Getaways from Lleida: day trips and destinations close by.

Lleida is on the plain and almost everything is in the mountains

Lleida is on the plain, and almost everything you want to visit lies at the foot of or inside a mountain. The N-230 climbs through the Ribagorça to El Pont de Suert, where the L-500 enters the Vall de Boí, and continues through the Vielha tunnel to the Val d'Aran; at El Pont de Suert the N-260 also leaves for the Benasque valley. The C-13 passes through Balaguer and Tremp on the way to the Pallars Sobirà, with Sort, Rialp and Espot. The C-14, through Ponts and Organyà, leads to La Seu d'Urgell, to Grandvalira and, along the N-260, to the Cerdanya.

To the south, the N-240 drops to Les Borges Blanques, and from there the C-242 climbs to Cornudella and Siurana; other mountain roads lead to Prades. To the west, the A-22 goes to Monzón and Barbastro, the gateway to Alquézar and Aínsa. To the east, the A-2 leads to Igualada, Montserrat and the Penedès, and the C-25 crosses central Catalonia towards Manresa, Vic and, along the C-16, Berga.

The train mainly serves the east. The AVE puts Barcelona a little over an hour away and from Sants the R4 continues to Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, the capital of cava. For the Pyrenees and for Aragon, you almost always need a car.

Prades, the shortest trip and the one that depends least on the season

In one hour there is only Prades, 62 minutes away: the red village at 950 metres, with its balloon fountain and the Roca Foradada. It is the shortest trip and the one that depends least on the season.

The Priorat of Siurana (83 minutes), Alquézar (85), with the Vero footbridges, and the Penedès (90) are between one hour and an hour and a half. The Sunday plans in this band and the next are arranged in Sunday plans near Lleida.

Between an hour and a half and two hours the day gets longer but you are back for dinner: Montserrat (94), Sitges (95), Vic and Berga (108 and 109), Garraf (111), and at the limit Valderrobres and Aínsa (120). The last two, in Aragon, call for a stay: the Matarraña with Beceite and the Parrizal or Aínsa with Añisclo and a canyon.

The snowy Pyrenees are two and a quarter to two and three quarter hours away, and here Lleida comes out better than Barcelona: the Vall de Boí at 135–145 minutes, Baqueira and Grandvalira at 150, Port Ainé at 160 and Benasque and the Pallars at 165. At that same distance, in other directions, are Peñíscola and the Sierra de Irta (150) or Rupit and the cliffs of the Collsacabra (152).

From December to March, snow rules

From December to March, snow rules. For a day: skiing at Boí Taüll and a spa at the Pla de l'Ermita, Port Ainé with a buffet on the slopes or, without slopes, the Nordic skiing and snowshoeing of Llanos del Hospital. In February and March there is guided snowshoeing at Aigüestortes, going up by 4x4 taxi from Boí, and under the Aneto to the Forau d'Aigualluts. With two nights, Baqueira from Vielha or Grandvalira from Soldeu.

In spring the canyons open and the water runs: Alquézar with the Vero and the Somontano and the Parrizal footbridges are at their best in May and June.

In summer it pays to gain altitude. Prades is still cool in July; the Ripollès of the monasteries, 134 minutes away, is at its best in summer, with the Núria Rack Railway, and in June and July the motorbike route to the Coll de la Creueta has a clear road. The coast and Montserrat are left for another season.

In October and November the Priorat changes colour: vineyards by 4x4 and an autumn tasting, with lunch in Siurana. Further away, 154 minutes, the mushrooms and beech woods of the Montseny.

Kayaking beneath the Siurana cliff

• In a day: Siurana, the Moorish crag and the reservoir by kayak. 83 minutes away, with the Camí de la Trona in the morning, lunch inside the village and an hour of kayaking beneath the cliff.
• With one night: Prades and its starry night. An hour away, for the Roca Foradada, the zip lines between the trees, the telescopes and the Baltasana the next day.
• With two nights: skiing, Romanesque churches and a spa in the Vall de Boí. Two and a half hours to Taüll, one day on the slopes, another visiting churches or snowshoeing and two afternoons at the spa.