The best little beach getaway near Barcelona

Looking for the best little beach getaway near Barcelona? This is what we were looking for…

• Somewhere about an hour from Barcelona and easy to reach by public transport
• No shortage of tapas bars and restaurants to enjoy long, lazy lunches (to immediately gain back the weight we lost pre-holiday of course)
• A laidback seaside vibe
• And a cute historic area as a side, please.

After trawling through blogs, online travel guides and social media feeds for weeks, we discovered the perfect place for us – Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava in Spain just over an hour by bus from Barcelona. Perfecto!

Getting from Barcelona to Tossa de Mar

Those who have been lucky enough to travel the long-haul from Australia to Europe without a decent stopover would know that no matter how exciting the final destination, the journey ain’t no walk in the park (unless you can afford first class). When we arrived in Spain after thirty-something-hours of air travel, we wanted to stay somewhere a little more low key by the beach to recover from jet-lag, soak up the sun and more importantly, build our tolerance to Sangria before throwing ourselves into the excitement of Barcelona.

In Aaron & Rosie style, we decided to wing it a little bit when it came to transport. When we arrived with our eyes-glued-together and ankles-swollen at El Prat Airport in Barcelona at around 6:50 am in the morning, we were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a bus heading to Tossa right outside of the airport.

Well, it didn’t exactly happen like that.

What really happened was a couple of failed conversations with friendly airport workers, more than an hour of waiting for the travel agencies to open to try and book a transfer, and then the desperate consideration of paying over 160 euros to hitch an Uber. So you can imagine our delight when a man at the airport transfer desk finally directed us toward the bus area at the airport and incidentally, to a bus heading to Tossa de Mar.

“Tossa! Que hora?” Tossa, what time? I asked the bus driver who looked a little bit like an eccentric version of Richard Branson.

“Ahora!” He said with a crazy-laugh. Now!

We threw our bags onboard with no encouragement needed and were off within 10 minutes.

After a few stops along the way, a scenic coastal drive and a broken Spanish conversation with our bus driver asking which way to go to the beach (“donde esta la playa”), we were soon in the heart of Tossa de Mar. The bus terminal transformed into charming narrow, cobbled streets lined with stores, trees and motorbikes.

We were both elated to be in Europe again, one of our favourite places on the planet. As we arrived at our accommodation located smack bang on the beach with the ancient wall of the old town as its back drop, the sun was out and we were thrilled by the look of our home for 2 short nights.

Hotel Cap D’Or

We’re both in firm agreement that Hotel Cap D’Or is one of the best hotels we’ve ever stayed at. It wasn’t the most luxurious, but it had a charming seaside atmosphere that’s hard to put into words and a view out the window stolen straight from a holiday postcard.

While we understandably couldn’t check in at the early time of 10 am, our kind host let us ditch our bags while we went out to explore the beauty of the surrounding seaside town. We also spent a good chunk of our first day chowing down on mouth-watering tapas available at the hotel cafe – muscles drowned in a tomato and garlic broth, calamari, crusty bread, prawns in chilli sauce and enough litres of sangria in the sun for us to spend the afternoon napping with the sea breeze floating in through the open window.

The medieval old town

The medieval old town is probably one of the most charming places to explore in all of Spain. While we waited to check into our room, we walked past a 12th century turret (La Villa Vela) and down the scenic main street that had an amazing view out to the water. We were pretty much high on the excitement of how beautiful the place was, with a cute medieval laneway to get lost down at every turn in the road (and plenty of places to enjoy wine-fuelled photo shoots).

The beaches

We could have almost jumped right out of our hotel window and onto the main beach of Tossa de Mar (though not without a large run up and severe injury). From the early morning the main beach, Playa Gran, goes from sparse to jam-packed with umbrella wielding European holiday makers wearing virtually nada. The main beach has crystal blue waters and is lined with cute restaurants and bars. If you don’t want to go too far for a different setting but an equally great dose of sunbathing and swimming, there’s another stunning little beach at the other side of the medieval town called Playa d’es Codolar. It’s only about 60 metres long but is surrounded by a spectacular natural environment and is well protected.

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Tapas by the beach

We soon found that one of the best parts of being in Tossa was floating from a carb-filled breakfast at the hotel to the beach to the tapas bar to the medieval town and back to the hotel. The perfect recipe for any good holiday! We highly recommend these tapas restaurants:

Tapas del Mar – This one is the perfect combo of atmosphere, location and delicious food. Dogs are also welcomed guests. It’s located off the boardwalk near the beach. You can sit and enjoy delicacies from all over Spain, crack open a bottle of red and admire the view of the medieval castle in the distance. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Bar Luna – This restaurant is numero uno for atmosphere! It’s located up a side alley in the charming old town. The staff were the eccentric kind that swatted mosquitoes off our arms and talked animatedly to themselves behind the bar (our kinda people). We tried the patatas bravas, prawns and mushrooms with Gorgonzola. We ended up sitting inside but if you can get in early and make a booking, choose to dine alfresco.

Castell Vell – Another beautiful restaurant located smack bang in the middle of the old town (you definitely need to book). While a little more touristy and formal, the food was still amazing and the setting on the terrace is spectacular.

Local Catalan Culture

In true Spanish style, we stumbled upon a Carnivale-like festival on the main beach on our very first night in Tossa. It was some form of dance performance with colourful costumes and people of all ages coming together to celebrate.

Accommodation in Tossa de Mar

We loved our stay and highly recommend Hotel Cap D’Or. It couldn’t possibly be located in a better spot, but it can be a little noisy. Otherwise, check out other great places to stay at Tossa de Mar.

One of our favourite small towns

Tossa de Mar is now a firm favourite on our list of favourite small towns in Spain. It has everything you need for the perfect beachside escape just a hop skip and a jump from Barcelona.

Rosie & Aaron