In the 1970s, the Costa Brava was “a bright and breezy British holiday favourite”, a package tour favourite that was often confused with the Costas Blanca and del Sol, said Paul Richardson in Condé Nast Traveller. Yet most of Catalonia’s “Wild Coast” has never conformed to this “manufactured” sun, sea and sangria image. Stretching from Blanes, an hour north of Barcelona, to the French border, it’s a “complex jigsaw” of “craggy headlands” and “jewel-like coves”, much of which is too “rugged” for “wholesale tourist development”. It has a history of attracting “artists, actors and bohemians”. And recently, it has seen another “vibe shift”, with a new wave of stylish restaurants and hotels.
Lloret de Mar, in the south, is “the Benidorm of Catalonia”, with its “great sweep of urban beach”, but the further north you go, the wilder – and less built-up – the coast becomes. There are “pleasant” harbour towns such as Palamós and Palafrugell, and then comes the great Bay of Roses, “like a vision of the Mediterranean in its pristine, pre-touristic state”. Beyond that lie lovely Cadaqués and Portlligat (where Salvador and Gala Dalí converted a fisherman’s house in 1930 “to live out their bonkers lifestyle”), and yet more “perfect” little bays, all with sandy beaches and “cerulean” waters. It’s well worth heading inland, too. This region – the Empordà – is known as “the Spanish Tuscany” for the “luxuriant beauty” of its landscape. Set among its olive groves and cork-oak forests are “somnolent” medieval hamlets, such as pretty Madremanya – and also, of course, the “delightful” city of Girona.
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