Lloret de Mar is NOT the Costa Brava

When people think of the Costa Brava, it is often Lloret de Mar that comes to mind. The town is renowned for low budget tourism focused on cheap booze, and attracts youngsters of all nationalities to party day and night long.

These days it has a reputation for noise, drunken brawls between various nationalities and “balconing” – jumping from balcony to balcony, or from balcony to the pool and something the town is now campaigning against due to a number of deaths and injuries.

The first time I went to Lloret it didn’t seem so bad as I’d been led to believe, but then I was just passing by. The edge of the town is rather nondescript, overbuilt but nothing to really put me off. Later on we found the tourist office was useful in locating a curry restaurant

The tourist office marked a number of Indian restaurants on a map for us and so after parking the car in a side street we set off on foot, soon finding the first two restaurants on the map were closed; eventually we did find an Indian restaurant that was open and ordered a takeaway, but in exploring the town on foot found that there is very little to Lloret other than cramped apartment blocks and hotels and very little of the original town left.

However, the worst thing is the main street was packed full of bars with drunken holidaymakers, souvenir shops selling the worst kind of tourist tat and supermarkets that stocked nothing but booze.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against drinking and people enjoying themselves, but it seems like Lloret aims at a particular market that simply wants to spend the entire holiday blasted out of their minds.

The only real positive I can think the kilometre and a half of sand that makes up the main beach, but my biggest issue with Lloret de Mar is simply that it has tarnished the entire Costa Brava.

While much of the Costa Brava remains relatively unspoilt and has plenty of paces where you can get away from it all during the summer with some much needed peace and quiet, too often it is Lloret that many people associate with the Costa Brava.

A very brief history

Lloret de Mar dates back to the tenth century when it was called Loreda. The town centre was originally inland, but once the port area became developed in the eighteenth century the focus of the town changed.

There are a number of sites worthwhile visiting apart from the beaches, including a gothic church dating from the sixteenth century that was elaborately refurbished in the early twentieth century by Catalans returning after making their fortunes in the Americas (Sant Romá, above). At one end of Sa Caleta beach there is a castle, originally constructed in the eleventh century, although much of the structure dates from later and whose tower was restored in 1992.

For the Lloret millennium a bronze statue of a fisherman’s wife was erected near the beach, and there are the cliff top gardens of Santa Clotilde, designed in the style of Italian Renaissance gardens.

Lloret today

But walk the streets and it is depressing. Where are the late nineteenth century houses built by those Catalans returning from the Americas that you see in many resorts? They were there at some time, but nothing seems to be left of the old Lloret, bulldozed for the monolithic hotels and apartments that offer a week in the sun for those who want to spend the entire holiday blitzed on cheap booze.

It is strange that just a short way away there is some staggering coastline. Drive through the outskirts of Lloret towards Blanes and within 10 minutes you’ll be at the hermitage at Santa Cristina.

The steps down to the beach are rather had work, but worthwhile as they stop many people from going there too. And while much of the area behind the beach is dominated by a hotel, it is a far cry from the box cubes in Lloret itself.

So do you self a favour. If you’re visiting the area steer clear of Lloret itself and go in search of the real Costa Brava instead.

Tags: Lloret de Mar, socialmedia, Tourism