Hotels in Sant Feliu de Guíxols

Sant Feliu de Guíxols

Sant Feliu de Guíxols is a port town on the Costa Brava in the Baix Empordà, about 34 km from Girona and 105 km from Barcelona, set on a bay between the hills of Sant Elm and Les Forques. It is often called the capital of the Costa Brava, because the journalist Ferran Agulló coined the name of the coast from the Sant Elm viewpoint above the town. The town grew around a Benedictine monastery founded around 940, whose Porta Ferrada, a wall of three horseshoe arches flanked by two towers, is its best-known monument and now houses the town museum. Every summer the monastery, the port and the theatre host the Porta Ferrada International Festival, founded in 1958 and the oldest festival in Catalonia. The heart of daily life is the Plaça del Mercat, where a fruit and vegetable market is held every morning. Its coastline stretches for ten kilometres, with a long town beach on the bay and small coves of sand and rock among pine woods. To the north lies Sant Pol beach and the upmarket resort of S'Agaró, linked by a seaside walk. Cork making is the town's traditional industry, and the hills behind it are covered in pine, oak and cork oak. The old narrow-gauge railway to Girona, which ran until 1969, is now the Carrilet greenway, popular with cyclists and walkers, and the GR 92 coastal path passes through on its way to Tossa de Mar and Palamós. It suits families, couples and active travellers looking for a real working town with beaches, culture and good connections to Girona.