Honeymoon in Spain?
 

Hi All,

A friend of mine is considering a honeymoon in Spain, and unfortunately, I don't know anything about that area of Europe! This friend would like to go to the "Gold Coast," which I have never heard of.

So, can anyone help with a romantic spot or hotel for a honeymoon? Interests are: romance, casual hiking, some culture (performances or music), and beach.

Looking forward to your brilliant ideas!

s

Gold coast is a part of the spanish coast near Barcelona. In spanish is called "Costa Dorada" and in catalan "costa daurada" . You can search by both names in Internet.
A very useful page is http://www.costadaurada.org
Is a nice area if they go with good weather. The plan will be mainly sun and beach (¡If they came from May onwards!)
It's halfway between Barcelona and Valencia far (600kms) from Madrid and farther from the most beautiful andalucia cities (Cordoba,Sevilla and Granada).
If they like amusement parks (well, I´m 46 and I do¡¡¡) they have right there the spanish equivalent to Disney World: It's called Universal's Port Aventura. (WWW.portaventura.com)
BUT....if they want romance and they plan to travel a bit around spain...¿Do you think they will find romantic to sleep in a medieval castle?. I do. In that case examine the Spanish Paradores Network. Paradores are government owned hotels constructed with all modern services at historic places, such as castles, old convents and so. They're cheap (related to their quality) and offer a unique experience. Try www.parador.es and take a look for instance at "Parador de Siguenza", "Hostal de los Reyes católicos"in Santiago de Compostela, "Parador de Jaen"....
It's just an idea, but I hope it will help.

wow, andonious, you have given us/her a lot of **great** information! This will be a wonderful help and a good start for researching!

Thanks!

s

I spent the end of May on the Costa Daurada this year. I can't say I would recommend it for a honeymoon. It wasn't warm enough to swim.

As far as culture, it will be British. It seemed everyone along the coast from Tarragona to Cambrils was from the UK. Once you got to Cambrils, all the tourist were French. We didn't run into any Americans.

I would suggest they stay somewhere past Cambrils.

Just a thought...what about flying over to Mallorca? George Sand and Frederick Chopin thought it was romantic.

You folks are great! These are very good tips to help narrow down the search! Thanks loads kybourbon & artlover!

s

Mallorca can be a good idea if they don't want to move very much. In fact it is the place that a lot of Spanish couples will choose as their honeymoon destiny. Mallorca is the biggest of a bunch of little islands outside the spanish mediterranean east coast called "Islas Baleares". It's a VERY touristic area, full of German and english people. Consider not only the island of Mallorca but Ibiza (the mediterranean hippy paradise in the 70's) and Menorca, far more Romantic and relxed than Mallorca. They are very close one to the other.
Don't even think about culture or art in Mallorca. So in case they want some of that they should consider coming by plane to Barcelona or Madrid, spending two or three days there and then going to the islands either by plane (1 hour trip from barcelona and 1,5 hours from madrid) or (my favourite) by ship. Ferries depart from Barcelona or Valencia and it can be a very romantic 1-night cruise.
To open the field even more. IF they want Islands, they come in winter and they want sun, beach and fun, they could consider Canary Islands; the Spanish Islands in the african Coast. It's another heavy touristic destiny in Spain. I specially love the Volcanic Island of Lanzarote. It has some active (but sleeping volcanoes) and you can visit the area. It's exactly as being on the moon or mars. VERY exciting.

andonius, what a great idea to think of Mallorca! There are so many great ideas here --

Thanks all!

s

We spent half our holiday (in May) in Spain last year. We started in Barcelona (just one night, but returned later), rented a car and then drove north up the coast to Cadaques. To be honest, most of the coast from Barcelona northwards was depressingly over-built, touristy and characterless (unless you consider tacky concrete all-inclusive resorts your dream holiday). But Cadaques was charming. It has long served as a weekend getaway for the Spanish, it was an artist's colony in the early part of the century (hard to walk a block without running into a "Dali painted this or Dali sneezed here or Picasso picked up such-and-such here"), and because it's down at the end of a long, twisty and narrow road, it seems to have escaped most of the tacky resort build-up that infected other parts of the coastline. It's still a working fishing village, too. So you will get some peace, some good restaurants, a dose of art and there's some nice hiking. One day we hiked over the bluffs down to another little resort and went scuba diving.

We stayed at the Rocamar Hotel, a 3*. Definitely worth paying for a seaview room. The bathrooms weren't quite as nice as the rest of the hotel, but were perfectly adequate. It's about a 10 minute walk from the centre of town, and we liked its slightly isolated location. There is good casual hiking in the area, but I'm not sure if it's got a sandy beach. Rocamar would be a good budget honeymoon hotel option (it was about 110-135 euros per night when were there).

You're also fairly close to Girona, which is a medium-sized walled town with a lot of character. We drove through on our way back to Barcelona, and caught some kind of festival of flowers. You'd probably find music here, and it would be worth spending the night. By the way, one of the discount airlines flies into the airport at Girona.

And of course you should spend a few days in Barcelona: great party city, gorgeous architecture, good shopping, good museums and music.

swanday2000 writes: "...Looking forward to your brilliant ideas!"

It all depends on when this Honeymoon will happen: Our September honeymoon we spent in Benidorm (Alicante) on the Costa Blanca. There are some nice spots further up the coast toward Valencia (Denia, for example); but for the most part, the Costa Blanca is overrun with German Tourists from mid-July to mid-September. This may be due to the fact that the Luftwaffe had an R&R location for its pilots in that area during WWII.