Along the Catalan Coast

This was such a wonderful holiday, thank you so much. Gorgeous hotels, stunningly beautiful scenery,  lovely walking that seemed mainly just about within the grade, but surely grade 2 at times. We loved Catalonia and hope to return.

Please could you do more grade 1 holidays, we have had many walking and cycling holidays with you and others over the years, but now long for the same sort of holiday but easier. I suspect there are many like us, a potential big market. Ramblers do Adagio which is meeting the same need, but unfortunately for groups only. Also please more holidays in the winter months. 

The walks are spectacular and not difficult especially in early autumn sun. All the hotels were comfortable with good views and swimming facilities. The food exceeded expectations especially at the Llevant hotel. All staff at both Inntravel and their chosen destinations were delightful.

What a beautiful part of Spain! We loved discovering the quieter part of the Catalan coast. The walk was along the coastal path for most of the time with a couple of breaks to cool off in the shady woods and experience a change of scenery. The views along the coast were stunning with picture postcard views at every twist and turn of the path. Every hotel provided a warm welcome and the standard of food was excellent. The Hotel S'Agaro offers a great setting with their gardens and pool as well as a beautiful patio for their outstanding breakfast. Hotel Ancora in La Fosca gave us a super-warm and friendly welcome and their paella had a big thumbs up from us. Hotel Sant Roc has the absolute best view of beautiful Calella de Palafrugell - our room felt like a perch over the Mediterranean. The hospitality and cuisine of the Hotel Llevant were second to none and it was very much worth upgrading to a room with sea view. Our last two nights at the Hotel Aigua Blava were bliss. We appreciated having a terrace to sit out on and enjoy the view and a lovely spacious room, and their breakfast won first prize on this trip. Stopping for lazy lunches at beachside restaurants every day is definitely something we could get used to! It's difficult to pick out highlights, but we'll go with walks and lunches in Calella de Palafrugell, exploring Begur and an amazing seafood lunch in Sa Tuna.

Walking along the Catalan coast was a revelation, with stunningly beautiful bays and hidden coves, pine clad hillsides and the bluest of sparkling seas. The path winds up over rocky headlands, through tunnels built into the cliff, and down to often very secluded beaches. We would do it all over again - though might be tempted to extend the holiday a little and spend a few nights longer in some of the resorts!

Highlights of the Catalan Coast were swimming in beautiful bays every day, great walks with stunning views alone rugged coast line.  Walks were not as long as many of the other Inn Travel walks we have done so we had more time to enjoy the accommodation and time swimming each day. Would love to walk Along the Catalan Coast again.
Positano and Path of the Gods simply stunning views. Loved Marina Del Cantone feel very lucky to have been there.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined two Inntravel walking holidays - Along the Catalan Coast in Spain and Positano and Path of the Gods in Italy.

The Levant Hotel in Llafranc is family run, and service is particularly high.

Enjoyed the experience. The hard work was worth it.

We first did this holiday 5 years ago, our first walking holiday ever! We have holidayed with Inntravel every year since because we have found them very efficient and we have always been pleased with the accommodation. We decided to do this one again because we thought it was the best we've done so far. It's an interesting coastline, lovely views and the walks are challenging (for us anyway) in places, especially to the last hotel. We always add an extra night in each hotel so we can explore the local area and relax a while, rather than ploughing on the next day. Recommended restaurants - S'Agaro: Arnall Degustacio - deli/bar/cafe/restaurant - very nice simple menu of local cuisine - atmosphere changes up in the evening; Calella: Calau - fantastic tapas bar for lunch. When we were there 5 years ago this was very small, with just the two owners serving. Now it has moved a couple a metres up the hill into bigger premises and there are always queues, but they took our number and texted us when the table was ready. Girona: Brots de Vi - Small, looks like a cafe but again comes to life in the evening - we went there both nights - small simple local menu - booking essential as people were being turned away. I would avoid Independence Square for food based on our experience 5 years ago and comments from a couple who were at our hotel this time.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our Girona City add-on following our Along the Catalan Coast self-guided walking holiday.

The whole experience was first class, the scenery and variety of walking was wonderful and the Aigua Blava Hotel at the end was a much appreciated luxury.

One tip is insulated water bottles and fill them up every morning.

An easy walk with the most beautiful scenery! Unspoilt by tourism, excellent coastal path with the most wonderful swimming opportunities in delightful coves and great food on the beach or in little cafes along the way. A most relaxing holiday! 

Weather was just right for walking, dry, a strong breeze, but not really warm enough sitting on sun beds. We loved the walking, very varied, and wonderful views, coves etc. We were an elderly party, 66 - 80 in age, and managed the walk very well, only struggling a bit on day 5, but we all made it, and enjoyed our evenings. Had some great salads at Puput, along the prom in Palamós bay, just after the footbridge over the canal - and resisted the invite from the manager of El Raco, who was now more welcoming than has been suggested before! If you like early morning tea, take a travel kettle, we found it invaluable as no hotels supply one. My big tip is to pack, and then remove half of it before you go, as repacking every day is a pain if your case is full, and we found you could rinse out clothes and get them dry at 2 night hotels.

Highlights: Wonderful walks and scenery...truly stunning countryside; hotel standard generally good; luggage transfers very smooth

Recommendations: If you are vegetarian be very clear what this means....it’s often understood as vegan; we would have liked some more demanding, optional walking routes....some days were too easy for us

The hotels were very good and the standard of cuisine was the best of all the ten Inntravel walking holidays we have now done. Everyone was very helpful and the coastal walking was extremely good except for the trudge along the two long promenade beaches on the day we walked to Fosca ( Ancora Hotel)

We were referred to Inntravel by my former manager who lives in the UK and has done a number of trips with the company. I have been wanting to try a walking holiday for a number of years and now that I am retired, we decided to combine a walking holiday with a 3 week tour "Highlights of Spain" that we took with our local university continuing studies travel program. The walking holiday was the highlight of our 6 weeks in Spain, and we'll definitely be looking to do another in the future.

Fantastic route with plenty of stopping points! Great mixture of woodland and coves. Lots of climbing steps each day. Hotels were great particularly Hotel Llevant.

One of our best Inntravel holidays, a delightful coastal path along this most beautiful and civilised and varied Mediterranean coastline. There are endless opportunities for swimming in the sea in stunning locations well away from the crowds. The hotels are all excellent, mostly located in interesting small towns. Our only problem was the gourmet food: our ageing legs can manage the walking with no problem, but our stomachs do not welcome multi course gourmet dinners late in the evening.

This is our third trip with Inntravel, and it lived up to our expectation, everything went as planned, no hitches anywhere. Very well organised. Thank you.

The quality of the hotels was excellent - far beyond anything we would book for ourselves. Guide notes and instructions were easy to follow. We took out the pages we needed for each day. Travel on Eurostar and TGV was more relaxing than flying.  

This is a wonderful holiday. Perfect walking beside the mediterranean sea. The walks are not too strenuous, mostly on made up paths. There is some rocky parts and sand. We were glad we wore our walking boots. The scenery is outstanding and although the weather was more cloudy and sea more rough, I still swam in the sea. The food was outstanding at most of the selected hotels. We tended to take picnics rather than have sit down lunches by finding a supermarket before we set off each day. We found this more flexible, especially with a large meal provided each evening. Our third holiday with Inntravel and probably the best so far.

The highlight was the walking, it was excellent. A specific highlight was the crossing over a trail between Hotel Llevant and Hotel Aiqua Blava, where you had to time your bolt to safety with the waves washing over the trail. Locals, and travellers alike, were both helpful and entertained by the spectacle of travellers attempts to avoid the waves and stay dry!

Authentic food very much appreciated at the Flintstone Beach, seemed more "authentic" than anywhere else we ate at.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our Along the Catalan Coast self-guided walking holiday followed by our Contrasts of Catalonia discovery walking holiday.

Another wonderful holiday! However, we thought the walk to Aiguablava had some very tricky ascents and descents at the end, which possibly should be grade 2 and described as such, to warn walkers expecting grade 1 throughout.

The fantastic food at the hotel Llevant, the beautiful scenery, the chance to swim in the sea en route and the beautiful view from our balcony at the hotel Aigua Blava

This was an excellent holiday, well organised, along a beautiful coast.

The Aiguablava Hotel was a personal highlight and we were pleased to have 2 nights there. A 3rd/4th night would have been good but the flights did not work out unfortunately.

We were pleased that we made the decision to fly to Girona as it was an effortless transfer from the airport to Hotel S’Agaro by taxi. Charming taxi driver who selected some wonderful guitar music on the radio on our journey to the hotel. He also told us a few useful words in Catalan! 

This was our first Inntravel holiday - indeed the first for many years that we have not organised for ourselves.  We were very impressed by all the arrangements, the travel, the hotels and the quality of the walking notes and information.  I fully expect that we shall use Inntravel for future walking holidays.

The freedom of having our luggage seamlessly conveyed from hotel to hotel, while we walked at our own pace, stopping when we wanted for refreshment or a swim, was ideal.  We enjoyed all the hotels which were well chosen: they all had individual characteristics but all made us very welcome, were comfortable and had excellent food.

We enjoyed fine sunny weather which helped us to really enjoy the beauty and variety of this coast.  While one of the walks is very short, overall it is clearly well-designed to take advantage of what another traveller (not with Inntravel) described as “the pretty bit of the Costa Brava”.

The walking notes are outstanding in terms of detail and ease of use - quite the best walking notes that I have ever used.

Lovely walks with a stunning little cove around each corner. Beautiful scenery each day. Hotels Sant Roc and Aigua Blava continued the theme with rooms and restaurants giving perfect outlooks.

We found the choice of hotels for the walk to be excellent, providing outstanding settings, comfortable accommodation and good food and good service, which complimented the walking perfectly.

The coastline is stunning and views are spectacular along the way. The trip to the lighthouse is worth doing on your arrival at Llafranc but then take a taxi to it on the following day if you want to avoid a steep walk in the heat and to ease the walking over the day. Hotel Llafranc is an extremely well run hotel and has an ideal position to relax on the beach at the end of the day. It also has amazing food in an excellent place to watch the promenade at night!

This was an excellent holiday! Many thanks to the Inntravel team.

We were pleasantly surprised at the variation of the walking, and also the beauty of the rugged coastline.  We particularly enjoyed the climb up from Cala Pedrosa!

A fabulous walk along a beautiful section of coastline. Hotels very good. Ignore previous review downgrading the Ancora - it is a very friendly family-run hotel with good food, nice pool and very helpful staff. We found this preferable to the "corporate-style" approach of Sant Roc which was much less personal and rather rules-based regarding half-board guests for example. It's still a very nice hotel but comparing it and the Ancora isn't appropriate - both have their good points and different styles of operation! We found a lovely restaurant (El Raco) for lunch on Day 1 right at the start of the long promenade of Palamos Bay - very untouristy & great food. We were so glad we stopped there & hadn't walked on to see if there was anything better further on! Also Day 6 the Headland Walk (worth doing but be careful not to get lost) the Sa Racassa restaurant in Aiguafreda was very good. Begur is well worth a visit if you decide not to stay by the hotel pool all day (tempting though it was).

All in all, a very enjoyable holiday and we would do it again.

We thought the standard of accommodation in all of our tours was outstanding. One personal highlight was walking along the Costa Brava Coast with its beautiful little bays and rugged headlands. Another was the slow train through Asturias and the chance to see small towns set in beautiful mountainous regions. In fact, we enjoyed all of our train travel, including the journey up the Douro River to Chanceleiros, which in itself was a highlight.

We all enjoyed our stays in the larger towns and cities, made even better because the accommodation was so close to the centres.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: Mrs Baker did a combination of our Along the Catalan Coast walking holiday, and two Slow Motion journeys - Cities, Palaces and Wine in Portugal and A Slow Train through Asturias.

Beautiful part of coastline----shame we had to walk past 2 long built-up areas on the 1st day but can see this was unavoidable.

The aquamarine colours of the sea near the rocky inlets was stunning. 

Along The Catalon Coast was one of the best walking holidays I've had. The beautiful coast path; cosmopolitan feel; good hotels, food & wine; all created a memorable holiday.  

Beautiful walks along stunning coastline. When we dropped our walking notes on the second day, we phoned Inntravel and minutes later a PDF file with information came through on our phone. All from a beach bar in an idyllic sandy bay. Excellent service

Recommendations - would be nice to have the background info that appears amongst the walk notes in a different colour so that they are easy to pick out from the walk notes. Or in italics if not in colour,

Highlights - Calella was definitely the best place on the route as it was a proper little town. Fornells was lovely too, but it was just a resort.

This is an incredibly beautiful area - walking the coast was a great way to discover quieter coves and deserted paths. The weather in early May was a bit mixed. Sea was freezing but swimming (as instructed) had to be done. I guess it’s a mixture of balancing the crowds with the warmer weather. Wonderful flowers and fabulous homes to peer at. Maybe steps would have warranted a level 2 at times. Food generally very good but exceptional at San Roc and the tasting menu at Levantine was fantastic. We would like to continue up the coast please for next year!

We could have done without the rain on the first day, but we survived :-) You have certainly chosen the best sections of the coast path. I wonder if you might say more about the seasonality of the area; doing the walk in April, which was great for relative peace and quiet, also meant that many cafes and restaurants weren't open, and there is no public transport to speak of at this time of year – just two buses a day from Begur to Girona for example. All in all though, a very good experience, with all the InnTravel arrangements working smoothly. Thank you!