Spain - Lloret De Mar
Our house was pretty rad high up on the mountain (they called it “Villa Panorama 360”). You trade being in the thick of things and being beachside for great views and a great breeze. And when it gets hot you’ll really know the difference. It took a few minutes to get up and down the mountain each time, which is a drag but at the end of the day it seemed well worth it.
Now the “thick of things” is the real deal in Lloret. I’m not sure how I didn’t know this but the main drag is like club city, and young people by the droves. It was stunningly busy with young people and lit up like Vegas at night. The beach itself is fine, the sand is French Riviera crappy with stones that make your feet hurt. They have chairs and umbrellas and all the water sports, plus this amazing floating inflatable city sized slide thing that my kid loved. They do have some beach bars (that don’t serve food) and plenty of water sports and things for kids. The commercial part was right off the beach and it was narrow and windy and fun, but it’s so trashy at times you are just looking at the same crap over and over. The restaurants were fine but you wouldn’t go out of your way.
The Santa Cristina beach is small and very kid friendly but man you have to walk way downhill to get there so walking back up is not a thing grandparents can easily do. It was tough! They have a restaurant and you can rent chairs and umbrellas and such.
The Sant Francesc beach was in quite the nice area (in Blanes) and we liked it. We got chairs and umbrellas and kayaks and beers and snacks. Not a bad gig.
We rented a 65 foot yacht through Costa Brava Yacht Company. I would say it went well. It was pricey at 3K for the day (plus lunch but including drinks) but seeing the coast from the water is always a great day. The water was choppy which means it wasn’t perfect but we had a blast either way. The Canyeles beach was great, we stopped there on the boat and went back and had a nice lunch before more beach action. We rented one of those slide car boat thingys and had a blast with the kids.
Casino wanted passports for Americans which was a let down after coming all the way down the mountain…and I never went back!
We took our kid to the lloret off shore inflatable extravaganza thing, holy shit, it was great but it was insane. The older kids were maniacs (as they should be) and as an adult, your ass was literally slipping and falling end over end the entire time. Great fun, but stressful :)
Blanes was actually pretty cool. The boat left from its marina but we went back and enjoyed some lunch and shopping.
Girona was great sightseeing and then we went to Playa D’ora which was also cool with a nice beach and much fancier of a beach walk.
Notes to self:
-We drove up to Argelès-sur-Mer in France and were a bit disappointed because it seemed to be focused on nightlife. We did some shopping and some eating and the beach is absolutely humongous, but you can tell it’s lit up like vegas at night.
-We loved the house and the outdoor areas and would have left very happy if they did not try to charge us for breaking their bed and slicing up the floor some how!