The Costa Brava area of Spain runs pretty much from the French border to Barcelona and is well known by the resorts of places such as Blanes, Lloret de Mar, Tossa de Mar and Roses. We chose not to stay at any of those 'famous places' but plumped for a place called Sant Feliu de Guixols (or SFG).

We had no idea what to expect at SFG, but having looked on Google Maps, and having done a bit of research it didn't seem like the place to get an English breakfast or pay a visit to the Old Vic London pub. Why would you want to when on holiday, surely that is part of visiting somewhere different to not have all of the trappings of home? More on SFG later . . . . .

Our tour of the Costa Blanca started at Malgret de Mar which was around a 45 minute drive from Girona. Heather had heard about Malgret de Mar and appraently it featured in holiday brochures of the past that she had seen. It was a pleasant enough place, although not somewhere that I would want to have a two week holiday at. We then moved up the coast to Blanes and through Lloret de Mar, both of which seemed to be large resort style places and definetly not our cup of tea, so onto Tossa de Mar we went.

Tossa de Mar (TdM) did however seem to be less built up than Blanes and Lloret de Mar and fortunately our arrival coincided with lunch time. It was still touristy, but the sea front setting and the UNESCO listed 'old town' area to the south of the bay added quite a bit of character to the place that seemed to be lacking in the other towns we visted/passed through in the morning. The 'old town' area was a nice place to wander around after leaving the busier sea front area of Tossa de Mar and our sea view stop at the lighthouse on the headland was much needed after the walk up the hill. Overall TdM was well worth the visit.

The coastal drive between TdM and SFG, where we had a hotel reservation for three nights, was lovely and one that would be highly recommended. There were a few viewpoint stop offs affording great coastal panoramas too as the road zig-zagged hugging the coast as we travelled north.

Arriving in SFG we headed to our hotel and after going through the normal check in formalities the owner advised us that the air-conditioing in the building had failed - maybe it would have been better to mention this up front? After viewing the room we decided that given temperatures were in the high 20s trying to sleep without air-conditioning would have been most unpleasant even if the room was really nice. That meant we needed to find alternative accomodation and after some checking on the internet - where would we be without it - we found an alternative hotel in SFG that appeared to have rooms available.

It was not the easiest of experiences as our Spanish is not that good and the staff at the hotel spoke no English either. Google translate was a bonus and after being told to come back after 7pm we finally got a room at the Can Segura Hotel for three nights. It was cheaper than our planned hotel and the room was actually as good, if not better than our original choice . . . . and the air conditioing worked!

Sant Feliu de Guixols turned out to be a great place to have as our base. Yes, it was touristy, but not high rise touristy, and certainly not like the other places we visited during our first day on the Costa Brava. It actually felt Spanish and seemed to have a much more local spirit about it that was possibly lacking in the larger resort style places we had seen. By the end of our three night stay it felt like the sort of place that we would easily return to in the future as well.

Having posted on Facebook that we were in SFG, a friend got in touch to say that he had stopped there when he was much younger with his family on a 1970s package holiday. He also mentioned that he had dragged his family to find the old railway station which had closed in the late 1960s that was the terminus of the narrow guage railway linking SFG with Girona. The old station building is still in place, although now a school, and there are clear signs of railway history including platforms and turntable pit that now form part of the playground area. It was a good tip off by Mark Hill and it was good to share some photos with him via Facebook - I am sure it will have changed in the intervening 40+ years.

The following day we headed north of SFG heading for Cadaques, which according to the guidebook was well worth visiting - and it was. The setting in the bay was fabulous as was the short walk along the coastal path we took. In the afternoon, we visted Roses, after another recomendation via Facebook which had a very different feel to it than Cadaques. The sweeping promenade was lovely as was the ice cream/gelato we had here is Roses.

On the way back to SFG we called in at Peratadella, an interesting medieval town complete with castle, narrow streets, as well as a few cafes/restaurants and touristy shops to visit. It was certainly very quiet compared to the other places we had visited on this trip, but one that was well worth the stop.

Monday evening in SFG was very quiet and rather reminiscant of France where Mondays are an extension of the weekend. Most restaurants were closed but we did find Pizzeria Xus open offering good value food and wine (the house wine was just €6.00 a bottle and was quite quaffable, although we found it being sold in a wine shop for €1.50 the following day!). Again, the serving staff here spoke little/no English and with a bit of translation to double check some of the pizza toppings we had a great meal here.

Tuesday was spent in and around SFG, breakfast at the local bakers, walking the back streets, visiting the old railway station site (as already mentioned), having a lovely lunch at Sa Marinada overlooking the bay and generally having a relaxing day of it. We really did like SFG.

Our flight back on the Wednesday to East Midlands was at 18.00, so we had most of the day to fill before needing to drop off the hire car at the airport. Weather wise it wasn't a brilliant day either, but after a final breakfast in SFG we headed inland and called in at Llagostera, Sant Grau and Santa Coloma de Farners before getting to Girona airport for our Ryanair flight back to the UK on FR1131.

This was a good taster of the Costa Brava area and whilst there were certainly some places that we would not want to head back to, there are some that we would happily go back to if in the area again. That said, there is a lot more of Spain to see . . . . . .

More photographs available in the Costa Brava album in the Photos area of my travel blog