Can Mascort Eco Hotel

Worth getting out of bed for

Equidistant between Barcelona and Montpellier, centrally located along the Costa Brava in the Empordà region of Catalonia, ancient Palafrugell acts as a gateway to the blustery beauty and hidden coves of the coast and the woods and colour-bursts of wildflowers in the hinterland. In the town itself, there’s the 11th-century church of Sant Martí, a lively plaza, and Museo del Suro – which looks at Catalan’s cork industry and is surprisingly pop-ular (sorry). The Can Mario Museum is the Fundació Vila Casas museum of contemporary sculpture, with hundreds of modern pieces, and for something at the opposite end of the timeline, the Monumental Complex of Sant Sebastià de la Guarda has an Iberian archaeological site dating back to the 6th-century BC. And, that about covers Palafrugell’s 4km-squared. But, like the weights on a trawl net, steeped-in-time fishing villages are strung along the shore, each with golden beaches lapped with water that looks like God cleaned his brushes in it during his ‘blue’ period. Calella is the closest, also famed for the Cap de Roig gardens and its annual jazz festival. Llafranc is low-key and laidback, and Tamariu is an off-track spot known for excellent diving opportunities. A footpath runs along the coast if you want to hike or bike to all three (the hotel has bikes to borrow, or storage if you’ve brought your own), and for photo ops, hike up to Sant Sebastià lighthouse. You could also follow the Camino de Ronda, but you need a boat to go the whole hog. Head inland to the olive groves, pine clusters, meadows, marshes and patchworks of wildflowers for country walks and forest bathing; follow the circular Pirinexus cycling route around the Catalan Pyrenees (at its loveliest in autumn or winter); or go on foot along the Josep Plà hike. Make the 30-minute drive to Castell de Púbol, which surrealist Dalí bought for his wife and muse Gala – naturally he added a few of his own touches. And, if you’ve arrived from January to March, you can partake in La Garoinada, a gastronomic festival famed for its sea urchins and their eggs. And, Can Mascort hotel itself has an array of feel-good workshops, through yoga, meditation, tai chi, feng shui, talks on bio-construction, nutrient-focused cooking workshops, painting and music classes, and organic brunches.

Local restaurants

Dining along the Costa Brava throws up humble pleasures: bread thickly smeared with brightly flavoured tomatoes, earthy foraged mushrooms, dorado emerging silky and pliant from a salt crust, warming bags of chestnuts… And, there are the less humble – to the north was the site of Ferran Adrià’s historic El Bulli restaurant, and further inland you’ll find high-ranking restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, worth the drive to Girona for the likes of fig-leaf soup with pistachio, watermelon and mustard seeds; or tempura marigold flowers with pine-pollen cream, cardamom-infused apricots, elderberry, pickled mulberry and fermented-saffron honey. Book yesterday for a table. Closer to home Palafrugell will feed you well. Far Nomo is novelly set in the Sant Sebastiá lighthouse, with thick stone walls and beams, a terrace with sweeping sea views and an idiosyncratic Catalan-Japanese menu. Try scallop-strung skewers with foie and teriyaki sauce, octopus okonomiyaki, gyoza stuffed with butifarra. In keeping with the maritime theme, La Blava is set in a pretty blue-and-white converted fisherman’s house, and serves mostly sealife: tempura sea anemones, fried squid with allioli, sardines on crystal bread with tomato marmalade or inky black cuttlefish paella. And, L’Arc’s interior may be a touch mumblecore, but its menu speaks volumes, with seaweed-marinated salmon sashimi with pea hummus and soy mayonnaise, sweet-and-sour-sauce-lacquered pork ingot with baked apple, and drunken rum cake with ricotta, lemon cream and cinnamon ice-cream.

Local bars

The Costa Brava has its own DO (Denominació d’Origen): DO Empordà, which applies to the full-bodied reds it bottles. There are few wine bars in Palafrugell, but you should stop by Vins i Licors Grau to stock up on a few authentic vintages.