Girona and the Costa Brava

Your charter flight has just landed at Girona Airport, and you're not sure what to do. Barcelona sounds like a good idea, but as you leave the airport you pick up a piece of local tourist bumph. The Costa Brava, Immortal Girona, Ripoll and the most amazing Romanesque architecture in the history of time, the Dalí Museum at Figueres - perhaps its time to reconsider... You could always hang here for a while and then move on - I doubt, though, whether you ever will!

The Costa Brava, or Rugged Coast, stretches from Blanes, which is about 60km north of Barcelona to Port Bou on the French border. With its wooded coves, tall cliffs, charming beaches and deep blue water that glistens under the Mediterranean sun, this was once the most beautiful part of the Spanish coastline. It’s still like this in parts – the northern section retains its local feel and scenic beauty, and is mainly visited by Catalans or French tourists from just across the border – but speaking as a lover of traditional Catalan ways, I am sometimes a little dismayed at the effects that 30 years of mass tourism have had on the southern part of the coast. However, it all depends on what you are after, and one cannot deny that resorts such as Lloret, Blanes and Platja d’Aro offer an excellent service to the international tourist in search of sun, sea and sand.

The southern string of resorts begins at Blanes, which, were it not for the seafront, could easily be mistaken for a suburb of Barcelona. Tossa de Mar offers all the tourist stuff, but also boasts a lovely old town and medieval walls which is as fine as anything you will see in Catalonia. I have a particular soft spot for Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and Lloret really is a matter of taste – it’s brash and tacky, but if you’re looking to deepen your tan and a loud, late, libidinous nightlife, then you won’t be disappointed.

The remaining two thirds of the coastline beyond Palamós can be truly lovely, and have only been spoilt by the excesses of the property developers in places. From here on you will find apartments and villas rather than big tourist hotels. The beaches and villages close to the inland town of Palafrugell are still wonderfully scenic. Moving north, there is the ancient Greek site of Empúries, which is in walking distance from L’Escala, a satisfyingly reasonable resort in itself, and the rural and fairly isolated hinterland of the large bay, the Golf de Roses – much of this area is now protected and is home to a nature reserve, the Parc Natural dels Aiguamolls de l’Empordà.

Roses itself is the last of the Costa Brava’s massive tourist developments, but is saved by an excellent beach, and is a great option if you want to combine sun and nightlife with quieter pursuits. Finally, the last stretch just south of the French border, which includes Cadaqués, Port de la Selva, Llançà and Port Bou, is still gorgeous – a five-minute walk from the main beach in each of these towns will take you to secluded coves that will give you an idea of what the whole of this coastline must have been like before the developers moved in. Furthermore, for the culturally-minded, just inland, you are within easy reach of the magnificent medieval monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, and the Alt Empordà’s capital, Figueres, where Salvador Dalí was born and established his superb surrealist museum.