The gay-friendliest seaside paradise that you have never heard of

December 23, 1:22 PMSF Gay Travel ExaminerEd Walsh

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Beach along coastal walk in town of Llafranc (photo by: Ed Walsh)
 

 Costa what?

That’s the response you will likely get if you ask an American about Costa Brava, a spectacular 135-mile stretch of the Mediterranean between Barcelona and the French border. Its picturesque beaches and laid-back but lively nightlife have long made it a popular vacation spot for Spaniards and for the French for decades, but it has been relatively unexplored by Americans.

Spain’s tourist board wants to change all that. With the legalization of same-sex marriages in 2005, the country is banking on its gay-friendly image to boost gay tourism to the area. The most visited gay destinations of Madrid, Barcelona, and the resort beach town of Sitges can boast a busier nightlife, but Costa Brava can match them with its scenery and a wealth of gay-friendly hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Sights

Costa Brava offers a lesson in history at every turn. The medieval villages of Pals, Besalu and Santa Pau are good examples. Stepping into the villages is like walking back in time. But you won’t find anything backward about the towns’ attitudes towards gays and lesbians. Even in the smaller towns of Spain, antigay bias is more the exception than the rule.

LLafranc, Costa Brava, Spain

(Photo by:  Ed Walsh)

A must-see stop for any gay visitor to Costa Brava is a museum dedicated to the artist and Costa Brava native, Salvador Dali. While Dali’s sexuality is a matter of debate, few who have visited the museum in the town of Figueres would debate his artistic genius. Dali died in 1989 and is entombed in the museum beneath his famous abstract painting of Abraham Lincoln.

Dali's Abraham Lincoln abstract

(photo by:  Ed Walsh)

Probably its best-known exhibit is the room that features Dali’s giant rendition of Mae West’s head. You have to climb a ladder and view the head through a looking glass to get the best view of it.

Dali's Mae West Head

(Photo by:  Ed Walsh)

The city of Girona, with a population of 90,000, is the biggest city in Costa Brava. Its Jewish quarter and Jewish history museum chronicle a dark period in Spain’s history in the late 15th century when Jews were expelled from the country. At one time, as much as ten-percent of the city’s residents were Jewish. Girona’s old town gives visitors a glimpse back in time to the city’s Jewish roots.

Jewish Museum in Girona

(photo by:  Ed Walsh)

Accommodations

Costa Brava doesn’t have any exclusively gay hotels but there are many gay-owned hotels and many more gay-friendly ones. A great example is the Hotel Moneda in the town of Castello d’ Empuries. The 11-room hotel is owned by a gay woman, Dolors Canet Reitg. The hotel is a great reflection of something the Spanish do best, combine very old architecture with modern interior design.

Dolors Canet Reitg, Hotel Moneda in Castello d'Empuries

(photo by:  Ed Walsh)

The Hotel Mas Crisaran in Fonolleres is the perfect romantic getaway. The hotel is a former 15th-century farmhouse that has been perfectly incarnated into a luxury accommodation. It still maintains a farm ambiance complete with a pen for fowl and a friendly bunny rabbit that has its run of the property.

The rural hotel, Cal Sastre, overlooks the farms and mountains in the Volcanic Zone that surrounds the medieval town of Santa Pau. You can follow the footpath from the hotel to the center of Santa Pau.

Santa Pau

(photo by:  Ed Walsh)

The ultra-modern Hotel AC is a perfect gay-friendly choice for visitors to Girona, Costa Brava’s largest city. It overlooks the city but is an easy walk to everything.

Nightlife

There are gay bars and discos throughout Costa Brava. But if you can’t live without a faster paced bar-hopping scene, you would be better off in Barcelona. By the way, if you’re clubbing, be prepared to stay up late. The discos usually open around 10 p.m. and stay open all night. Spain’s nightlife is very late night. They don’t eat dinner until 9 or 10 p.m. and the clubs don’t get busy until after midnight.

The seaside town of Lloret de Mar is the busiest spot for Costa Brava vacationers. It has about seventy percent of all hotel rooms in Costa Brava.   You will find a handful of gay and lesbian bars there.

Girona also has a sprinkling of gay and lesbian bars and nightclubs, including the very popular disco, “Natural Advanced Club. “    For information on the changeable nightclub scene check out the Web sites www.gironagay.com
 or www.gayinspain.com.

Costa Brava’s gay-popular Gay Beaches

Blanes: Los Pinos beach, at the end of the campsites to the right, on the mouth of the Tordera River.
Empuriabrava: On the beaches far from the village there is a nude gay-popular beach.
Lloret de Mar: On the Boadella beach, descending on the left, you will find a mostly nude, gay-friendly area.
Sant Martí d'Empuries: gayest on the section of the Sant Martí d'Empúries beach past the steel bridge.
Sant Pere Pescador: gayest section on the town’s main beach, between the sand dunes.

Language

Spanish is the second language of Catalonia, including its biggest city, Barcelona and the Costa Brava area. The first language is Catalan. But whatever Spanish you know will work just fine there. Few Spaniards outside Catatonia can speak Catalan but virtually all Catalonians can speak Spanish.

Getting There

Costa Brava is about an hour’s drive from the Barcelona airport and about five hours from Madrid. If you want to do sightseeing in the area, a car rental is your best bet.

As the biggest city in Costa Brava, Girona is serviced by frequent train service from Barcelona. The summer is the busiest time of the year to visit Costa Brava because of the busy beach scene. But if you can travel in the off-season, you can save as much as 50% on hotel rooms. The airlines also generally discount fares in the winter.