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Along the Catalan Coast

Europe : Spain

Tour name: Along the Catalan Coast

This gentle route, a perfect first walking holiday, shows to the full the magnificent contrasts of this part of the Costa Brava.

Duration: 7 Days      Grading: EASY      Max Group Size: 8      Type: SELF-GUIDED      Prices from: £748

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Tour Summary:

Tour name: Along the Catalan Coast

Prices from: £748

Duration: 7 Days

Kind points from: 56

N&K Reference: NKT0001595
(Type this into the "Jump to" form at www.NatureAndKind.com to find this tour again)


Type: SELF-GUIDED

Grading: EASY

Suitable for: OVER 50s, ROMANTIC ESCAPE, FAMILIES, COUPLES, SMALL GROUPS, SOLO TRAVELLERS, Couples

Experiences: ACTIVE

Environments: BEACH, COUNTRYSIDE

Activities: ACTIVE - Walking

Max Group Size: 8

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Tour Overview

This gentle route, a perfect first walking holiday, shows to the full the magnificent contrasts of this part of the Costa Brava: medieval villages and pine-clad hills, small, quiet coves and the wide, sandy beaches for which the area is renowned. There are plenty of opportunities to relax by the sea and to linger over lunch at an authentic restaurant, just two of the many highlights of the holiday. Indeed, the region is justly famed throughout Spain for its gastronomy, with delicious fish specialities.

Traditional welcoming hotels offering the finest local cuisine

Location

Continent or Region: Europe

Country or State/County: Spain


Guiding and support

We provide full route notes and maps. They are so detailed that you don’t need a guide –they are your guide. Just as a guide would tell you about the places you pass, our notes include information on any monuments, historic villages or other places of interest along the way, and if it is worth making a detour to a fantastic viewpoint, we point this out too. We even make suggestions for good picnic spots. If back up is required, your hosts are on hand to help out, or you can call our 24-hour emergency line.
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Tour Highlights

Short Break (Nights: 4)
The walk is gentle and undemanding, with plenty of opportunities to relax on the beach or linger over a delicious seafood lunch
Terrain: sandy coastal trails, some beach sections
Meals: dinner & breakfast each day

Itinerary

Day 1

Spend your day at Llafranc strolling through the whitewashed streets that frame the delightful secluded bay with its sandy beach, perhaps even hiring snorkelling equipment (pay locally). If you feel like a walk, you could follow the coastal path to neighbouring Calella and visit the beautiful botanic gardens at Cape Roig. Alternatively, a longer route leads along the coast, with the occasional inland section through scented woodland of cork oaks, pines, olives and large cacti, to the village of Palamos. You return the same way. (up to 18km, 5hrs)

Day 1 on Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Day 2

Today's slightly more demanding but thoroughly rewarding route offers a mixture of coastal and inland walking, starting out uphill along a lane to the San Sebastián lighthouse for spectacular views over the sea and inland to the Pyrenees. You then have a wonderful coastal section along ascending and descending paths from the idyllic, rocky bay of Cala Pedrosa along the coast to Tamariu before heading inland to reach medieval Begur. (12km, 4hrs)

Accommodation: Hotel Rosa (3*), Begur. A welcoming hotel run by the charming Rosa and Narcís Caner. The roof terrace, a pleasant spot to relax, overlooks the tiled roofs of the town, while the restaurant has deservedly gained an excellent reputation; you dine from the à la carte menu.

Day 2 on Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Day 3

Day 3: take some time to explore enchanting Begur and its haphazard streets, above which stand the ruins of the 11th-century castle, an excellent viewpoint - in clear weather you can see Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees. If you would like to walk some more, a path leads to the pleasant bay at Aiguafreda, where you can relax awhile and enjoy a delicious seafood lunch (pay locally) before returning to Begur via the beautiful gardens at Mas d'en Pinc. Alternatively, you could walk to the nearby medieval town of Pals, where you can spend some time exploring the ancient ramparts and the streets of houses built from the peach-coloured local stone. Seek out, too, the various Romanesque monuments and the viewpoint overlooking the Mediterranean, the Medes Islands and the Montgrí Mountains. (8.5km, 2.5hrs)

Accommodation: Hotel Rosa, as above.

Day 3 on Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Day 4

Day 4: this day's walk is a discovery of the landscapes that lie inland from the coast, with the opportunity to visit the market town of Palafrugell if you have not already done so. Alternatively, you can take the direct, half-hour route along the coast to Llafranc. (11km, 4hrs)


Day 5

Day 5: this walk is rockier than previous days but very rewarding. The first of several highlights comes early on, when you reach the San Sebastián lighthouse to be rewarded on clear days with spectacular views over the sea and inland across to the Pyrenees. You then follow the coastal path from the idyllic, rocky bay of Cala Pedrosa (a good spot for swimming), past a pine forest, to the rocky headland of La Musclera, another pleasant spot to sit and take the sun before you head across the rocks to the lovely, sandy bay at Tamariu (complete with a fish restaurant) and finish with a short uphill section to Aiguablava. (12km, 3hrs)


Day 6

Day 6: choose to relax at Aiguablava, or walk to medieval Begur, a charming medieval town with a ruined castle from which you can look across to the sea. You can extend the walk by exploring the Begur headland, taking in the beautiful bay of Aiguafreda (complete with a restaurant where you could stop for a seafood lunch - pay locally) and returning via the botanical gardens of Mas d'en Pinc.

From To Description Num Days Price Booking
01-Sep-2008 31-Dec-2012 Departure Dates

Walk prices from GBP 748ppw

Rail prices from GBP 1128 to GBP 1278 ppw

Single room prices from GBP 198 to GBP 258 ppw

Departure dates

March-Oct

Please enquire now for scheduled dates and availability


7 £748.00
what's included?

Kind Points:168
Prices and Enquiries
Included in the price:
  • Accommodation
  • Activities
  • Airport transfers
  • Arrival starter pack
  • Breakfast
NOT included in the price:
  • Logs

Accepted Payment Types

• Cheque • Mastercard • Visa • Maestro
• Electron • Bank Transfer

Nature & Kind Factor

Our Trusted Partner's Responsible and Sustainable Travel Policy

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM

We recognise that we have social, cultural and environmental responsibilities to the people that live in the regions our holidays visit. We wish to respect and preserve both their environment and their way of life.

We are a member of AITO (the Association of Independent Tour Operators), which has always been at the forefront of the promotion of responsible tourism in Britain. It is now a condition of membership that firms sign up to its responsible tourism guidelines:

- Protect the environment - its flora, fauna and landscapes
- Respect local cultures - traditions, religions and built heritage
- Benefit local communities - both economically and socially
- Conserve natural resources - from office to destination
- Minimise pollution - noise, waste and congestion

To recognise those companies which have taken these guidelines further and implemented their own comprehensive responsible tourism policy, AITO has established a 2- and 3-star responsible tourism award system. Inntravel is one of only a handful of members to have been awarded 3-star status.
Protecting the regions our holidays visit

Our holidays are, by their very nature, 'responsible':

- Many of our holidays take place in remote, rural parts of Europe where depopulation has been a feature for decades. We help to bring employment and regeneration to these areas. Furthermore, the walking routes featured in our Walking and More programme help to keep open traditional drovers' roads and other paths.
- We benefit the local economy of the regions we offer holidays to because, almost without exception, the hotels and taxi companies with which we work are local, family-run businesses. The fact that our holidays are for individuals rather than groups means that we can offer hotels and guesthouses with as few as two or three rooms.
- Luggage transfers on walking and cycling holidays are combined wherever possible - if several Inntravel customers are moving on to the same hotel, their suitcases will be transported together, or, where a luggage transfer is operated by a taxi firm, they often transport the suitcases at the same time as carrying passengers.
- Travel between the destination airport and the hotel is always by rail whenever possible, with taxis used only for the journey between the station and the hotel. We also offer options by Eurostar for those holidays that can easily be reached by rail from London, and encourage customers to offset the carbon emissions produced by their holiday flight.
- We help to increase our customers' understanding of the region they are visiting by providing information on the region's culture, history, traditions and gastronomy in our documentation.
- A large number of our chosen hotels already feature local produce in their menus, and some also have an environmental policy relating to laundry, lighting and energy conservation etc. We encourage those who have not yet taken such steps to adopt an environmental policy.
- Similarly, we include information about responsible tourism in our customer documentation, thus helping to spread the message. The information includes tips on how customers can help while on holiday, from turning down the heating in the bedroom to restricting souvenir purchases to locally produced goods.

THE NATIONAL TRUST
As well as helping to protect the regions we offer holidays to, Inntravel also works with The National Trust to offer a programme of walking, cycling and self-catering holidays for National Trust members and supporters. Inntravel makes a financial contribution for each booking made through these programmes so as to help fund the work of The National Trust here in the UK, preserving our own countryside and heritage.


OUR OFFICE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

We cannot ask hoteliers to act responsibly if we do not do so ourselves in our office.

- Our offices, sympathetically converted from a disused farm building specifically for Inntravel, are very well insulated and use energy-saving lighting.
- We will soon be switching electricity suppliers so that we get our electricity from a company which generates a considerable proportion of its power from renewable energy sources.
- We use paper from sustainably-managed forests, and the envelopes for mailing our brochures are made from recycled polythene and are themselves fully recyclable.
- We recycle all paper used within the office, as well as the glass, plastic, steel and cardboard packaging from the food staff bring in for their lunches - the cardboard is used for horse bedding. We give all printer cartridges to a charity which refills them.
- We buy Fair Trade tea and coffee for the staff kitchen.
- Although the secluded location of our office unfortunately means it is not served by public transport, many staff car share.
- We offset all our business air travel emissions with a financial contribution to Climate Care.
- Each year we donate part of our profits to a number of charitable organisations, namely Plantlife, which works to preserve the natural habitat of endangered species in Eastern Europe, VSO and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which helps to fund the management of nature reserves in the county.


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Prices and Enquiries

About our Trusted Partner

Whether you love walking, cycling, skiing, horse riding or touring, our award-winning holidays for individuals are all about taking the time to get to know a region. Inspirational scenery, welcoming hotels of character, and delicious regional cuisine are key ingredients of all holidays, and you explore entirely at your own pace – our holiday notes are so detailed that you don’t need a guide – safe in the knowledge that our friendly, expert staff have looked after every detail of your holiday.

Cataluna coast : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Cataluna coast
Cataluna coast : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Amazing sea views : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Amazing sea views
Amazing sea views : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Flowers of Catalan : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Flowers of Catalan
Flowers of Catalan : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Rugged coastline : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Rugged coastline
Rugged coastline : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

beach restaurants : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

beach restaurants
beach restaurants : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Cape Roig : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Cape Roig
Cape Roig : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Pals : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

Pals
Pals : Along the Catalan Coast at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)

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Tour Summary:

Tour name: Along the Catalan Coast

Prices from: £748

Duration: 7 Days

Kind points from: 56

N&K Reference: NKT0001595
(Type this into the "Jump to" form at www.NatureAndKind.com to find this tour again)


Type: SELF-GUIDED

Grading: EASY

Suitable for: OVER 50s, ROMANTIC ESCAPE, FAMILIES, COUPLES, SMALL GROUPS, SOLO TRAVELLERS, Couples

Experiences: ACTIVE

Environments: BEACH, COUNTRYSIDE

Activities: ACTIVE - Walking

Max Group Size: 8

Add to favourites   Email this page
In order to use the Send to a Friend facility you must be logged in. Please either log in above, or register if you are not already a friend of Nature & Kind.
  • ABTOF (Association of British Travel Organisers to France)
    Best Overall Promotion of France 2008
  • Maison de la France
    Best Holiday Operator 2008
  • Best Short Break Company 2007 Guardian and Observer Travel Awards
    Won for the fifth year in a row. Award based on a comprehensive readers’ survey.
  • Association of British Travel Agents
  • Association of Independent Tour Operators
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