Costa Brava / Lloret del Mar

[Rojak]

We are hoping to join friends on holiday in Spain in August. They have accommodation in a resort called Santa Susanna but DH and I would prefer a quieter option, perhaps a villa or apartment, further inland or up the coast.

Can anyone recommend other resorts on the Costa Brava or websites for accommodation? How far is the resort of Calella de Palafrugell from the Lloret del Mar end?

Thanks

Calella de Palafrugell is absolutely the nicest place in Spain. It is a quaint little fishing resort, real picture postcard type place although the accommodation here is not plentiful as many rich Spaniards have holiday homes here. There is a campsite about 1 mile away called La Siesta. The drive from here to Lloret de Mar would take at least 1 hour and is probably not something you would want to do regularly. Santa Susanna is a fairly lively built up resort with masses of hotels and apts but budget wise it would be much cheaper than Calella de Palafrugel.
Another fab resort is Tossa de Mar, again a nice fishing resort with great beaches, plenty of accommodation and is about a 25 minute drive from Lloret. A further good option would be Estartit which has the best beach on the coast, gentle shelving waters, huge sandy beach but again quite a distance from Santa Susanna. I think you need to make a decision as to whether you join your friends in their resort or opt for something completely different further along the coast but realise you may only see your friends once or so during the holiday.

Ooh Trifle (apologies for the hijack) the areas you describe sound ideal for us and dd in September.Can you recommend any lovely(4 or 5*)hotels on the beach?Hopefully with kiddy facilities..

Yes need to make that decision - part of me thinks it would be really nice to spend time with them and their kids as we live abroad and see them once a year (and our kids get on very well!) but other part of me thinks I would much prefer to be somewhere like Parafrugell.

Will look up La Siesta and give Tossa De Mar another look too.

Thanks

To whoosh

To answer your reply I would probably go for either Estartit or Tossa de Mar as each has something going for it. Tossa is a lovely quaint resort, fab beach and an old castle where you will find an abundance of seafood restaurants lining the castle walls. However the downside of here is that the neighbouring resorts of Lloret are fairly touristy and it is further from the airport. Estartit is accessible from either Barcelona (2 hours), Gerona (45 minutes) or Perpignan (1.5 hours). Estartit is close to great places to visit such as Empuriabrava (mini Venice) where you can hire a boat and cruise down the canals and admire all the expensive houses. You can also visit Calella de Palafrugell very easily as it is about a 20 minute drive away. I always get an overwhelming sense of peace when I go here although it is probably too small a place for a weeks holiday as it has small coves although the seafood restaurants here are renowned and people travel for miles to eat here. Estartit like I said has a great beach, the best in the area, a port from where you can take boat trips and areas surrounding it that are steeped in history. It is not an all year round resort although September will be a good time to visit when most of the crowds have gone but everything is still lively and the weather will be great. We usually go October half term when it is pretty dead but the weather has always been fantastic. As for hotels, it would be difficult to recommend any as we have an apt there and stay there instead. Hope that helps.

Trifle-thank you so much for the info-am now off to research.