Costa Brava

Not far away from Barcelona from the French boundary along the Mediterranean coast is located Costa Brava - one of the famous tourism resorts in Spain. The name of the region is given by the Spanish sailors which means wild rocky coast. And in fact the beaches here look like they were dogged in the rocks and just beside the sea there are green pine-trees, stone-pines and cypresses. This nature is tender and rough at the same time. It inspires the artist Salvador Dali for his unique surrealistic creations.

His birthplace Figeres today is a magnet for tourists with the extraordinary theater-museum of Dali. It's the sightseeing in fourth place for visiting in Spain after the museum Prado in Madrid, Picasso museum and the football stadium Camp Nou in Barcelona. In the unusual building with large eggs on the roof you can see the famous sofa with shape, inspired by the lips of the actress May West, the raining Cadillacs and the many drawings. If you look at them more closely, you'll find landscapes from Catalonia - the favorite region of the artist.

Another exposition is made in the castle Pubol, which was bought by Dali in 1968 for his wife Gala. In the restored building (the castle was built in 14th century) Gala was living till her death. Besides all saved clothes, furniture and art creations, this so called "museum" keeps in the garden the famous Dali's sculpture - the elephant with mosquito's feet.

Even if you are not surrealism lovers, you can't miss this magic when you are guests of some of the seacoast resorts of Costa Brava. And every year they are attracting millions of tourists from all over Europe in the summer. These are places for a nice rest. They are visited mainly by families with kids or by youths, because the variety of hotels with affordable rates is great.

The beaches are clean, the heat is bearable, because even in the hottest days blows the tramuntan - the wind from Iberian. It makes the sky unclouded blue and outright in the crystal air the forests and the rocky shore.

Loret de Mar today is a big resort with modern hotel chains, a lot of bars and restaurants, casino and exotic night clubs, that attract the people. The city's business card is the long avenue along the sea coast with magnificent palm trees, where tourists walk around at night.

Blanes is the oldest city of the sea coast. It keeps monuments from the Middle Age, districts with typical Mediterranean buildings from 19 century and an old harbor with many fish restaurants for every taste around it. It's well known that Spaniards are true maniacs in cooking dishes with fish and other sea food.

From this harbor cutters are going every day in the sea and you can view the beautiful small bays along the sea coast or visit the closer cities. Not so far away, on north, is located one of the most beautiful botanic gardens in Spain with over 3,000 kinds exotic plants.

Other remarkable resorts that offer old-fashioned atmosphere and modern hotels, very good customer service and many water attractions like windsurf, water ski, diving, fishing are Santa Susana, Kaleya, Malgrat de Mar and Tosa de Mar. And if you are tired from the beach holiday, sea adventures and the local historical and cultural sightseeings, you're just 80 km from the beautiful Barcelona.