Girona Province, Spain

Mas de Torrent

Price per night from$525.79

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR483.60), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Mas de Torrent Photos

Style

Pop princesses’ pad

Setting

Mountains and the Med

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Sometimes, all you need is a sun-baked siesta – where you wake to the cooling breeze of early evening, a new ‘it will turn to tan’ line, and a still-snoring companion. Mas de Torrent, our new addition from Relais & Chateaux, is just the place: the pace is slow, the farmhouse is tranquilo and the surroundings are seductively sleepy (enough to lure pop princesses away from the limelight, it seems – Kylie, Shakira and Streisand have all stayed here). The tennis courts, bikes to rent, yoga space or gym could entice movement – and the promise of copious Catalan cuisine at the restaurant – but, in typical Spanish fashion, there’s no rush. Sit back, one of mixologist Manel Vehí's cocktails in hand, and soak it all in.

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A freshly-picked fruit basket in your room

Facilities

Photos Mas de Torrent facilities

Need to know

Rooms

38 red-tiled rooms, including 34 suites – some of which have private pools.

Check–Out

Noon; earliest check-in, 3pm.

More details

Rates include an afternoon-tea-esque three-tiered breakfast of artisan cheeses, cold meats and local farm yogurts. You can also order à la carte dishes spanning buckwheat pancakes, avocado and poached eggs, or ham and cheese omelettes.

Also

As Torrent is tucked away enough for global chart-toppers, don’t be surprised to see low-caps and oversized sunglasses skulking around the pool: you could even don some yourself, to add to the mystery.

Hotel closed

The hotel is closed throughout January and February every year.

At the hotel

Free parking, laundry service, WiFi, outdoor pool, indoor lap pool, sauna and hammam, Techo-gym equipment, hydrotherapy pools. In rooms: tea- and coffee-making facilities, hairdryer, bluetooth speakers, WiFi, bathrobes and slippers, Finca Serena toiletries

Our favourite rooms

Dawn-to-dusk sun worshippers will love room seven in the masia – its huge balcony catches the sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening. The garden suites are particularly private, set away from the main building with their own pool, making them ideal for honeymooners or seclusion-seekers.

Poolside

Two pools grace the grounds of Mas de Torrent: one nestled in the gardens, bordered by palm trees and parasols; and an adults-only lap pool in the spa. Both pools are open from 7am.

Spa

The spacious MasSpa features a hammam, sauna and Techo-gym equipment. Dip back and forth between the 14- and 38-degree hydrotherapy pools, activating circulation and relaxing muscles as you go. Or to really let go of inhibitions, book a Natura Bissé treatment – you’ll drift back to your room with perfectly pedicured toes and tension-free triceps. You can also book a couples room and an orange- and lavender- infused massage for a boost of romance.

Packing tips

Pack something pedal-able to make use of the free bikes (and e-bikes, if the rolling Spanish hills look a bit much); comfortable shoes are a must for mooching around mediaeval villages.

Also

Space in the spa is reserved for yoga, pilates and meditation – there’s no need to bring your own mat. Private tennis and paddle lessons are available to minimise tennis-elbow type injuries.

Children

Children’s menus are available at both of the restaurants; extra beds and cots can be added to larger rooms.

Food and Drink

Photos Mas de Torrent food and drink

Top Table

Nab a terrace table for a vista of glowing green landscape, especially in the height of summer.

Dress Code

You could go full-flamenco or fuss-free here: the food is fine dining but the atmosphere is relaxed (much like the hotel itself, infact).

Hotel restaurant

Headed up by Chef Ramón Freixa, the restaurant at Mas de Torrent serves Catalan cuisine, using only the finest local produce. Star dishes include the turbot with suquet and the baby squid, but the croquettes and cannelloni are equally tasty. We loved the Iberico chargrilled pork – smokey as can be – and the elevated version of typical Gironan pastry Xuixo. You can choose from terrace-top tables with views over Empordà, or cosy enclaves by the well-stocked wine cellar.

Hotel bar

Bar Glicinias feels something of a juxtaposition to the neutral tones and breezy rooms throughout Mas de Torrent – it’s dark and sultry, inducing late nights spent putting the world to rights over bottles of local wine. Many guests start their evenings here with a cocktail curated by renowned Spanish mixologist Manel Vehí. The ‘Sherry Rich’ is a Glicinias go-to, and certainly lives up to its name with the very best of ingredients: Veuve Clicquot Rich, Campari, Pedro Ximénez and strawberries. Others might feel more inclined to the Green Vibes Detox mocktail – a concoction of lemon Kombucha, pear juice, kale and agave nectar that will have tomorrow-you thanking last night-you.

Last orders

A leisurely breakfast is served 8–11am in the poolside restaurant, and lunch 1–3.30pm. Dinner kicks off at 8pm, giving you more than enough time for that aftersun-aroma holiday moment. At night, call for la cuenta by 10.30pm.

Room service

Room service is not just available, but encouraged: the expansive menu ideal for those wishing to be more discreet. Order fresh asparagus salad, Iberian ham, reams of Catalan cheese or braised artichokes, finished with a lemon pie and delicate white wine.

Location

Photos Mas de Torrent location
Address
Mas de Torrent
Afueras de Torrent s/n
Torrent
17123
Spain

Mas de Torrent is a stone-clad finca inland from the Costa Brava, a north-eastern region of Spain dotted with mediaeval villages, beach coves and vineyards.

Planes

Girona-Costa Brava airport is a 45-minute drive from the hotel: contact the hotel directly to book transfers.

Trains

You can arrive into Girona by train from Paris or Barcelona (www.raileurope.co.uk) and the station is a 50-minute drive from Mas de Torrent.

Automobiles

It’s worth having wheels in Empordá – if only for reaching the Brava beaches and tapas bars – and the hotel has free parking on-site. Roadtrippers might arrive from Girona (50 minutes), Barcelona (two hours), or further afield: France is surprisingly close – the old town of Perpignan and its gothic palace are just across the border.

Other

Copters can plug in the coordinates 415717 ºN 3734 ºE; while sailors of the Spanish sea can drop anchor at Palamos Port (latitude 41º 45' N and longitude 2º 58). Aye aye, capitán.

Worth getting out of bed for

Empordà’s patchwork of terracotta roofs, pine-tree topped hills and icing-sugar white casas can easily be explored by bike or car. Head to nearby mediaeval towns (Begur is beautiful, as is Esclanyà), glistening coves washed with the waves of the Mediterranean, and idyllic fishing villages such as Sa Tuna (an apt name, if ever we’ve heard one): all give a taste of life in Costa Brava. Drives between villages are punctuated only by rice fields, fruit orchards, forests and farmland – you’re never too far from an olive tree or a vineyard here.

There are plenty of great beaches, too, so pick from our favourites: Cala S'eixugador’s bay of blues and greens; S'Agaró for its beach-hut backdrop; or Illa Roja’s transparent waters and red-tinted rock view. Those with an ocean-exploring agenda can hire a motor boat from Tamariu, and set sail for Pedrosa cove, where you can moor up and swim ashore to a tiny restaurant selling prawns and omelettes. Good snorkelling can be found here, as well as further north – the underwater life around Marquesa comes recommended.

Local restaurants

Late lunches of grilled squid and chilled rosé (a perfect pairing for the heat) can be enjoyed at waterside restaurant Es Furió de Fito in Sa Tuna. For dinner, nearby Pals is fit for food lovers: dine on steaming seafood paella and Spanish wines at Sol Blanc, a traditional mas set among a mass of rice fields; or in the courtyard of old-world style El Pedro, well loved for rice casseroles and grilled seafood. Indulgent tasting menus worthy of two Michelin stars can be found at Bo.TiC – made even more special because of the setting in an old carriage carpentry. Seasonal menus are prepared by young and talented chefs at Casamar overlooking Llafranc beach; you can choose from dishes focused on the land or sea, or an entirely vegetarian menu.

Local bars

Begur is your best bet for bars in Brava. Informal C-Roack is lantern-lit and lively; or head to the hilltop for a G&T with castle views at El Jardí de Can Marc – we’d recommend arriving around 8pm for a pre-dinner buzz and some tapas to kick off the evening.

Reviews

Photos Mas de Torrent reviews
Cassia Geller

Anonymous review

By Cassia Geller, Features editor

There are milestone birthdays, and then there are 'mid' birthdays: ones you don’t throw a party for, but that do nudge you into a new age bracket on forms. And I decide to spend mine at Mas de Torrent – the case for which is watertight…

Firstly, my birthday is mid October – the exact moment that London leaves and temperatures drop. In the tapas-sized Catalunian village of Torrent, October days are golden-hued, sun-soaked and eat-outsideable. For my mid-milestone birthday, I want terrace weather. 

Secondly, past guests include Kylie, Shakira and Barbra Streisand. Which is exactly the icons-only calibre I’m gunning for this era. 

Thirdly, the five-star hotel has been expertly engineered for total relaxation. From its serene garden suites to its three-floor spa, the pure peace of its rolling countryside to its cosy farmhouse corners, Mas de Torrent has the dose of rural chill my new age range is begging for. 

And fourthly (although not strictly birthday related), we’re heading here after two weeks in Barcelona, nursing the kind of long, low-level hangover that comes from living in the land of two-Euro cava. I need to be refreshed, reborn, and ready to enter my diva era. 

But first, let’s arrive. It’s an easy 80-minute drive from Barcelona to sleepy Torrent, just east of Girona. We roll into Mas de Torrent’s grounds: gorgeous gardens peppered with palm, cypress and olive trees opening out onto eye-stretching countryside, an 18th-century stone finca wrapped by vines and sunny terraces at the centre. 

Calm descends on our rental car. That hushed, luxe, ‘there’s definitely a spa and a Michelin star around here somewhere’ calm. 

It’s calm as we ease into our elegant suite, stroking natural linened things in our wake. Calm as we lap the colossal pool in the October afternoon sun. Serenity as we sip welcome rosé, from Torrent’s ‘sister’ vineyard, on our terrace. And total tranquillity as we potter around its grounds and the groves beyond. Everything is perfectly calm, perfectly kept and perfectly perfect.

Not us, though. Lest all this calm sends us into a too-late siesta, Smith and I hit the tennis court to swear at each other under the guise of sport and work up an appetite for dinner. Even this takes place in a serene setting in the middle of woodland: birds and bats swooping, dusk falling, balls flying, and so on.

Dinner is a sublime seasonal menu devised by the many-Michelin-starred ??Ramón Freixa. We have the Mas tasting menu – less mas as in Mas de Torrent; more mucho mas than you should eat in one sitting: croquetas and pintxos; smokey aubergine and cod; turbot and duck; a well curated local cheese board; xuixo (Gironan pastry) with passionfruit and rum cream (with birthday candles as we’ve passed midnight); and chocolates – all washed down with plenty of cava and Catalonian garnacha. 

Suddenly, though not surprisingly, the luxe calm becomes a far-less-glamorous stupor. Bed. 

The next day is D-day, birthday, which means a room service breakfast and pressies on the lovely linened super-super-king before we hit the spa. So far, so good. 

And the MasSpa — so excellent. We blithely ignore the gym, plunge in plunge pools, steam in steam rooms and, lo, it’s time for my diamond facial ritual. This, appropriately, is MasSpa’s ‘most luxurious anti-ageing treatment’, and nails this trip’s brief: a serene preening, plumping and perfecting hour that magics away those late nights, if not the past few years. 

My sparkling new face and I meet Smith to explore the area, taking the cliffside-coastal walk from Sa Reira to a pint along the platja. Windswept and weary back at the finca, we curl up in a cosy corner with magazines and the delightful afternoon tea spread, laid out each day with no expectation, or charge – a brilliant touch. Snuggled on the sofa with a plate of cake and CN Traveller, I am utterly content. 

We rouse ourselves to get ready for dinner. I’ll spare you the full menu, but I’d like to make one special shout-out to the bread basket (bear with me): a riotous mix of what looks like breakfast buns, savoury, paired with myriad dips, oils and butters. Devised by Freixa’s own grandfather, it is joy in bread form (really, is there any other kind…). 

Our next, final, morning, we have one last ‘game’ of tennis, then breakfast in the sun, staring misty-eyed through the flower-filled garden to Girona’s hills. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Except it’s not sweet, is it? It’s just sorrow. I hate leaving great hotels. And leaving perfectly peaceful Torrent – older, fatter, and having lost my heart to its artfully crafted serenity – is an especially bitter pill to swallow. 

Still, we’ve entered the icon era – the new, mature box to tick – so we must take these hardships with grace… and admit that Torrent isn’t very far away for the next time I need a dose of calm and a diamond facial. Or, to quote fellow icon and Mas de Torrent alum: ‘I’ll be there and you’ll be near. And that’s the deal, my dear.’ Amen, Shakira Shakira.

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