Pick the part of town first, then the hotel. Each one says what it's like, what to eat there and how far the sights are.
The walled old town above the Onyar: cathedral steps, stone lanes and the Jewish quarter. Most of the best tables are within ten minutes on foot.
The food: Bar Normal and Normal on Plaça de l'Oli, Massana, Divinum, Dit i Fet, Cipresaia and Xuixo Can Castelló are all here, and Palau Fugit has its own restaurant and bars.
Sources: Ara, 10 restaurants that revived the Barri Vell, Hotelier's Choice, Girona hotels for food lovers
The newer town on the west bank, with Plaça Catalunya, the Lleó market and wide streets. A few minutes' walk over the Pont de Pedra to the old town.
The food: Casa Cacao for bean-to-bar chocolate and its Cacao Bar, the Lleó market for picnic food, and Pastisseria Tornés and Casamoner for xuixos.
Sources: Casa Cacao Girona, APD, Tornés wins best xuixo in the world
A hilltop castle just outside Girona, home to the Roca brothers' Esperit Roca hotel, restaurant, cellar and distillery. About ten minutes by car from the centre.
The food: Esperit Roca has a Michelin star, Fontané serves traditional Catalan cooking to everyone, and the castle holds a cellar of 80,000 bottles.
Hotels and food in Sant Julià de Ramis, above the city →Sources: Esperit Roca, Ara, Fontané opens April 27
Chef's pick is Barri Vell: 20 of his places are a 15-minute walk. Chef picks hotels the way he picks restaurants: from the best lists, and what reviewers say.
Chef checks your hotel's rate every morning until free cancellation ends and emails you if it drops.
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Researched and published by Chef Amazing, from our own stories, this year’s critics and food press, and a check that each place is open. Nobody pays to be on our lists: how we pick. Spot something wrong? Tell us and we fix it.