The first time I went to Estartit was as a teenager on a family holiday, when my parents hired a villa in an area called Els Griells. I clearly remember we approached Estartit with Greek music playing in the car, a tape that had been given to dad by the owner of a hotel in Crete a few years earlier and since then had come to be associated with holidays.
As the rather excitable music played the castle sitting on top of Mongrí got ever closer until we reached an amusement park named “Jocs”, where we turned off. We always assumed Jocs was named after the owner, but long after found it is the Catalan word for “games”.
Although the villa wasn’t huge, it was comfortable enough of the five of us, and while the garden surrounding the villa was fairly small – certainly not large enough for a swimming pool – the beach was no more than 300 metres or so. We also had bars and a disco and all the kind of entertainment needed at that kind of age for the long hot evenings, while the days were mainly spent on the long sandy beach.
Estartit’s beach goes on and on
One of the great things about Estartit as a holiday destination is the sandy beach, which stretches for 2.5 kilometres from the marina. While I prefer smaller beaches in coves for snorkelling, it is pretty much ideal for family holidays; for swimming, splashing about, or simply just cooling down.
We walked to Estartit town on several evenings, walking along the beach, sometimes to eat in a restaurant and sometimes just for a wander and to see what was going on. Of course, we were in those days interested in all the cheap tat sold in the tourist shops rather than any real culture, but we experienced the kind of excitement you only find in seaside resorts, which when you are younger is hard to beat.
After the second summer spent in Estartit many years went by before I visited again, and in my mind it wasn’t really one of the most attractive towns you could visit. However, eventually I did go over there are to dive at the Medes islands and was pleasantly surprised.
The old town
It has a number of reasonable restaurants (prior to diving I tend to eat a pretty large breakfast), and I had lunch over there at least once with my brother when we spend the day there diving.
And then last year I went to investigate a business opportunity in Estartit and took a walk around the town with my other half. The old town certainly has character, with narrow streets criss-crossing at irregular angles, although being a tourist resort many shops cater purely for this market. There’s nothing much wrong with that I suppose, although in the off season it can seem a little like a ghost town.
The big thing though is that Estartit really does have charm, perhaps not as much as some of the smaller resorts like Port de la Selva or Cadaqués, but it is an entirely different style of town. It has a fair sized marina there, and plenty of activities going on all the time in the summer months including some of the best diving in Spain at the Medes islands, perhaps a mile off shore.
Diving the Medes Islands
I have dived at the Medes on numerous occasions, both from diving centres in Estartit as well as l’Escala. The water is clear and as a protected zone it is prohibited to fish in the area or, indeed, to remove anything from the area.
The islands’ protected status goes back some twenty years and has had a huge impact on the marine environment. A number of huge groupers (perhaps 150 cm or more) will sometimes follow divers around and are so tame you can reach out and touch them.
I think you’re not supposed to feed them, but they particularly like being fed bread while on the dive. There are also corals there that have regrown after all these years of protection, which were at one time massively affected due to the over harvesting of coral for, presumably, tourist knick knacks and I can remember at least one occasion of divers being arrested for illegally harvesting coral in the Medes.
Living in Estartit
I don’t think Estartit is as pretty as l’Escala, which is not far away, but if you’re looking to move to the coast it is probably a good option. Like all these towns the winter compared with the summer are like night and day and you may find it too quiet off season; but if you are looking for a bit of peace and quiet the winter may well suit you and find the summer far too busy.
However, the weather and the vicinity to the water mean you should be able to gave a pretty reasonable quality of life there throughout the year.
