The tour around the world without leaving Catalonia

For those of us who are passionate about traveling, you'll recognize us from afar. We are the ones who save pins on digital maps as if they were treasures, the ones who have folders full of screenshots of exotic corners, and the ones who feel butterflies in our stomachs every time Friday approaches. We love the feeling of adventure, of stepping on landscapes that seem from another planet, of filling our eyes with unforgettable places, and of discovering new ways of understanding life. The world is immense, fascinating, and full of places that change your life.

But what if I told you that you can cure this textbook wanderlust and that to experience this magic, you don't need to cross any ocean? That you can travel the world without leaving Catalonia? Yes, exactly as you read it. The truth is that our country hides a screaming secret: it's an authentic world map on a small scale. We have pieces of the planet replicated in our own home with a beauty and fidelity that is daunting. You can become a pro New Yorker, cry with emotion in front of a Taj Mahal, or walk on the Catalan Great Wall. And all this without needing a passport, jet lag, or having to use Google Translate to order a coffee.

As good explorers, we propose a game: grab your car, train, or motorcycle with the gaze of someone landing abroad for the first time. Because you can travel from the captivating light of Tuscany or the immensity of Machu Picchu to the fairytale landscapes of the Black Forest without leaving Catalonia. Prepare your camera and your desire to be amazed. Here are 15 one-way tickets to the most local exoticism. We're going far while staying very close.

Catalan Tuscany

In the Corb Valley, life beats to a different rhythm, cradled by the sea breeze and bathed in a golden afternoon light that seems directly painted in fresco. Josep Vallverdú already said that this corner is "a paradise of enchantment". And it is natural: if in the Italian region they boast of cypresses and Chianti wine, here we have the same gentle hills carpeted with almond trees, vineyards, and centuries-old olive trees that snake to the horizon. At the top of these undulating landscapes rise postcard-perfect stone villages, like Guimerà or Ciutadilla, crowned by majestic castles and bell towers. Strolling along their dry stone walls, where poppies and thyme bloom, invites you to practice the most authentic "dolce far niente".

The Catalan Great Wall

If the Asian empire needed thousands of years and millions of stone blocks to erect its pharaonic work, in the Montsec mountain range, nature has done it. The Finestres wall is a spectacular whim of the Earth: two parallel lines of completely vertical and steep rock walls that follow the profile of the mountain and leave you open-mouthed. This magical environment, near the Mont-rebei gorge, hides almost sacred corners, such as the abandoned village of Finestres and the hermitages of Sant Marc and Sant Vicenç. A true wonder that has nothing to envy the Great Wall of China.

The Catalan Taj Mahal

Do not look for white marble or the oriental domes of the city of Agra here, because the connection here is pure conceptual romanticism. In the same way that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan raised one of the most beautiful mausoleums in the world to honor his deceased wife, Salvador Dalí fulfilled his promise to buy a castle for his beloved Gala. In 1969 he acquired the medieval fortress of Púbol, which was in very poor condition, and poured an overflowing creative effort into restoring and decorating it entirely as a refuge of courtly love. An intimate space designed for the rest of the muse that, finally, became his last workshop and the definitive mausoleum where Gala rests buried in the basement. Our great monument to love and eccentricity.

The Catalan Antelope Canyon

If you have seen a thousand times the photographs of those narrow stone corridors in Arizona where the Navajo Indians see "the place where water runs through the rocks", you should know that we have a wilder version of it in the mountains of Ordal. The caves of Can Riera, in Torrelles de Llobregat, are a set of cavities where erosion has sculpted the red-toned sandstones, creating undulating walls of reddish and orangey hues that make you travel directly to the United States without leaving Baix Llobregat. Of course, the Instagram boom filled this corner with thousands of visitors in search of the perfect photo, endangering an extremely fragile ecosystem. To curb mass tourism, the town hall had to take a drastic measure: access to the caves is currently completely prohibited.

Catalan Cappadocia

About thirty minutes from Perpignan, the Orgues d'Illa (in Roussillon) landscape looks like a small double of the Anatolian landscape in Turkey. While in Cappadocia travelers photograph themselves in front of the iconic stone columns known as "fairy chimneys," here nature has shaped a very similar lunar and yellowish setting made of sand and clay. This surprising mineral labyrinth offers an exotic walk among ten-meter-high towers. That said, as the Illa labyrinth is extremely fragile in the face of climatology, the majestic columns cannot be climbed. You will have to settle for immortalizing this "nearby Turkey" with your camera.

The New York of Priorat

When we think of the Manhattan skyline, large skyscrapers defying the sky by the water come to mind. Well, the great Josep Maria Espinàs discovered that in La Vilella Baixa we have our own "big apple" of dry land. Due to a terrain slope so steep that it would make any urban planner tremble, the stone houses of this small village are so clinging to the deep river gorge that, if you look at them from below, they reach up to seven stories high. The visual effect from the river makes us see a skyline of rural skyscrapers. To conclude the urban route, nothing better than the Carrer que no passa (Street that doesn't go through), a dead-end alley with a medieval porch that served as an impregnable trench during the Carlist Wars.

A Catalan pyramid

Forget about going all the way to Mexico or Guatemala to see the stepped structures of Chichén Itzá or Tikal; at the Pertús border, we have one that will save you twelve hours of flying. In 1976, to celebrate Spain's opening to international highways at the end of Francoism, the prestigious architect Ricard Bofill designed a monument that surprisingly reproduces the geometric lines of the great Mayan pyramids. Built on an artificial mound with tons of excavated earth resulting from the construction of the highways, this red brick "pyramid" rises in the middle of a French-style garden that depicts the Catalan shield and flag. The visual counterpoint it creates with the peaks of the Pyrenees can be reminiscent of the aesthetic shock you feel when a pre-Columbian pyramid emerges, majestic, in the middle of the dense Central American jungle.

The Catalan Waikiki

You don't need to cross the Pacific Ocean to Honolulu to set foot on the mythical Waikiki beach, because a few kilometers from the city of Tarragona, we have our own piece of virgin Caribbean. Cala Fonda shares with the jewel of Hawaii the same paradisiacal and primeval aspect: a stretch of fine, golden sand flanked by imposing yellowish limestone cliffs that, early in the day, shine as if they were made of gold. The contrast between the intense green of the Marquesa forest that covers it and the turquoise blue of completely calm and warm waters makes you feel like you are on a solitary tropical island. Since it is completely isolated and there are no beach bars or services (a real stroke of luck), remember to bring water and food to live the ultimate wild experience.