Beach vacations

The Costa Brava is the land of bays, coves, nooks and crannies. You won't find many open sprawling beach spaces here—the longest stretch of the shoreline uninterrupted by hills and cliffs runs for 15 km between L'Escala and Roses along the Golf de Roses bay. Neither is there an unending chain of hotels between these two points; the nature sanctuary Aiguamolls de l'Empordà and the ruins of Empúries stand in the way of active land development.

Visitors looking to vacation on the bay settle into one of the camping grounds by the villages of Sant Martí d'Empúries and Sant Pere Pescador. Coming here at the end of May or the beginning of June allows you to witness the largest water sports event in Catalonia, the Windsurf World Championship: Gran Premio of Catalonia.

The longest beach in the Costa Brava (3.5 km) connects Sant Antoni de Calonge and Palamós. Platja d'Aro (2.5 km) and Lloret de Mar (1 km) follow right behind. No world record numbers here, but ample space for a beach towel and a beach umbrella!

Any city beach on the coast is flanked by small cozy coves on either side, each of which can have widely different coverage, types of the seafloor, underwater flora and fauna. You may not comfortably play beach volleyball here, but there is plenty of entertainment to be found in snorkelling, diving, hunting for crabs hiding in the rocks, sunbathing on smooth surfaces and cliff diving if there is soft sand in the water underneath.

Always research the coves near your "home base"—even if they aren't drastically different from the beach you're used to, they are usually less crowded even in the high summer season. Among hundreds of Costa Brava coves and bays, there are many noteworthy ones often mentioned in tourist guides, top-10 lists and recommended places to visit.