The Costa Brava: Leaving the Package Tour on the Shelf?

Rock-strewn coves where idle chat and laughter rebounds off the cliffs. Tranquil bays where soft-lapping waves cool sun-baked feet. Secret caves and labyrinthine tunnels head for exciting hidden beaches. Turquoise waters, clear as glass but for the stirring of the breeze. Towering cliff faces, age-old and craggy, spurting tenacious pines. Weathered rock formations jut into the sea, like the extended necks of great dinosaurs.

You are surrounded by an aura of calm and indisputable beauty. The sun kisses your cheeks; the salty breeze stings your lips. The aroma of fresh fish sizzling on the barbeque dances a jig across your taste buds and the sound of popping corks is sucked up into the cliffs, mingling with the laughter and idle chat.

What is this place that radiates such stunning beauty? Some place far away, a tropical island, perhaps?

No! It’s Spain’s Costa Brava, and it’s only a two hour flight from the UK.

Mention the Costa Brava to anyone thinking of booking their summer holiday and you may be met with a raised eyebrow or two.

Sadly, tourist demand on this coast throughout the decades led to over-development and ‘Britain-isation’ – burger bar littered promenades, all day English breakfasts, fish ‘n’ chips, and of course, high-rise concrete jungles to store the travellers during their two week package of sunburn and lager.

The Costa Brava was the birthplace of the package tour. This is where it all started in the 1950s when hoards of tourists arrived in old warplanes and laid out their beach towels for the first time. They took their fill of the sun, mile-long beaches and free-flowing wine of which they were deprived at home, then bundled their straw donkeys under their arms and exchanged the baton with the next consignment fresh off the plane.

Of course, this influx of tourists brought advantages for the Spanish locals: shop owners, villagers and property developers were to be overwhelmed by the opportunities on offer. Jobs were now available for non-skilled workers, and for the artisan, the interest in their products meant that they could barely keep up with demand. But perhaps the effect was not all positive.

Some of the more popular resorts started to lose their true cultural identity. The intrinsic gastronomy moved aside to make room for the fast-food demands of the tourists. Raw, impromptu displays of traditional song and dance dissolved into staged, commercialised pay-at-the-door twice-nightly performances. Uninterrupted mountain-to-coast scenery was blasted away to make room for high-rise cellblocks.

Then towards the end of the eighties and into the nineties, changes started to occur. Local governments started to clean up their resorts. They began to promote their beautiful regions for what they were: places of cultural interest, somewhere to experience age-old traditions, exhilarating fiestas, and mouth-watering cuisine. A shift back to customary values was starting to emerge.

Full circle, what the traveller initially sought from Spain way before the tourist boom – endless views from mountain to sea – the fun of trying to communicate in a different language – the delight of trying unfamiliar cuisine - and generally a get away from the British norm, has now become important all over again.

At the same time, package tours to the Costas are on the decline. Two of Britain’s biggest travel firms have axed more than a quarter of a million Spanish holidays from their 2005 brochures.

Homing in on the Costa Brava, First Choice announced cuts here, Thomas Cook has halted it’s charter flights to the rugged coast’s resorts from London Gatwick, and Club 18-30 have dropped Lloret de Mar from it’s brochure.

Spain remains a hugely popular tourist destination, however. But it is now attracting a different type of tourist.

Thankfully, it is shaking off the reputation that labelled the Costas so unfairly, and is welcoming with open arms the discerning tourist.

The traveller who turns their nose up at the package tour is the independent type who arranges their holiday to suit themselves, hand-picking their accommodation and board, selecting their means of travel from the various on offer and choosing the dates, times and length of stay that suits them. Thankfully, this is the type of tourist that many resorts on the Costa Brava are now attracting.

Yes, there are still a few more ‘animated’ resorts on this coastline that starts on the French border at Port Bou and descends to Blanes, not far from Barcelona. And let them have their fun! Why not? As long as you do your homework before you book your holiday on the Costa Brava, you’ll be ok. If you want lively, go to Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Platja D’Aro or S’Agaro. This is where you’ll find your amusement arcades and water parks, and of course, bustling nightlife.

If you want to experience the sheer beauty of this stunning coastline; sample the delights of the world-renowned Catalan Cuisine and taste-bud stimulating fish and seafood; if you want to drink in the culture and appreciate scenery unobliterated by high-rise buildings, to walk the paths where artists like Picasso, Dali and Chagall walked themselves in years past, gathering inspiration for their work, then try one of the more delightful resorts such as Roses; Cadaques; Tossa de Mar; Figueres; L'Escala and give the other more roudy parts a miss!