A few years before we bought Casa Buenavista, we stayed at La Manga, in the far south of Spain, for a fortnight.  We hated it.  The whole area was completely synthetic, built for foreign tourists more interested in sun and golf than in experiencing real Spain.

The sun was oppressive.  For most of the holiday, it was too hot to stay outside for more than an hour or so.  The most expensive tee times on the golf courses were those before 9:00 a.m. You could get cheap deals because no sane person would try to golf in that heat in the afternoon.  Not being entirely sane, I decided to take advantage of the bargain.  It was the worst golf experience I’ve ever had — I was already drenched in sweat before I reached the first tee.  By the 12th hole, I thought I was going to die.

The Costa Brava is different.  The first thing that strikes you is how green it is.  That’s because it does rain, though mostly in the autumn and winter.  In addition, the sun is never hot enough to burn away the vegetation.  As a result, there are lovely wildflowers on the roadside year round.  The nights cool down sufficiently to make it possible to have a pleasant sleep.  I hate going on holiday and being unable to sleep because it’s too hot or because the air conditioner is too noisy.  That’s not a problem in Begur.

The weather is also wonderfully dramatic, and occasionally surreal, just like Salvador Dalí.  The area is known for the Tramuntana, a fierce wind that blows from the north, over the Pyrenees.  It happens seldom enough not to be annoying.  There’s also an even rarer wind that comes from Africa and carries Saharan sand with it.  Again, it’s so rare that when it comes it is too fascinating to be a nuisance.  And then there are the thunderstorms, which are like a fireworks display put on by Mother Nature.  They usually happen in the evening or early morning, so they seldom disturb your day in the sun.  We find we’re disappointed if we go to Begur and there’s no storm during our fortnight holiday.

If you want all the facts about weather in the Costa Brava, I found this great website which gives you all the information you need.

http://www.holiday-weather.com/costa_brava/averages/

And if you want to find out what it’s like right this minute, look here:

http://www.holiday-weather.com/costa_brava/

And I’ll leave you with this wonderful image of a perfect day at our favourite beach at Aiguablava.  Fortunately, perfect days are quite common.

Oh, and I can’t resist this one of Sa Tuna.  It’s not a great beach for sunbathing, but it’s wonderful for having a drink or meal by the sea.  In the summer, they have jazz evenings at the waterfront bars.

Finally, we go to the house every year just after Christmas.  It’s a wonderful week of calm and relaxation after the frenzy of the holiday.  January is supposed to be the coldest month in the Costa Brava, but, in ten years of visiting in early January, we’ve never had a holiday where we haven’t been able to have lunch al fresco.  This year we did it nearly every day.