L'Estartit - seaside resort in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain
L'Estartit a small town and seaside resort of about 3,000 permanent residents (in 2019) on the Costa Brava in Catalonia. Due to its beachfront location and sunny weather in the summer, L'Estartit is quite popular with tourists from all over Europe. It has a nice beach and easy access to diving sites just off the coast, and to the Illes Medes.
Understand
The abundance of "for sale" and "vacation rental" signs in half a dozen languages might make the town look a bit artificial.
There are a bunch of campsites of varying price and quality catering to travellers from all over Europe, but particularly France, Germany, the Netherlands and the British Isles.
The town sits between the foothills of the Montgrí Massif and the Mediterranean Sea. L'Estartit stretches north-south from Cala Montgó, at the southern tip of the Bay of Roses (Badía de Roses) to the Ter River estuary in the Bay of Pals (Badía de Pals). East-west it extends 3 km inland from the shoreline, and includes the hills of Roca Maura and Torre Moratxa.
The advent of tourism in the Costa Brava from the 1960s onwards brought a large influx of visitors to what was then a fishing village during the summer months. The community grew exponentially for the next two decades, with houses and villas built up the hills that surround the harbour, and later with hotels, apartment blocks and campsites extending along the beach and the flood plain of the Ter estuary.
Tourism has been dwindling since the 1990s. However the underwater beauty of the Illes Medes, the large and well-equipped sports marina and the abundance of nearby golf courses keep divers, sailors and golfers coming back year after year and has seen a revival in the area's fortunes.
Get in
It's closest to Torroella de Montgrí.
By plane
Most visitors that don't arrive by car fly into Girona Airport (IATA: GRO), which is served by Ryanair, among others. The airport is some 50 km from L'Estartit and there are shuttles if you don't want the cost and hassle of a rental car or changing buses. From the airport there is an hourly bus service to Girona city centre bus/train station, from where you can change for buses to l'Estartit. You can also fly into Barcelona El Prat Airport (IATA: BCN) though that is more than 100 km away and the journey will involve multiple connections if you aren't hiring a car.
By bus
There is a direct bus from Girona intermodal station (bus/train) operated by Ampsa. The service operates hourly Monday-Friday, but only a few times a day at weekends and on public holidays (of which there are many, so check in advance). A single trip takes about 1 hr 15 min and costs about €6. There is a luggage hold for bulky items. Within l'Estartit the buses come in and out along Av. Grécia (stops along here in both directions) then runs along Pg. Maritim, where they start/terminate at the roundabout where the beach meets the marina.
Get around
The village is rather flat and small, so walking and biking are good ways to get around. Do watch out for one way streets. Parking in peak season can be a bit of a nightmare.
See
Do
The beach is quite nice, but the big attraction here is the excellent scuba diving around the Illes Medes, composed of two uninhabited islands and numerous rocks 1-2km offshore. The area has been protected by Natural Park status and is home to many different species of flora and fauna, both above and below the waterline. The diving here is noted for the rich fish and coral life around the islands. Groupers, various rays, barracuda and tuna all hunt here. The visibility can be excellent, and the islands have rich gardens of gorgonia and red corals. Be aware that this stretch of coast is windy, and the crossing to the islands can be rough. Be sure to take seasickness medication if you are susceptible, and expect some "interesting" exits onto a pitching lift or ladder. Operators choose the particular site to dive depending on which side of the islands is most sheltered at any given time, so don't expect to be able to choose a particular site off a menu in advance.
Dive infrastructure in l'Estartit is excellent, and there are a wealth of companies offering boat diving (guided or unguided), fills, kit hire, sales and training. Boats tend to be hard boats and some also have diver lifts to make getting out a breeze. As is the case elsewhere in Europe, diving here is pretty much exclusively done with steel 12L or 15L tanks, with full body wetsuits. Operators are unsurprisingly concentrated around the marina, so if you are here to dive, consider accommodation in that area as boats often leave quite early in the morning and it just saves time and effort to be nearby.
- La Sirena Diving Center. Long-established dive centre, established since the 1960s. Multi-lingual guides and instructors (SSI and PADI), based right next to the marina with kit lockers for your own gear, and a room for hanging out your wetsuit for an automatic rinse and dry (pretty neat!), and a ute to stash your kit on to get it taken to the boats. Fleet of four hard boats with O2, first aid, zodiac and RIB, diver lifts, a deck shower and WC. Note that they do operate a camp site but this isn't near to their dive operation, so unless you have your own transport, it's better to get something closer to the marina. Mainly Spanish and French clientele, but guides happy to have English speakers along and you're never out of the loop. +34 972 750 954 ,
- Calypso Diving. Long-running dive centre with multi-lingual guides and instructors (PADI). British run so very good English and popular with Brits. One hard boat with O2 and first aid, zodiac and RIB, deck shower and WC, but no lift. Ute to take kit to the marina, lockers to leave kit at the shop with rinsing tanks. About 10 min walk to the marina. +34 609 302 201 ,
Buy
Eat
There's a bunch of restaurants of varying authenticity and quality along the beachfront catering to all manner of European tastes.
- Il Gelatone, 42.054687°, 3.202512°. A pizza place. 2017-05-22
Drink
Sleep
Campsites, hotels and vacation rentals of all kinds dot the landscape from the beach to the mountains in the hinterland. It's hard to imagine they all get booked out even in high season, but parking can indeed become rather scarce quite quickly.
- Camping Castell Montgri, +34 972 751 630, info@cmaping-castellmontgri.com. A campsite with two pools nestled into the mountain. Get one of the upper accommodations for the views, get one of the lower ones if you don't like schlepping up the mountain. There's music on the upper pool until midnight every day, which is audible in quite some parts of the campsite. 2017-05-22