Blanes

Blanes is a large coastal town in Selva, North of Barcelona and just 25 minutes from Girona. The Costa Brava stretches north from Blanes.

A Catalonian heartland despite being the gateway to the wild Costa Brava coast, Blanes has a little bit of everything you need, city centre, the beach, beautiful natural surroundings and a lively tourist area.

Blanes is a town of rejuvenation. Floored in various Spanish wars and revolts, recently rebuilt along the seafront after a 2008 storm, it still holds onto an interminable Catalonian spirit.

The beach is popular with locals, Barcelonians and a tourist set from Europe. At the northern end of the beach La Palomera, a rocky area of land, separates a quieter, smaller cove where sunbathers laze next to fishing sloops. To the south is El Pins, with camping grounds set away from the high-rise apartments, it’s a tourist resort in miniature.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants along the boulevard and a few streets inland leads to a labyrinthine quarter of traditional squares and passages known as the shopping district. There you’ll find a mixture of terrace bars and upscale boutiques. Blanes is also home to various gardens, including the enormous Marimurtra botanical gardens, Santa Clotilde Gardens and the smaller Pinya de Rosa tropical botanical garden.