After a week in Barcelona, ​​it was time for a little more relax by the sea (or the pool). To be honest, it took us some time to find the right place, because we wanted a hotel with a swimming pool, breakfast included in the price, close to the beach, with good ratings and a fairly normal price. The requirements were normal, but unfortunately it quickly turned out that we would not find anything interesting, for example in Tossa de Mar, which we really wanted. Ultimately we decided to stay at Hotel Pineda Splash in Pineda de Mar . We chose it mainly because of the swimming pool with slides for the children. How about our impressions?

Hotel Pineda Splash is nice, fairly modern, clean. The rooms are not too big, but the beds are comfortable, the bathroom is big and there is a balcony. The breakfast and dinner were included and served buffet style which was ok (but not more than OK). There are 3 swimming pools in the hotel, including one theoretically only for adults (which unfortunately no one is controlling), and one with slides and a water playground for children. It was okay, but … 🙂 But it’s not our cup of tea at all. It is a large hotel where most of the tourists use the all inclusive offer, there are activities and attractions organized for both children and adults all day long. This means that it is crowded, it is noisy and for me it is not relaxing at all. But I guess everyone who appreciates the “free” drinks and activities for kids will be very pleased. Our children, of course, also really enjoyed playing on the slides (although it was not without problems, because the slides are from 120 cm, and Adam is not that tall yet… as a result, we agreed with the lifeguards that we would go down with him when there would be fewer people in the pool), eating donuts for breakfast and 4 desserts for dinner. So, honestly, if you are looking for a nice hotel with attractions for children and you do not mind the crowd and noise, we absolutely recommend this hotel 🙂 But we will look for something more in a remote area next year 🙂

The hotel is located a few minutes walk from the beach which is almost empty. Great for me, but not very child-friendly beach. It gets deep very quickly, and besides, it is a sand and pebble beach, which does not make it easy to play or enter the water (I recommend taking special shoes). On the beach, you can borrow kayaks or SUPs. We had the option of renting it for free, thanks to the hotel coupons, but as a result we used it only once.
In Pineda de Mar itself, we can find a lot of nice cafes (where we ate our lunch), shops and playgrounds, but the town does not stand in any way.

As you well know, we can’t stay in one place for too long, so after 2 days at the pool, we rented a car again and went further exploring Catalonia.

At the beginning we visited Figueres with the famous Salvador Dali Museum, which you can read about in a separate post.

The next place on our route was Besalu – a medieval town located in the province of Girona. It is famous for a very picturesque, medieval bridge over the river Fluvia. In addition, it has a very cozy old town with charming shops, the Sant Pere Monastery and Circusland – a circus museum that we did not visit, but it looked inviting and has good reviews, so it’s probably worth it.

Castellfollit de la Roca – this is, in turn, a town located on a basalt cliff of volcanic origin, 50 m high and 1 km long. The cliff is located between the rivers Fluvia and Turonel. It is most interesting from the vantage point located below the cliff (Passarel·la-mirador de Castellfollit de la Roca). We stopped at this vantage point, and then we also drove into the town itself and walked for a while through the narrow, sleepy streets.
It’s amazing that it is enough to drive a few dozen kilometers from the crowded seaside resorts to take a break from the hustle and bustle and discover such gems 🙂

The next day we went to Tossa de Mar. It is true that it is a popular seaside town, so we can forget about peace and quiet, but it is very charming and captivated us. Initially, this is where I wanted to spend a week of vacation, but unfortunately I was not able to find a hotel that would meet our expectations.
The town is famous for Muralles de Tossa de Mar, a medieval castle and defensive walls that dominate the coast, and a very well-preserved, charming old town of Vila Vella. Unfortunately, it was hard for us to visit, because the heat was unbearable and the children were drawn to the promised beach. But I’m sure that at lower temperatures they would love to climb narrow streets 🙂 We chose a smaller beach for sunbathing, called Cala Codolar, which unfortunately was totally overloaded with people anyway. But the kids did not mind it at all and they were very happy 🙂

The last town we visited was Lloret de Mar. It’s an even bigger resort than Tossa, but there we just wanted to walk along the sea to Castell d’en Plaja. I have to admit that the path we took offered such beautiful views that it was a shame to go back to the car. If we had been there at a different time of the year, we would definitely have taken the long walk along the rocky coast.

I am so glad that we were able to go on these few little excursions and see a little more than the grounds of our hotel. The Costa Brava offers many beautiful beaches and scenic routes along the sea, but it is probably much better to walk around them when the temperatures are slightly lower. And while driving inland, we can find many charming, sleepy towns where time has stopped. We highly recommend Catalonia and Costa Brava for a holiday, but rather before or after the season. Then you will be able to enjoy the views without the sweat flooding our eyes 🙂