Costa Brava Villas to Rent and Hotels, Resort by Resort

The southern end is the easiest to reach. Lloret de Mar, a town of around 37,000 people, is 21 minutes by road from Girona airport, with Blanes, the largest place on this coast at about 40,000, just 23 minutes away and also the closest resort to Barcelona airport at 64 minutes. Tossa de Mar is smaller, around 5,000 residents, and its walled Vila Vella gives it real character. These three are where most people look first for family resorts on the Costa Brava, simply because transfers are short and the towns are big enough to keep everyone busy.

The middle stretch is gentler. Sant Feliu de Guíxols is 23 minutes from Girona airport, and Palamós has La Fosca beach, the Museu de la Pesca and the Iron Age site of Castell de la Fosca all close together. Calella de Palafrugell, with fewer than 800 residents, Begur and Pals are villages rather than towns, which is exactly why people come.

In the north, Roses is a proper town with castles, a Benedictine monastery and a dolmen within reach, and Empuriabrava sits nearby. Cadaqués, with under 3,000 people, is the far outpost, home to the Salvador Dalí House Museum. Torroella de Montgrí, crowned by Montgrí Castle, makes a good inland-leaning base between the two.

Size is the best guide here. The larger towns, Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Roses and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, are where you will find the widest choice of hotels and apartments, and where package holidays with flight, hotel and transfer are most straightforward to put together. If you are hunting for hotel deals on the Costa Brava, these resorts give you the most options to compare.

The small villages tell a different story. Begur, Pals, Calella de Palafrugell and Cadaqués each have only a few thousand residents or fewer, so a rented villa or a small, more personal place to stay often makes more sense than a big resort hotel. Families or groups who want space and a kitchen tend to look at villas across this middle and northern stretch, accepting that a car becomes part of the plan.

July and August are the peak months, with highs of 29°C, and they coincide with the UK school holidays, so villas and family hotels go early and cost more then. If you can travel outside those weeks, June offers 25°C, while September keeps the same warmth but brings more rain days, around ten in the month.

For a hotel in Lloret de Mar, Tossa de Mar, Blanes or Sant Feliu de Guíxols, flying into Girona keeps the transfer to roughly 20 minutes; from Barcelona allow over an hour. For a villa in Begur, Pals or Cadaqués, compare car hire on this page alongside your accommodation. You can check live hotel prices and package deals from the main UK operators here, side by side, before you commit.