It was golden hour and we were three hours into our hike when a man appeared on the horizon, walking towards us through the fields — the first person we’d seen in hours. “Do you know how far it is to the sea?” he said, resting on his hiking pole to catch his breath. He was from the Netherlands and on the last leg of the GR11 trail, which runs through the Spanish Pyrenees, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and totals about 500 miles. “I’ve been walking for over a month,” he said. “And I’d really quite like to go home soon.”
Luckily for him the brilliant-white Cap de Creus lighthouse, the easternmost point on mainland Spain, was only another hour’s walk away. And luckily for me there were only a couple of hours left until my final stop, Port de la Selva. I was hiking a two-day section of the GR92 route — the Cami de Ronda in Catalonia, from Portbou on the French border to Blanes near Girona — with my friend Harry.
It is best to do this in autumn or spring, when the heat is less intense and the tourists have dispersed, though crowds were not an issue on my trip over the August bank holiday weekend and I was astonished at how quiet it was. While tourists jostled for paella on terraces in Barcelona, there were not many people even an hour’s drive north from here, including very few British voices.
We had flown to Girona before catching a bus to the nostalgic seaside town of Roses, the starting point for our hike. Roses feels like stepping back to the 1990s, with sand sculptures on the beach and nightly live music on hotel patios. The Hotel Roses Platja is cheap and cheerful with simple rooms facing the sea, though it could do with a bit of a makeover (B&B rooms from £60; barcelo.com).
What you need to know
With backpacks loaded with snacks and swimwear, we set off east from Platja de Canyelles Petits on dirt tracks amid the classic Med fragrance of pine and wild rosemary — following the Cami de Ronda route, marked by little red-and-white flags on rocks. The Cami de Ronda was originally a patrol route for spotting smugglers arriving by sea, and footpaths on the stretch from Roses to Cadaques dip down into beautiful coves and fishing villages.
When I first scoped out the route my heart sank at the thought of having to fight for towel space on the busy beaches of the Costa Brava, but these are not regular Costa Brava beaches. The odd boat trip from Roses drops anchor off the rocks but, other than that, you have to work hard to get to pebble beaches such as Cala Rostella and Platja Cala Murtra. Once there, though, you’re rewarded with what feels like the whole cove to yourself.
The route took us past the open-air restaurant La Pelosa in Montjoi, where we stopped for beers, grilled sardines and chips while taking in views of the bay (mains from £10; restaurantlapelosa.com). In the afternoon we passed elBulli, named the world’s best restaurant a record five times by Restaurant Magazine and now a museum (£24; elbullifoundation.com).
elBulli, which overlooks the coast and is now a museum
ALAMY
Cadaques and Salvador Dalí
From Cala Joncols we skipped the headland, turning inland through fields filled with upturned umbrellas of wild fennel, crushing the peppery-lemon seeds in our hands. We arrived at the pretty port town of Cadaques in time for a sunset gelato at Es Gelat and a glass of chilled red at the excellent Casa Dionis wine bar (@casadionis).
• Read our full guide to Spain
Cadaques has fishing boats bobbing in its harbour but feels very upmarket, with posh boutiques and a few fine-dining restaurants — this region is known as the culinary corner of Spain thanks to elBulli and the three-Michelin-starred El Cellar de Can Roca in Girona. But you don’t need to spend big to eat well here, with the pretty Italian restaurant Celeste, just off the harbour, serving fresh spaghetti vongole and excellent tiramisu (mains from £15; @celeste).
Hiking towards the Cap de Creus lighthouse, the easternmost point on mainland Spain
ALAMY
Our second day started slowly with a visit to Port Lligat and the Salvador Dalí House Museum, where the surrealist artist lived with his wife, Gala, for 52 years until her death, after which he moved to the nearby Castel Pubol. The former is a fantastical eclectic mismatch of Dalí’s furniture and art, including a human-sized egg, stuffed swans and a polar bear butler; it’s a must for art lovers and much better than the larger Dalí museum in Figueres, which was packed on my visit (£16; salvador-dali.org). From Port Lligat you can take a bus to the Cap de Creus lighthouse, which has spectacular panoramic views over the jagged peninsula and two good restaurants for lunch.
The afternoon continued in a surreal vein with a walk through the Cap de Creus Natural Park and its otherworldly lunar landscape, filled with dozens of gnarled geological rock formations that brass plaques point out are weathered into shapes including those of a horse, an eagle, a dragon and a ram. It was thrilling to see the landscape that inspired Dalí and his paintings.
The former house of Salvador Dalí, now a museum
ALAMY
A stay in a Catalan farmhouse stay
We arrived at El Port de la Selva with aching calves and in need of some respite, which came in the form of a two-night stay at the newly opened Off Grid Girona, an hour’s drive inland in the mountainous La Garrotxa region, which is also known for its walking trails. As the name of the hotel suggests, it feels properly remote, situated in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The hotelier Gerard Greene, who founded the Yotel hotel chain in the early 2000s, left the UK and decamped to this ten-bedroom 17th-century Catalan farmhouse, or masia, and spent nine months overseeing the renovations, doing much of it himself.
It’s a truly warm retreat — a little like staying at the home of a family friend rather than a hotel (there’s also a self-contained four-bedroom holiday home in the former cattle barn). Its cotton bed linen is made by a lady in the city of Olot, 30 minutes’ drive west. Heavy vintage furniture — much of it found in the farm’s outbuildings — has been upcycled and stands alongside original painted tiles, marble sinks and thick wooden beams; walls are limewashed in a rust colour palette. There was no big-name design guru here — the interiors were masterminded by the local designer Ariadna Puigdomenech — but Greene says that “this is not a design hotel”, adding: “I didn’t want it to look like another Soho House, though no disrespect to it.”
Off Grid Girona’s interiors were overseen by by local designer Ariadna Puigdomenech
What I loved most about Off Grid was the community feel. Honesty bars on each of the three floors were well stocked with chilled red wine from the Girona cellar Vinyes Tortuga, La Casera sangria, beers, soft drinks and kombucha. There were nightly communal candlelit dinners on the terrace by the pool, where the Dutch chef Yoep served up sharing plates of charred leeks, grilled aubergine topped with pomegranate and blackened Catalan cheesecake with figs. The cheese and meat come from nearby farms and there are plans for an on-site farm to supply the kitchen (four courses and unlimited wine £42).
• 14 of the best hotels on the Costa Brava
There are also plans to open a yoga studio in one of the barns, but for now there are plenty of hiking and biking trails to explore. One morning we rent electric bikes and Greene takes us on a 40-mile trail through forests, stopping so we can wander the cobbled streets in the medieval town of Besalu and for a coffee at the pretty lakeside resort of Banyoles. I could also have easily spent several days on the bright orange sunloungers by the hotel pool.
There are nightly communal candlelit dinners on the terrace by the pool
Perhaps the highlight of our stay, though, was a tour of the Vinyes Tortuga vineyard, 40 minutes’ drive away and run by a young Dutch couple who specialise in chilled red wine. Harvest was in full swing during our visit and being invited to try wines from the cask while grapes were being offloaded from tractors felt like an authentic experience in every sense. We sat down for a shakshuka lunch with volunteers who had spent the morning picking grapes in the fields; bottles were popped freely and vermouth did the rounds (tours £28; vinyestortuga.com).
This corner of Catalonia might be remote but we found it to be full of community spirit and connections.
Katie Gatens was a guest of Off Grid Girona, which has B&B doubles from £130 (offgridgirona.com). Fly to Barcelona
More breaks in rural Spain
By Chris Haslam
Autumn walking in Andalusia
Autumn is unusually intense in the chestnut groves of Aracena — all Halloween orange and chimney red. But the seasonal Andalusian cuisine is perhaps even more spectacular: solomillo with wild mushrooms and pumpkin at Arrieros in Linares de la Sierra (mains from £15; restaurantearrieros.es); roasted chestnuts with the jamon de bellota almost everywhere; a chestnut stew served as a pudding at Restaurante Montecruz in Aracena (mains from £10; @restaurantemontecruz). Do it all on a self-guided, inn-to-inn walking tour of the Sierra de Aracena.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £899pp, including transfers, luggage transfers and some extra meals (macsadventures.com). Fly to Seville
Follow the river in Aragon
In the Aragon region west of Teruel, the so-called Forgotten City, Sierra de Albarracin is a barely populated land of fairytale beauty. Its Arizona-like landscapes attract crowds in the summer, but autumn is the best time to visit. You’ll find castles, waterfalls and bars straight out of a Laurie Lee novel here, but the highlight for me is the Estrechos del Rio Ebron hike, which follows the shallow, fast-flowing river through a narrow gorge for 13 miles, from El Cuervo (population 95) to Tormon (population 36). Stay at the gorgeous Casa de Santiago in Albarracin (population 1,002).
Details B&B doubles from £77 (casadesantiago.es). Fly to Valencia
Northern road trip
The Sella River, in the northern province of Asturias, flows from the Picos de Europa to the Cantabrian Sea at Ribadesella. You can take a day to canoe the 12-mile paddle from Arriondas, stopping for lunch, dozing on a river beach and spending time on the sands of the Playa de Santa Marina at the river mouth (£25pp, including equipment and return transfers; k2aventura.com). You could be in Arriondas on the second day of an eight-day road trip around Cantabria and Asturias.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £800pp, including car hire (caminos.co.uk). Fly to Santander or Bilbao
Wolf tracking in the mountains
If you’ve never heard of Palencia, you’re not alone — it’s north of Madrid, west of Burgos and east of Leon. The Montaña Palentina, at the top end of the city, is arguably the best place in Europe to see wolves. You have to get up early, though, because the local pack hunts at dawn and you must be at the observation point before they arrive. Naturetrek’s guides report an 80 per cent chance of spotting them, with an outside chance of also seeing wildcats and brown bears.
Details Four nights’ full board from £1,495pp, including flights and guided excursions (naturetrek.co.uk)
Full bloom in Murcia
La Floracion de Cieza is the explosion of colour that rolls up the Segura Valley in Murcia each February as 50 square miles of orchards burst into flower. Almonds, apricots and plums compete, but it’s the peach trees — pretty in pink — that steal the show. The RM-B19 road through the farms from Cieza to Calasparra is an extraordinary drive, and if you’re an early riser get to the Mirador del Soto de la Zarzuela observation point and watch the dawn light up the valley. Stay at the Casa de la Campana, a luxury, ten-bedroom hotel in seven acres of gardens surrounded by peach groves.
Details Room-only doubles from £75 (casadelacampana.com). Fly to Murcia
Gentle cycling in Catalonia
As volcanic wildernesses go, La Garrotxa is softer, greener and less frequented than the sun-scorched uplands of the Canaries. Here you’ll find more than 40 cones and 20 lava flows — upon some of which teeter medieval villages. You can visit two of them, Sant Joan les Fonts and Castellfollit de la Roca, on a gentle, five-day, self-guided cycling tour of the region, riding between 14 and 37 miles a day. You’ll be based at the Can Blanc farmhouse outside Olot and spend a night in Girona at the end of the trip. Hybrid bikes and ebikes are available to rent.
Details Four nights’ B&B from £495 (thenaturaladventure.com). Fly to Girona
Wine and spas in Castilla y Leon
At the end of a narrow lane alongside the River Duero, 25 miles east of Valladolid in Castilla y Leon, stands the Cistercian monastery of Santa María de Valbuena. Founded in 1143, it’s now a mesmerising, 79-room wellness hotel in 11 acres of vines — the pool in its 12th-century chapel legitimises the use of “mesmerising”. It is the first property on a week-long wine and spa tour that also visits its sister properties — the Castilla Termal Burgo de Osma, formerly the 16th-century University of Santa Catalina, and the Castilla Termal Olmedo, a 12th-century convent. If you have stayed at paradors and been disappointed, try these and you’ll be delighted.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £2,167pp, including flights, car hire, spa treatments, wine tastings and some extra meals (sunvil.co.uk)