Costa Brava

North of Barcelona, the Costa Brava keeps the rugged Mediterranean of pine-fringed coves, fishing villages and stone towns. Cadaqués, Begur and the medieval villages of the Empordà, together with a remarkable culinary culture, give the coast an intimacy that larger resorts cannot imitate.

The Costa Brava runs north from Blanes to Portbou on the French border. Its name, the “wild coast”, was coined in 1908 for the cliffs and coves that break the shore. Behind it lies the Empordà, a plain of vineyards, olive groves and medieval villages such as Pals, Peratallada and Monells, with the city of Girona, its old Jewish quarter and its cathedral, as the provincial capital.

The north is Salvador Dalí’s country: his house at Portlligat, the castle of Púbol and the Theatre-Museum in Figueres form a triangle across the region. Cadaqués keeps its whitewashed calm near the Cap de Creus, and the coves around Begur, such as Aiguablava and Sa Tuna, remain small and clear-watered. The coast is also one of the great places to eat in Spain, with El Celler de Can Roca in Girona.

The season runs from May to October. June and September are the best months for the coves, warm and calmer than high summer, when weekenders from Barcelona and international visitors fill the villages. July and August bring the Cap Roig Festival at Calella de Palafrugell and the Porta Ferrada festival in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, with concerts in gardens and by the sea.

The Tramuntana, a strong north wind, can blow for several days, especially around Cadaqués and the Cap de Creus, so the southern coves are often calmer. Spring and autumn are the seasons for walking the Camí de Ronda coastal path and for the grape harvest in the Empordà, while winter is quiet and many hotels close.

The Costa Brava’s best hotels are small and long-established. Hostal de La Gavina, opened in 1932, stands above the bay of S’Agaró with its gardens and seafront promenade; Hotel Aiguablava sits among the pines over a cove near Begur; and Mas de Torrent Hotel & Spa, a restored eighteenth-century masia, lies among the fields of the Empordà a few minutes inland from the coast.

These are independent houses, and LVXVRY advises on and arranges each stay directly, often combining the coast with the medieval villages and vineyards of the Empordà, the Dalí Theatre-Museum at Figueres and the old town of Girona, and closing with a few nights in Barcelona, an easy two hours’ drive to the south.