundings. And for lovers of contemporary art, there is a good exhibition on the third floor of the building.

Opened a decade ago, the building was designed by local architect Josep M. Botey, and consists of two halls: the larger one with a capacity for 700 spectators and the smaller one for 221. The number of shows that are scheduled throughout the year is remarkable; they include music, theatre and dance, but if you just want to explore the building, nothing better than to ask for a guided tour (for groups with a minimum of 15 people), on which you will be able to walk around the stage, the dressing rooms and the stalls.

Head for Castelltercol to discover the house where Enric Prat de la Riba, one of the greatest 20th century Catalan politicians, lived. Prat de la Riba was the creator and first president of the Mancomunitat (Commonwealth), and whether you agree with his politics or not, the house is worth a visit because it retains the decor and atmosphere of an early 20th century town house. We particularly like the bedroom, with its 19th century furniture, and the atmosphere of the office, which was transferred here from Barcelona.