Advice and FAQ

Clickable map of walks, visits and beaches on this site.

The Costa Brava has all sorts of beaches from little isolated coves to wide broad sand bays that stretch for kilometres (eg Pals or Palamos).

With a coast line of 158 kilometres (100 miles), the beach you want is probably on the Costa Brava, you just need to know where to look...

For exploring the Costa Brava for even the well known paths like the GR92, it's very useful to take maps, particularly for new areas. Not every path is always on the map, but at least it means you know when you're really lost. These are the maps we use.

The weather is one of the main reasons for visiting and living in the Costa Brava. Summers are hot and winters are mild with lots of blue sky and sunshine which means there is good walking for ten months of the year, and swimming at the beach for the remaining two.

The Costa Brava coasts teem with fish making it a perfect place for snorkelling, diving and long distance swimming. However, being a natural environment occasionally you do run into jellyfish (medusa in most European languages - imagine the Gorgon's head). Most of the year you see isolated medusa near the coast and fortunately the waters are normally so clear that if you wear goggles and keep a look out you can avoid them. A day-to-day report of jellyfish presence at beaches can be found at Medjelly.

The Costa Brava walks that we've tried to include in this blog are walks that are varied - a bit of history, some views, some woods, hopefully a stream or water, some cultivation and some pure nature and with some thing to see as an objective. We prefer round trips so you don't repeat yourself. Usually there are shortcuts if you don't want to walk the whole of our route

Getting lost is a common (and enjoyable) hazard when walking new routes on the Costa Brava. Broadly speaking you can follow most paths and tracks that you come across except those marked Cami Particular (private road). In the woods there are tons of routes and hunter trails many which aren't marked on maps.

As spring and summer arrive in Catalonia it becomes important to carry water on the walk - even for something relatively short. And obviously suntan lotion. The views are also typically better in winter than in summer.

The pictures and photos that we've included are those taken on the walk as described so these are real photos from the walk so subject to the weather or haze of the day. A selection of our best photos of the Costa Brava can be purchased online at RedBubble. Full size versions of other pictures are available on request.

A common question for travellers is how to reach the Costa Brava and how long will it take. From both Barcelona and Girona there are direct buses (see www.sarfa.com) which run regular services. Alternatively trains connect Blanes at the south, or Llanca in the north, but there are no train lines in the centre. Driving is easy with autoroute and dual carriageway connections most of the way.

We tend to walk routes in the Costa Brava that are not normally drive-able (generally we avoid traffic) but they are often accessible by bicycle with good options for mountain biking. Routes here rarely have gates and we've not seen stiles or other barriers as such and we regularly see wheel tracks on the paths even on the steeper rockier paths through the woods. Some of the dirt track routes would be accessible by 4x4 (just don't ruin it for the rest of us).

The Costa Brava has little industry as such. Most businesses are connected with tourism or construction/skilled trades. The economic situation is not good and there is a lot of competition. If you do want to work here you'll need to bring your own work (eg working via the internet for businesses in the UK/US)

For restaurants and hotels and other types of tourist entertainment this probably isn't the right site as we're more aimed at walking and exploring the countryside. The Costa Brava is highly regarded for good food with several Michelin restaurants. Many of the best restaurants are inland in converted masias close to the old medieval towns.