Catalonia Experience
from $13,200 per person
Spain guide
The most beautiful coastal towns in Spain
From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic: nine towns, and the beach to choose at each.
By Ramin Jafari · Published · Facts checked
Our nine are Cadaqués and Sant Feliu de Guíxols on the Costa Brava, the island of Formentera, Villajoyosa on the Costa Blanca, Nerja and Marbella on the Costa del Sol, Zahara de los Atunes on the Atlantic, San Sebastián on its bay and the fishing village of Cudillero in Asturias. Between them they hold most of what Spain’s coast does well — quiet coves, a lively seafront, a fishing harbour, a table of the day’s catch — and for each, here is when to go, what to do and the beach to choose.
The Mediterranean
Six places on the Mediterranean, from the coves of the Costa Brava to the Costa del Sol, with Formentera out at sea.
Costa Brava
Cadaqués
- Best time
- Spring and early autumn
- Known for
- Dalí's house at Portlligat
- Best beach
- The town beach, of pebbles and sand
White houses line the shore and climb narrow cobbled streets to the church of Santa Maria, built in the 16th and 17th centuries and holding an 18th-century baroque altarpiece. In 1930 Salvador Dalí settled in a fisherman’s hut at Portlligat, the cove beside the town; the house he made of it was his only permanent home until Gala’s death in 1982, and it is now a house-museum of his foundation. We reserve the visit with the rest of your days.
Around the town lies the Cap de Creus Natural Park, created in 1998 as Catalonia’s first maritime-terrestrial park. Boats follow the coast from Portlligat to the cape, and we can arrange one of your own for its coves — Cala Montjoi, on the Roses side of the headland, among them.
Costa Brava
Sant Feliu de Guíxols
- Best time
- June to September
- Known for
- The monastery and its Porta Ferrada
- Best beach
- Sant Pol, of fine sand, for families
The town grew round a monastery by the sea, first built in the 10th century over Roman remains. Its pre-Romanesque façade, the Porta Ferrada, stands between two Romanesque towers and is the town’s emblem; inside are the town’s history museum and the Espai Carmen Thyssen, which holds exhibitions in season. The town beach, of coarse sand, is sheltered by the harbour breakwater and the Punta de Garbí; it and Sant Pol fly the Blue Flag for 2026. The marina’s yacht club, founded in 1958, is where we arrange a boat for the coves.
The camí de ronda, the old coastal path, leaves the town past the coves of Cala del Molí and Cala Maset to the beach of Sant Pol, then follows the promenade Rafael Masó designed at S’Agaró in 1916, and runs on to Palamós, 17 kilometres in all.
Balearic Islands
Formentera
- Best time
- May to October
- Known for
- 32 green routes for walking and cycling
- Best beach
- Ses Illetes, white sand and shallow water
The island has no airport: you arrive by boat, usually on the ferry from Ibiza, about 30 minutes, and in season directly from the mainland. Its waters are clear because of the meadows of Posidonia seagrass around it, on the World Heritage List with Ibiza since 1999. Ses Illetes, in the natural park of Ses Salines, is more than 450 metres of fine white sand above calm, shallow, turquoise water.
Thirty-two signposted green routes, many of them suited to a bicycle, run to more than 100 kilometres, and the island is a quieter, slower day than Ibiza. At its southern tip the lighthouse of Cap de Barbaria stands on a cliff 100 metres above the sea, with the sunset over Es Vedrà. We arrange the crossing or a boat of your own, bicycles, and paddleboards or snorkelling gear.
Costa Blanca
Villajoyosa
- Best time
- Spring and autumn
- Known for
- Its painted houses, and chocolate
- Best beach
- Playa Centro, a long sandy beach
La Vila Joiosa, about 30 kilometres up the coast from Alicante, is known for the houses of its old fishermen’s quarter, painted in different colours so that, the town says, each fisherman could pick out his own from the sea. The historic centre behind them is a protected ensemble, and Playa Centro, more than a kilometre of sand along the promenade, flies the Blue Flag for 2026.
Chocolate has been made here since the 19th century: more than seventy brands have come and gone, three factories still work, and Chocolates Valor, a Villajoyosa maker since 1881, keeps its chocolate museum in the town. It suits a quiet day or two on the way along the coast.
Costa del Sol
Nerja
- Best time
- Late spring to early autumn
- Known for
- The Balcón de Europa and the Caves of Nerja
- Best beach
- Burriana, fine sand and water sports
The Balcón de Europa stands where a fortress was finished in 1509 on a rocky bastion over the sea, against Barbary pirates. Today it is a promenade ending in a viewpoint high above the water, named, the story goes, by Alfonso XII, who came in January 1885 after the earthquake; the old town around it keeps fine examples of traditional building.
The Caves of Nerja, outside the town, were found by five boys in 1959. Their paintings, mostly in red, go back as far as 35,000 years, though most belong to a sanctuary of about 20,000 years ago. Burriana, a kilometre from the centre, is the beach for a day: fine golden sand, every service, water sports, and the Blue Flag for 2026.
Costa del Sol
Marbella
- Best time
- May to October, and above all June to September
- Known for
- The old town and Puerto Banús
- Best beach
- Cabopino, among the dunes of Artola
Twenty-four beaches run along nearly 28 kilometres of coast, most of them in the town itself, with four marinas between them. Puerto Banús, opened in 1970, takes yachts of up to 50 metres beside more than a hundred luxury boutiques. The old town keeps the walls of its Moorish castle and the Plaza de los Naranjos, laid out after the town surrendered to Ferdinand the Catholic in 1485; the Avenida del Mar, between it and the sea, shows Salvador Dalí’s bronzes.
For a quieter day, Cabopino, at the eastern end, lies away from the built-up coast, backed by the fossil and moving dunes of Artola, a natural monument since 2003; it flies the Blue Flag for 2026.
The Atlantic and the north
Three on the Atlantic: tuna country on the Costa de la Luz, San Sebastián’s bay, and a fishing village in Asturias.
Costa de la Luz, Cádiz
Zahara de los Atunes
- Best time
- May to October; the tuna from April to June
- Known for
- Almadraba tuna
- Best beach
- Playa de Zahara, to the Cabo de Plata
Zahara is a village of Barbate, at the eastern edge of the municipality, and since early times the most important place on the Cádiz coast for catching tuna in the almadraba, the maze of nets set off this coast each spring — hence its name. Of the 16th-century castle of the almadrabas, built by the Duke of Medina Sidonia and known in the village as “el palacio”, only the walls still stand.
Playa de Zahara runs from the village to the Cabo de Plata, a long sandy beach for sailing, windsurfing and diving, with the Blue Flag for 2026. West of Barbate, the natural park of La Breña y Marismas del Barbate has a cliff path to the Torre del Tajo, more than a hundred metres above the sea. In the tuna season, we reserve the tables.
Basque Country
San Sebastián
- Best time
- June to August for the beach
- Known for
- Pintxos, and 19 MICHELIN stars within 25 km
- Best beach
- La Concha, more than 1,300 metres of sand
San Sebastián’s bay takes its name from its shell shape seen from above. La Concha’s fine golden sand curves round it, facing the island of Santa Clara; the water is never very deep, and swimmers go out to the island all year. Ondarreta, under Monte Igeldo, suits children; Zurriola, across the river in Gros, is the surfers’ beach.
Behind the bay, the cobbled streets of the Parte Vieja are packed with pintxo bars. San Telmo Museoa, the museum of Basque society, fills a 16th-century Dominican convent in the old town, and the funicular up Monte Igeldo has run since 1912, still in its original wooden cars.
Asturias
Cudillero
- Best time
- Late spring to early autumn
- Known for
- Its amphitheatre of painted houses
- Best beach
- Concha de Artedo, a Blue Flag beach in 2026
Cudillero’s houses, painted every colour, climb the hillside in steps around the harbour like the boxes of an amphitheatre round its stage — the comparison is the town’s own — and the old village is protected as a historic ensemble. It has always lived from the sea, and it still does.
A boat from the harbour follows the cliffs to the cave of La Iglesiona at Cabo Vidio, past the beaches of the coast nearby: Concha de Artedo, San Pedro de la Ribera, where the Esqueiro meets the sea over golden sand and pebbles, and the Playa del Silencio, a cove of pale pebbles under the cliffs, reached on foot down a long stair. We arrange the boat, and a guide for the coast path.
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