We may be a little biased, but is there any other stretch of Spain’s coastline as spectacularly beautiful as La Costa Brava? Sure, the rugged shores of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country might come close — but let’s be honest, they don’t have our Mediterranean climate, do they?
Foreigners will most likely recognise Costa Brava names like Cadaqués and Lloret de Mar.
Lloret earned its reputation during the heyday of package tourism and party holidays, while Cadaqués is best known for its connection to world-renowned Empordan artist Salvador Dalí, as well as its natural beauty.
But there are other stretches of the Costa Brava that are just as — if not more — beautiful. While not exactly hidden gems, they’re far less known to international visitors, apart from those from France and the Benelux countries. One such area is the 12km stretch of coastline belonging to the municipality of Palafrugell.
Palafrugell
The town of Palafrugell is located almost 4km from the coast, between the easternmost foothills of Les Gavarres and the hills of Begur. It is the largest town of the Baix Empordà comarca (county) with a population of about 24,000, although the county capital is actually La Bisbal d’Empordà.
While the principal settlement in its early days would’ve been on the coast during the time of the Romans, the main population moved inland due to the threat from Mediterranean pirates in the 5th and 6th centuries, as was the case for many other Catalan coastal towns. The pirate menace remained for a long number of years, centuries in fact, and so the inland settlement continued to grow to become the town we know today.
Palafrugell’s first documented mention was in 988, but today, most traces of its medieval past have been lost to time and progress, with the last of the seven round towers of the city walls being demolished in 1908. There is a very pleasant square in the centre of the town, though called Plaça Nova, with plenty of bar-restaurants with terraces perfect for watching the world go by.
Flors i Violes Festival
One of the best times to experience Palafrugell at its most vibrant is in spring, when the town comes alive with the Flors i Violes Festival. The event fills the municipality with colour, creativity, and culture. With more than 100 activities, performances, and installations across 40 locations, it’s a packed programme that offers something for everyone in the family.
Festes de Primavera, Carroussel Costa Brava
If you are in Palafrugell in late May or early June, check if “Carnaval” is happening! No, not the real Carnaval – that usually happens in February – but the Festes de Primavera, Carroussel Costa Brava, part of the Palafrugell Spring Festival. The traditional Carnaval was put on hold during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), understandably enough, and after Franco’s victory, the dictator decreed that Carnaval was henceforth banned throughout Spain. By 1963, the people of Palafrugell were fed up with this, and so recreated the event under a different name, “Spring Festival”, and changed its dates to a later month to avoid a ban. This year (2025), the Spring Festival begins on 17 May with the main event, the Festes de Primavera, taking place over the first weekend of June.
El Camino de Ronda
If you would like to explore all three seaside towns of Palafrugell in a day, you can easily do so by car, but we would suggest walking along the Camino de Ronda coastal trail instead, starting in Tamariu, passing through Llafranc and finishing in Calella de Palafrugell. Of course, you could do it in the opposite direction too, but starting at Tamariu you get the most challenging part out of the way first, and finish off with a pleasant and easy stroll into Calella. “Plain sailing”, if you will, given the popularity of all three towns with marine folk for anchoring their sailboats.
The whole walk without stops should take just over a couple of hours or so. Even though there are a couple of slightly tricky parts at the beginning, they don’t last too long at all. You might want to add on some time for photo stops or a swim, though, and maybe a beer!
Tamariu
The northernmost and the smallest of the three villages is Tamariu. It is also the quietest and is mostly family-oriented, but it does have plenty of bars and restaurants hidden in its narrow streets and on its lovely, albeit short, promenade. The cove is rocky, but the beach is of golden sand, and the water seems especially transparent. The town is surrounded by pretty dense forest, and so it has a lovely natural feeling about it, and the whitewashed buildings just add to its character.
Its days as a fishing hamlet are mostly behind it, but it remains a popular place to moor leisure craft nowadays. The coast is dotted with coves with deep, clear waters, and these can be explored by boat, or even by kayak, available to rent in the town. One such cove, which has a small jetty, is Cala Aigua Dolça just to the north, and this can also be reached by walking for a few minutes along the tree-covered camino. All in all, Tamariu is just about picture postcard perfect!
The trek (up) to the lighthouse
If you decide to walk from Tamariu to Llafranc, just head to the southern end of the beach and look for the signs for the Camino to El Far de Sant Sebastià (The Lighthouse of St. Sebastian), which tell you that the walk should take 1 hour 15 minutes. The estimate is just about bang on, but this is the trickiest part of the Camino along here. The trail begins across some rocks, so keep an eye out for the red and white markers along your way (that look like Polish or Indonesian flags) to make sure you don’t take a wrong turn.
The path will then take you uphill for a while until you see some lovely views from on high of the gorgeous wee coves of Cala d’en Roig and Cala Gamarús below, before then taking you down again till you reach the lovely Cala Pedrosa. (“Cala” means “cove”, in case you hadn’t guessed!) We told you this was the tough part!
Fortunately, Cala Pedrosa, despite its isolation, has an almost-xiringuito-style bar where you can grab a quick beer (we sure did!) before climbing back up along the Camino again until you eventually reach the lighthouse. If you want to avoid descending all the way down to Cala Pedrosa only to have to hike back up again after, you can walk along the road, but then you’ll miss lots of gorgeous scenery, and there are stretches of the windy road that have no path for walkers.
Whichever path you take, once you make it to El Far (the lighthouse), you’ll instantly see why it was worth the extra effort, with panoramic views stretching for kilometres into the distance out to sea and up and down the coast in both directions. It makes complete sense that they built the lighthouse right here way back in 1857! Oh, and you can have another beer here, too! It’s also a fantastic spot for lunch, but we recommend booking in advance as the place is extremely popular.
This is the highest point of the walk at 165m, and if you like your history there is also a site of an Iberian settlement here that dates back to the 6th century BCE, Poblat Ibèric de Sant Sebastià de la Guarda, and right next to it are the Torre de Guaita watchtower, dating from 1445, as well as a baroque hermitage and inn also named for St Sebastià.
Once you’ve finished your lunch or beer, you can resume your walk downhill for about 15-20 minutes (the hard part is behind you now; the rest is easy, we promise!) to the next of Palafrugell’s seaside villages in the bay just below: Llafranc.
Llafranc
This former fishing village of white houses has a permanent population of just over 300 inhabitants, although this can increase to as many as 10,000 in the height of the tourist season. The nucleus of the town curves around the 340m beach and its promenade, called Passeig de Cipsela. There are lots of bars, restaurants, ice cream parlors and shops, and in summertime, the bay is full of leisure boats at anchor. At the north end of the bay is a yacht club with a small marina, sheltered by the Sant Sebastià cape, which you (may) have just walked down from.
The area was inhabited as long as about 5,000 years ago as evidenced by the stone age Dolmen de Can Mina dels Torrents discovered in 1965 and as we already mentioned, there was an Iberian settlement up where the lighthouse stands today, but, with the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century BCE this was gradually abandoned as the population moved down towards the port of Llafranc instead. Wine and pottery were produced in the area and exported from the port, and excavations have revealed that there were at least a dozen Roman villas in the area.
Llafranc remained permanently inhabited until the Roman Empire declined and our old friends the Pirates of the Mediterranean started attacking Spanish coasts, and so, as elsewhere, the population moved inland leaving only a few stone huts used by fishermen who would still go to sea to earn a livelihood but who didn’t dare actually live on that sea.
The pirates are long gone, and Llafranc’s tourism industry is thriving. There are lots of lovely places to eat here but two we feel are worthy of mention: Hotel Casamar at the southern end of the bay, and Hotel Llafranch (the restaurant and the hotel here are now separate enterprises but still operate under the same name, an old spelling of the town’s name.)
From Llafranc, continue south along the gorgeous Camino de Ronda for the final 1.5km to Calella de Palafrugell, the last town on our walk.
Calella de Palafrugell
If you’re looking up this Calella on Maps, give it its full name: Calella de Palafrugell. There’s another Calella further south on the Costa del Maresme, but we promise you that the one here in Palafrugell is much nicer! The southern version has a railway line running along its beach, which is pretty cool if you’re on the train but pretty awful if you’re in the town, as the railway separates the town from its own beach. Anyway, back to our Calella. By the way, if trying to pronounce the name, don’t forget that the “ll” at the end makes a “y” sound, so it should sound something like “CA-LAY-YA”.
Even if you get the pronunciation wrong, Calella de Palafrugell is without a doubt one of the most beautiful towns on the Costa Brava that still retains the charm of the days before the arrival of mass tourism, with its narrow streets and whitewashed houses with sloping tile roofs, typically decorated with colourful flowers. This old fishing village still has some fine examples of traditional two-storey fishermen’s houses with white facades, and although the types of dwellings today are diverse, ranging from single-family homes to apartment blocks, somehow Calella has never lost its soul to development.
Located on a rocky coast, scattered with sandy beaches and turquoise waters, it has a beauty all its own. The beaches of the town include Platja Canadell and Platja del Port Malaspina, with the old fishing sheds and their doors painted in bright colours where the mariners once kept their boats and tools.
Then there’s Platja Port Bo together with Platja d’en Calau with its colourful fishing boats on the sand, and buildings with vaulted arches, known as les voltes, which now house numerous restaurants and bars. Continuing walking along the seafront, you come to Platja del Port Pelegrí and, just before it, the mirador of Punta dels Burricaires, which offers maybe the best panoramic views of Calella.
Continuing walking along the seafront, you come to Platja del Port Pelegrí and, just before it, the mirador of Punta dels Burricaires, which offers maybe the best panoramic views of Calella, a fitting end to your day’s walk that started with a hike and ended with a leisurely and yet intoxicating stroll.
Gastronomy
La Garoinada
Alongside the many restaurants and bars serving typical local fare year-round, some regional specialities are tied to specific seasons. The best known is La Garoinada, a gastronomic campaign from late winter to early spring in Palafrugell that celebrates the sea urchin as its star ingredient.
The Catalan word for sea urchin is eriçó (literally “sea hedgehog”), but here on the Costa Brava, they’re affectionately known as garoines, giving the festival its name.
Es Niu
Palafrugell’s autumn gastro campaign, “Es Niu”, begins around mid-October.
“Es Niu” translates to “the nest”. The organisers are notoriously late in announcing the start date and participating restaurants, but the good news is that it runs through to December, so there’s plenty of time to catch it.
Es Niu is a rich, slow-cooked stew with many ingredients. Originally a Lenten dish without meat, that’s definitely no longer the case!
Havaneres
In summer, the annual Cantada d’Havaneres musical event takes centre stage on the first weekend of July in Plaça Port Bo, Calella de Palafrugell. It draws thousands of people to the beach and even onto boats anchored in the cove. Since its first edition in 1966, it has become one of the most iconic events on the Costa Brava.
The first year, the singing took place in a single tavern — but it was such an instant success that it quickly moved outdoors, to the square beside Port Bo beach. Today, after the official performance ends around midnight, smaller singing sessions continue in the town’s taverns late into the night.
As the name suggests, havaneres came to Catalunya via Cuba. Originally a musical style created for the ballroom dance contradanza, the genre evolved throughout the 19th century as Cuban musicians, including black slaves, transformed it into a more creolised form. When this music reached Spain, it was first called americanas and eventually became known as havaneres (spelt habaneras in Castellano, but pronounced the same).
The singing style varied by region: choir singing was more common in Valencia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country, while in Catalunya, havaneres were typically sung by smaller groups, workers’ choirs, or fishermen in the taverns of coastal towns.
Havaneres singing significantly declined in the 1940s and 50s — until its revival in 1966 in Calella de Palafrugell. Since then, the tradition has thrived, with the Cantada d’Havaneres becoming a summer highlight not just for locals but for all who love the rhythm of the sea.
Getting there
If you decide to walk between the towns, it’s worth planning the logistics in advance. You won’t want to park in Tamariu and hike to Calella, only to realise you’ll need to walk back just to collect your car.
One solution is to drive to Palafrugell bus station, park nearby, and take the 15-minute bus to Tamariu. Be aware, though — this route only runs three times a day and operates during the tourist season, so you’ll need to time it well.
Once you’ve completed the walk and arrive in Calella, you can catch a more frequent return bus to Palafrugell from various stops in town. The Moventis bus website can be frustrating to navigate, so we’ve provided direct links to the relevant schedules. (Note: timetables only appear during the months of operation.)
Taxis are another option. There’s a taxi rank at Palafrugell bus station, but getting a return taxi from one of the coastal towns may be trickier, especially in peak hours.
Suggested routes:
Palafrugell → Tamariu → Palafrugell
Palafrugell → Calella → Llafranc → Palafrugell
The Julivia tourist bus runs from mid-July to mid-September, connecting Palafrugell with Cap Roig Botanical Gardens, Calella, Llafranc, El Far de Sant Sebastià, and Tamariu. Tickets and timetables are available on the Sarfa-Moventis website.
The finishing touch?
If you’re now captivated by Palafrugell’s coastline and don’t mind walking another 2km south, you’ll reach the Castell de Cap Roig. Built in a neo-medieval style by a Russian officer who settled in the area after the Russian Revolution, the castle was completed in 1931.
Next to it are the Jardins de Cap Roig, a 20-hectare botanical garden home to over 800 plant species. In July and August, it hosts the world-renowned Cap Roig Festival, featuring internationally acclaimed artists.
Calella also hosts the Summer Concert Cycle, organised by the Joventuts Musicals de Palafrugell.
So there you have it – the beautiful and buzzing coast of Palafrugell!
If you’re not quite up for the whole hike from Tamariu to Llafranc, we still urge you to walk the short stretch from Llafranc to Calella. It’s easy, scenic, and worth it.
And while the coastal hamlets steal the spotlight, don’t skip Palafrugell town. Have a stroll, grab a bite, and you’ll find some truly excellent local restaurants waiting to surprise you.
