Coastal Villages near Barcelona - recommendations??

[maggiethecat]

Not sure where Costa Brava begins and ends but was thinking of something fairly close to the centre Barcelona so that we can relax by beach for most of the time but travel in fairly quickly by train to the centre to do stuff with our 4yr and 20mth old girls.

?

sitges?

tozer

Sitges is lovely. It is to the south and about half an hour on the fast, clean airconditioned train.

Llfranc, Aigua Blava, Pals etc to the north are beautiful, but you would need a car to catch the train as it runs inland there, stopping at Figueres and Gerona etc.

The beaches in Barcelona itself are nice and accessible on the metro. We always go to Barceloneta and stay in a city centre hotel.

Sitges is nice - lovely beach and very pretty streets.

However, I seem to recall that it is a bit of a party town. My friend and I stayed a night there in 1999 during a visit to Barcelona. It was by far the wildest night of my week.

Castelldefels is a fairly quiet town with lovely beaches. And there is a direct train to Barcelona.

I find the beaches of Barcelona itself very busy, especially during siesta time when it's full with people on their two hour lunch breaks.

St Pol de Mar is beautiful, as is Tosser de Mar, which is a lovely medieval village. North of Tosser is nice too

To the south, the best beaches for children are in Sitges, as they are shallow bays which are great for paddling, while in Barcelona and to the North, it's more wavey.

Beaches in Barcelona are fun with all the beach bars etc, but the sand is imported and pretty dirty. The water isn't that great either.

I reckon your best bet is Sitges, as it's so easy to get in and out of Barcelona from there.

HTH.

Lol, sorry, it's Tossa de Mar not tosser!

end of term fatigue, the heat, trying to search after kids gone to bed - all conspiring against me! Sitges sounds good except that it's not as easy to find accomodation (at this late stage) as some of the other resorts. Anyone know of any good agents/websites to try?

Will try another resort if I have to, either south or north of Barca but want to avoid the big flashy resorts like Salou, Lloret de mar.
For those who've been to places like Tossa, St Pol de Mar, Castelldefels would you say that they are expensive?

another vote for either sitges or llafranc and surrounding areas... sitges is beautiful, and very 'party', but also so clean, lovely and convenient for Barcelona. I think it's family-friendly as well as party-ish... llafranc further up the coast is equally divine, but as someone said is just that bit harder to get to. I went pre-baby but it was most definitely a family kind of place, with great bars/restaurants beaches for all ages really.
v v jealous btw

I'm getting excited (if only I could get my act together and get it booked!)

I'm thinking that I might not even bother with the idea of getting into Barca and just stay put at our chosen resort.