August in Spain is the holiday season. Schools are well and truly out, and the Spaniards are well and truly tired of the oppressively hot days which take over much of central and southern Spain. They have flocked to the seaside, the little niños and extended family in tow, to spend a couple of weeks of long-awaited relaxation in their bikinis (or even less).
This year, I decided to join in on the tradition too. Partly because working in August is my idea of living hell – people complaining that it’s so hot (umm, it’s Spain in August, what did you expect?) and all my favourite local bars and restaurants are closed, as they too have gone to the seaside. And partly because after a couple of years in Spain, I also was feeling the need for a proper summer holiday with nothing on the agenda except for beach, eat, sleep and repeat.
Choosing where my beach side holiday would take place is a decision that I didn’t take lightly. Since I had two friends from Australia joining us for the occasion, I wanted to make sure that I chose my destination well.
There were a lot of things to consider. For starters, August is the busiest month of the year at any seaside destination, so accommodation (or more to the point, price of accommodation) was going to be a concern. Then we needed somewhere where we could move around on foot between the beach, bars and restaurants as we didn’t want to hire a car. And even though I resigned myself to the fact that travelling in August was going to mean that crowds would be unavoidable, I wanted to make sure I ended up staying somewhere half pleasant rather than a town of Irish pubs and bar crawls.
I had never been to the Costa Brava before (despite visiting nearby Barcelona more times than I can count) and given that my friends from Australia were flying in and out of Barcelona, the Costa Brava seemed like a logical choice all round. But I also knew that some towns on the Costa Brava turned into party towns during the summer months so I thought I had better read up on the subject. During my research I came across a small seaside town called Tossa de Mar.
I’d never heard of Tossa de Mar before, but it seemed to have all the summer holiday trimmings that I was after. Medieval town. Good selection of bars and restaurants. Large beach right next to the town. Not too overrun like neighbouring Lloret de Mar.
I planned this well in advance so that I purposely had a good selection of accommodation and I decided since there were four of us, we should consider an AirBNB rental. I found a small two bedroom house right in the middle of Tossa de Mar, just five minutes walk from the beach, Old Town, and bus station. That settled it. Come August, Tossa de Mar was going to be mine.
We arrived on a grey August morning to the bus station after a two hour bus ride that took us through cities and towns, including a packed up traffic jam at Lloret de mar. Most of the other passengers on the bus got off there, but us and a select few others continued another 30 minutes along the winding mountain road, to found ourselves somewhere a little more peaceful.
I passed my days on the main beach, amused at the large catamaran of tourists who arrived every half an hour from Barcelona, only to disembark for a couple of hours, sit on the beach, eat at one fo the touristic beach front restaurants, and return. I was glad that I had the chance find out more about Tossa de Mar and what it had to offer.
Medieval Old Town
Tossa de Mar’s Vila Vella is a walled medieval city that’s perched on top of the hill, its ramparts and towers clearly visible from the town. Here the cobbled streets lead up and wind around medieval stone houses, which nowadays have become home to small restaurants and overpriced boutiques. These establishments aside, most people come up here to enjoy the great views back down to the beach and the rest of Tossa de Mar.
Apparently there is also a 14th century church and the Museu de la Vila Vella, but me being the terrible sightseer I am didn’t go in either of these. I did, however, eat on two occasions in the Via Vella and enjoyed my experience in both the restaurants.
I didn’t actually discover the Vila Vella until my last day in town (and yes, I squeezed two full meals into that time). But that’s okay because it really is super tiny and you only need an hour to have a wander around and get some snapshots of the view. It was quite hot up there in August, walking among the hot stone buildings with no escape from the sun blaring down, but I am not afraid of the heat which kept everyone else on the beach, so the lack of crowds made for heat in its own unique way.
Modern Town
The “new” part of Tossa de Mar – “new” because it’s only a few centuries old – is small, and you an easily walk from one end to another in not much more than five minutes. Through the 18th century winding lane ways , adorned with whitewashed buildings, I found several surf shops, small clothing and jewellery boutiques, a suitable number of bars and of course, many restaurants.
Of course, the town of Tossa de Mar was busy and of course, it’s catering for the summer tourists. But it still managed to retain some of its original style, and definitely didn’t feel overrun and lost in a sea of Irish Pubs and burgers and chips, as many other beach side towns in Spain tend to be.
Town beaches
Tossa de Mar’s main beach, Platja Gran, is a long stretch of gritty sand, running alongside the entire length of the modern town of Tossa de Mar. Being August it was crowded, but despite this we never had a day where we didn’t find space for the four of us when we pleased. This is unlike other beaches in Spain during August, where I have ended up literally towel to towel with my sunbathing neighbours.
Once I swam out past the small humans in floaties, armed with pool toys and Go Pro cameras, the water was perfect for extended swimming on a hot summers day – not rough at all and not too cold.
There are also smaller beaches at either side of the Platja Gran which are easy to walk to, or others further out which are accessible by car. Since we didn’t rent a car we stuck to places within walking distance, so we also spent a couple of afternoons at Platja d’Es Codolar. This was a very small beach which was much more crowded on the sand, but when it came to swimming to was even more pleasant, thanks to the cove which provided shelter.
Boat trips along the coastline
Fondo Cristal run regular boat trips along the coastline from Tossa de Mar. For €14 you get a journey that takes you to see the grottos, then finishing at Cala Giverola. Here, you have the option to disembark and enjoy the remote beach and all it has to offer.
The great thing is that Fondo Cristal have it set up in a way so you can spend as long as you want at the cove – you don’t have to get the same boat back. But when you do return, the journey is only 20 minutes. This time it skips the grottos and runs you straight back to town.
We stayed at Cala Giverola for an hour. This place is truly isolated, although packed thanks to a resort behind the beach. We planned to spend longer, relaxing on the beach, going out to sea on the pedal boats, and perhaps even sipping on a cold drink from the local bar, but something put us off.
The water was dirty.
My friends went into the water for the swim and came straight back out as something highly undesirable floated right past them, before they had even had the chance to get their knees wet. It was a shame because the beaches at Tossa de Mar are so beautiful, and although Cala Giverola is somewhat idyllic, it was somewhat ruined by the lack of care. I hope that it was just like this because it was August – perhaps the council cleaners were on holiday too. This is Spain, after all.
Cala Giverola has many waterspouts on offer, but one that got my mind ticking was the hiper pedalos, the pedal boats. My lifelong dream was to go on a pedal boat but I never had the opportunity before. However, my boyfriend coaxed me off the playa at Cala Giverola by insisting he saw pedal boats back at Tossa de Mar. We could go there instead. Once we got back we found out they didn’t exist, but it’s okay, I have since managed to live out this dream elsewhere in Spain – watch this space.
So that was pretty much my summer holiday at Tossa de Mar, and why I thought it was the perfect place for a beach side holiday in August. More on the food is to come in a future post. Have you been to Tossa de Mar before? Perhaps you have been on holiday in Spain during August? Tell me more!
abdul says
Second shot looks beautiful… color contrast in that image is amazing 🙂
Cyra says
Thanks Abdul! It was a beautiful place – easy to get nice photos 🙂
Karen-Louise says
Dear Cyra
Loved reading your experience of Tossa De Mar, we’ve spent two summer holidays in Tossa and loved the town. A great mixture of history, stunning architecture, charming, lively but not too crazy!
Can you recomeded any other Spanish coastal holiday destinations that you could liken to Tossa?
With kind regards, Karen-Louise.