On the Costa Brava, between secluded coves, fishing villages, and farmhouses near the sea, the gastronomic offer swells every summer until it becomes very difficult to choose where to have a good lunch or dinner. There are restaurants for all tastes and budgets, but not all that glitters is worth it: between the tourist pressure and summer opportunism, there is a range of establishments where cooking is done with discernment and passion.

The Vívid Festival, dedicated to wine tourism on the Costa Brava, celebrates its 13th edition this April with seventy activities and events that connect wine, nature, active wine tourism, and wellness. Walks through vineyards, guided tours, yoga, and sensory experiences coexist with unique tastings and gastronomic activities in a dynamic and experiential program. The program can be found at [website address missing]. https://vivid.costabrava.org/ . Among the many proposals, we highlight the following:

Brothers Quim and Maria Casellas will launch the project in 2026 with the renovations completed on the hotel, located just above the Casamar restaurantThis is the project that both siblings, along with their parents, set for themselves in 2025 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment opened by their grandparents. The siblings are very close, and their responsibilities are well divided. Quim is in the restaurant; María, in the dining room. They have a top-notch team, with whom they share a commitment to good food and excellent service. The story of their paternal grandparents is a distant memory: they bought a house facing the beach in Llafranc and renovated it to turn it into a hotel. Their great-grandparents, originally from Catalonia, had emigrated to Bern, Switzerland, where they opened a café, Café Madrid, which is now closed. I interview the siblings on the last day of service in January. The sommelier, Àlex Peiró, and the head chef, Ferran Lladó, are already working while I interview the Casellas siblings. They will reopen on March 27th to begin the new 2026 season, in which they will continue to offer the two tasting menus and the à la carte menu.

In summer, the massive influx of tourists and visitors more than doubles the population of the Costa Brava. All services are disrupted by the region's seasonal dynamics, and one of the hardest hit is healthcare. At Palamós Hospital, the only one in the Baix Empordà, healthcare workers report a situation of "extreme saturation" that is overwhelming the emergency department. Staff complain that the health center, with around thirty emergency rooms, cannot cope with the demand from vacationers who, while on vacation, suffer some condition that requires medical attention.

Summer after summer, the Costa Brava is filled with recreational boats dropping anchor in coves and idyllic spots. This happens especially along the Baix Empordà coast, between Palamós and Begur, where many ports and buoy fields are concentrated, with hundreds of boats moored in the months of July and August, setting sail every day. However, this also happens further up the Gulf of Roses, towards Cap de Creus, where the landscape is more rugged and wild. In all these places, lines of yellow buoys mark the limit that boats cannot cross—when there are no buoys, boats theoretically cannot approach within 50 meters of the rocks. However, once again this year, environmentalists denounce that these measures are often not followed and that the proliferation of motorboats, yachts, zodiac boats, and jet skis spoils the environment and endangers bathers who reach the coves on foot.

It's already a summer classic for those who spend their summers on the Costa Brava (or rather, those lucky enough to live there). This is La Santa, the market that for the ninth consecutive year is being held by the Santa Cristina Equestrian Club in Santa Cristina d'Aro. There you can eat a bikini from Jordi Roca's Rocambolesco Bikinería, enjoy ice cream, or stop by the sweets stall of the world's best chocolatier: Osona-based Lluc Crusellas.

Midsummer is here, and with the heat of these August days, there's no doubt that the best plan for the day is to get away from the big cities and head to the sea to cool off. The Costa Brava is the top destination in our country, and from one end to the other, you'll find plenty of beautiful beaches to lay out your towel, swim, or sunbathe. However, before or after a swim, you can't miss the precious moment of sitting on the terrace of a good bar or restaurant, with spectacular views of the sea, and enjoy some tapas, have a vermouth, have a cocktail, or order a fish and seafood rice dish that will leave its mark.

The perfectly aligned colorful houses are Instagrammable, but they're also part of our country's history. In fact, the entire setting is. We're in one of the most beautiful spots on the Costa Brava, in S'Agaró. The beach curves slightly, and a little to the side, we find The Sea TavernIt's a seafood restaurant with the seafood cuisine you'd expect. The building, a small gem of Catalan Modernism, combines white with navy blue and was opened on Sunday, July 19, 1936, by Josep Ensesa Gubert. Just two days after the start of the Civil War. So, it was abandoned until it was revived in 1939. Eighty-nine years later, the restaurant is enjoying great success thanks to its fresh fish (very fresh, we might say), the skill of its staff, and its enviable location. It's also worth mentioning that the Ensesa family carried out a major renovation in 2014.

Barça is not the only team struggling to start the competition at its stadium.Starting this season, a natural grass pitch is required for playing in the Liga F. This problem forced Badalona Women (Levant Badalona last season) to travel to Palamós to play their matches. The work on the Badalona Municipal Stadium, which the club claims should have been completed this summer, has not begun, and the only solution to continue in the First Division has been to temporarily relocate the stadium.

There are restaurants with proven reliability. You always eat well and they always live up to expectations. One of them is Nomo, which, since opening its first restaurant in Jardinets de Gràcia, has always been a benchmark for quality sushi and other Japanese dishes at reasonable prices. Their good work has led the three partners, the Molina-Martell brothers and chef Naoyuki Haginoya, to open new establishments without falling into the vices of large groups. They like to emphasize that, ultimately, they have always been a family business that has become more professional.

A fire has been burning in a wooded area in Palamós, in the Baix Empordà region, since mid-afternoon. Firefighters were notified at 6:31 p.m. and are currently working to extinguish the blaze with six helicopters, two airplanes, and 20 ground crews. The fire, which started near the Riera de Canyelles and is burning vegetation, has forced the lockdown of an area that includes Torre Simona, Camping Relax-Nat, Camping Relax-Ge, and Granja de Vidal. Civil Protection insists that doors and windows must be closed and that people must not go outside.

We're probably in one of the most beautiful places in the country. This is easy to say, but S'Agaró is a scenic and historical gem. that has been preserved from urban depredation other areas of the Mediterranean coast. Specifically, we are in theHostal de La Gavina, historic and iconic hotel, which we associate with Josep Pla or Frank Sinatra, a privileged place that is becoming increasingly accessible thanks to its gastronomic offerings. We quickly review the three dining options, from simplest to most sophisticated, led by José Pulido. Afterwards, we're encouraged to try the other two restaurants. Facing the pool, we find Garbí, which is a true delight and doesn't scare you away. Romantic, with an atmosphere that no description can do justice. As its chef says, it's a place that "transports you back in time." In the indoor dining room, and after the festival, you move outside to a bucolic, candlelit terrace, just like the restaurant's name, Indique.

Did you know that some of the most impressive cliffs on the Costa Brava are hidden on the northern coast of Lloret de Mar? They are those of Can Juncadella, between Cala Canyelles and Cala Morisca, a relatively unknown gem due to the lack of a coastal path that runs along them, unlike other places on the Girona coast. However, there is an even better way to discover them little by little, entering an area of great biodiversity where you can see the nesting peregrine falcon, sea tomatoes, and Posidonia meadows. And that is by kayak. From Cala Canyelles, you can book guided tours of the cliffs around the mountain of Can Juncadella, a large estate that has only had three owners, which has kept a large part of the area undeveloped.

Legend has it that Blanes sold Santa Cristina to the people of Lloret de Mar for a plate of lentils. Whether true or false, it's hard to believe today that, next to one of the most crowded spots on the Costa Brava, the hotel hub of Lloret de Mar, there is a paradise of pristine beaches thanks to the steadfast preservation of the same inhabitants, who for decades have expanded their land purchases around the area. Santa Cristina area to prevent urbanization. Beneath the chapel filled with votive offerings from ships loaded with young Indians who set sail for the Americas, Santa Cristina beach is an oasis surpassed only by the tranquility of the surrounding coves.

On the one hand, the cove attracts me with an exaggerated and even cruel sensuality. On the other, when the good weather arrives, the country scares me away. Perhaps more villas have been built in the protected area, or perhaps the city authorities have further restricted street parking, reserving winter and summer for the wealthy who own a house and garage and only come for a fortnight.

With the progressive easing of drought restrictions and the arrival of the bathing season, which begins every year de facto Rather, coastal municipalities have had to decide whether to reinstate beach showers or opt for some type of restriction. Except for Sant Pere Pescador and Portbou, where beach showers and footbaths will remain closed this summer, most municipalities along the Girona coast have decided to once again offer these services to bathers, although in almost all cases the number of water points will be reduced and flow reducers will be added. The ultimate goal is to reduce consumption, in some cases by as much as half, and raise awareness among the population about responsible water use in the face of the threat of further extreme droughts due to climate change. Some municipalities, such as L'Escala, Llançà, and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, have not yet made a decision on a debated issue: finding a balance between public service and water conservation.

On return service days, after a long weekend or a holiday period, the C-31 highway, known as the coastal axis, accumulates long traffic jams with thousands of vehicles traveling towards Barcelona or Girona from the Baix Empordà region, especially from the towns of Palafrugell, Calella, Palamós, and Platja d'Aro. To avoid these queues, many drivers, following the alternative routes suggested by Google Maps, opt to exit this highway near Platja d'Aro and take a shortcut along the inland roads that pass through Castell and Santa Cristina d'Aro, until they rejoin the C-31 further downstream. This practice, in turn, has ended up causing significant traffic problems within the municipalities, with traffic jams on narrow streets poorly equipped to handle this volume of traffic, which has completely disrupted the normal life of residents.

The Catalan Meteorological Service presented this Thursday, at the San Sebastián de Palafrugell lighthouse (Baix Empordà), the project to digitize meteorological observations carried out between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries at nine emblematic lighthouses on the Costa Brava. This project, which has had the collaboration of the Girona Historical Archive, has successfully cataloged and digitally stored a set of 44,168 images containing weather observations from the lighthouses of San Sebastián, Cap de Creus, Cadaqués, Tossa de Mar, Puerto de la Selva, Las Palacios, and Roses from 1853 to 1956.

Optimism is mounting in the Catalan tourism sector for this Easter, with very favorable occupancy forecasts, averaging over 85% between Holy Thursday and Easter Monday, and in many cases approaching full capacity. After a rainy March, which left a green and flowery spring landscape, excellent snow depths in the Pyrenees, and lush rivers, guests are eager to get outdoors and enjoy nature. Despite the forecast for somewhat unstable weather during the holidays, with sun, clouds, and some rain, campsites, apartments, rural houses, hotels, and restaurants are confident that there will be no last-minute cancellations and are hoping for a more relaxed atmosphere. improve last year's data.

The Costa Brava and the Girona Pyrenees are two ideal destinations for those seeking a combination of nature, culture, and adventure. From the coastline with hidden coves to the majestic Pyrenean mountains, these places offer unique experiences for discovering picture-postcard landscapes in a different way, whether for those looking for activities with family or friends. This spring, the region becomes the perfect setting for unique experiences. Here you'll find options for all tastes.