Beu-te el museu returns with 13 museums and 13 wineries

Thirteen museums and thirteen wineries across the province of Girona will team up this October for the fifth edition of "Beu-te el museu", a programme that pairs cultural visits with tastings of DO Empordà wine.

The name is a Catalan play on words, roughly "Drink up the museum". The activities will take place on weekends throughout October. Several museums and one winery are taking part for the first time.

Tickets and prices

A total of 380 places are available, and the price stays at €22 per person, the same as last year. Each activity is limited to between 20 and 30 people.

Tickets went on sale on 16 September through the online ticketing platform of the Costa Brava Girona tourism board.

Who is behind it

The scheme is run by the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona, the tourism board of the Diputació de Girona (the provincial council). It is organised through two of the board's marketing clubs. One covers culture and identity. The other is the Ruta del Vi DO Empordà, the wine route that brings together producers of the Empordà designation of origin. The DO is the official label that certifies where a wine comes from and how it is made.

The goal is to promote the region's museums and its wine tourism together, with a focus on visitors who live nearby rather than international holidaymakers. Organisers want culture lovers to discover wineries and wine lovers to discover museums. The visits are deliberately held outside the main tourist season, to help spread visitor numbers more evenly across the year.

Three new museums

Three cultural venues are joining for the first time: the Espai Carmen Thyssen, the Museu del Joguet de Catalunya (the Catalan toy museum) and the Castell de Sant Ferran.

They join ten returning venues:

• Museu de la Pesca
• Castell Gala – Salvador Dalí
• Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya in Ullastret
• Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya in Girona
• Terracotta Museu de Ceràmica
• Canònica de Vilabertran
• Ecomuseu Farinera
• Museu de la Mediterrània
• Museu d'Art de Girona
• Museu del Suro

The wineries

On the wine side, the Celler Cooperatiu d'Espolla is the newcomer. The twelve returning wineries are Celler Perelada, Celler Mas Vida, Vinyes d'Olivardots, Mas Llunes, La Vinyeta, Celler Martí Fabra, Vinyes dels Aspres, Celler Oliveda, Clos d'Agon, Celler Brugarol, Empordàlia and Terra Remota.

Last year's figures

The fourth edition drew 290 participants. Its fifteen activities reached an overall occupancy of 72%.

The tourism board says the initiative is now a regular fixture on the Girona calendar. It is one of several campaigns the board runs during the year to extend the season, encourage cooperation between different parts of the tourism sector, and introduce local audiences to wineries on the DO Empordà wine route and to cultural sites on the Costa Brava and in the Girona Pyrenees.

Our Take

For residents of Empuriabrava and the wider Alt Empordà, this is an affordable way to see familiar places differently. At €22 including a tasting, and with small groups, the format suits locals and second-home owners who stay on after the summer rush.

The numbers point to steady growth rather than a boom. Last year 290 people took part and not every place was filled, so this year's 380 places are an ambitious step. Whether the new museums can lift occupancy above last year's 72% will be the figure to watch.

The programme also fits a broader pattern in the region. Wine is increasingly used as a way to draw people in outside the summer months, as the growth of the Empordà Wine Fair in Figueres also suggests. The arrival of the Castell de Sant Ferran is worth noting too, after recent efforts to make the fortress easier to reach, such as the castle shuttle bus. It remains to be seen whether autumn cultural tourism can become a lasting source of visitors rather than a niche.