Costa Brava: Tossa de Mar

Hello there sweet blog reader, I am back! Hope you are still here reading and keeping me company <3

For some reason this year has been harder to organize my time and (also) my head to be able to keep writing and sharing bits in my online home, this old blog of ours. If you follow us on our Instagram you may have seen our daily endeavours and how we are dealing with the covid situation during this 2021. One year (& counting) of the pandemic has put everyone in a very different state of mind, I believe a quite large amount of people has decided that they had enough and thus have stopped thinking and caring, however this scares me even more. Things are not normal really and a faux pas can put us again back in square one, so I am keeping on being caution: social distance, masks and what we call "covid friendly" getaways to keep our heads sane.

In that spirit, we would like to share one of those getaways, and this one is an absolute favorite: Tossa de Mar!

Tossa de Mar is a coastal town in La Costa Brava which is known for its tower and medieval moors just next to the beach. The town is usually super busy during summers and it's a good place to have a paella, however due to the situation we (very sadly) skipped on that and changed it for a beach picnic. Since these pics were taken in June you'll see no people in the pics, the town was an absolute delight, we hardly passed a few visitors and we were able to enjoy its walls almost for ourselves, which it's a privilege.

In Tossa we recommend three spots: Platja Gran (which translates into "The big beach"), Murallas (the moors) and finally Cala Codolar (a smaller cove or beach, very easily accessed from the same town).

Platja Gran

Platja Gran is the most iconic view of Tossa de Mar, where you can enjoy the beach while being under the medieval castle tower and moors profile, which makes this place truly special. The moors were constructed between 11-14th centuries to protect the people from the pirates, I can totally picture a Game of Thrones spin-off with Arya Stark being filmed here, wouldn't you?

From Platja Gran you can also decide to walk along the beach towards Platja Mar Menuda and do a coastal path following north direction. Our favorite plan in La Costa Brava is always visiting more remote beaches and coves thanks to walking the coastal path. However this time we had plans to visit Cala S'Alguer (next post!) during the afternoon so we decided to visit the town and moors instead. Keep reading!

Muralla (moors) and the old town

From the southern part of the Platja Gran beach just climb using the ramp to the moors. Once up there, if you happen to be on a windy day (like we did!), you would feel the winds 10 times stronger there, so be cautious, and don't sit on the battlements. Of course that is not only for your safety but also to ensure the preservation of such a nice historical place. We walked around the moors and descended on one of the stairs that get you in the town center. One fun & unexpected thing of Tossa de Mar that you will find in the town is an sculpture dedicated to Ava Gardner, to homage her for her professed love for the town when she was filming the 1950s film called Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.

Cala Codolar

The last place you can't miss in Tossa de Mar is Cala Codolar, a small beach (only around 80m long) also reachable from the town's main street, and which is exactly on the opposite side of Platja Gran.

This spot is right on the same town but it feels like you are in a wild beach with the rocks on the side. It's curious to know that this is the oldest port of Tossa. Again, as it happens in all Costa Brava beaches, from here you can take the coastal path that you can walk towards Lloret de Mar.

And that was all for us in Tossa de Mar, hope you enjoy this summery stroll in the medieval beach town and don't miss my posts this summer, I have a couple more adventures to share!

In case you haven't visited before this area it would be good to explain a little bit what Costa Brava is. The Costa Brava is the name all the seaside takes starting from a town called Blanes (around 1h 15 minutes from center Barcelona) and ending in Cadaques (almost in France). If you have been following us for a longer time you may remember we have several posts from La Costa Brava.

I'll leave them here in case you fancy looking at more posts from the same area:

Costa Brava
Lloret de Mar

Costa Brava
Palamós, S'agaró

Costa Brava
S'agaró