Camping in Catalonia: La Masia, Blanes Holiday Guide
Where we stayed, how we got there and why we need to look beyond the most popular spots again
Beautiful Blanes.
Scattered in parts with over developed 1970’s high rise hacks, her first impressions do not tell her full story because a short cycle towards her old town a new beauty opens up, a joyful charm as Spanish chatter sings through the air and €2 glasses of Cava clink.
The brief for this trip was simple but non-negotiable:
Easy - life has been full lately and we just needed something basic and grounding
Affordable - I wanted zero guilt or financial pressure attached to this easy escape, tricky under the current price climate
Somewhere slow where we can hang out - I don’t need or want a hundred facilities. A pool, a walk to a beach, a walk to a town and a clean bed.
Why Catalonia?
The search began with the “affordable bit”
Into skyscanner I selected Dublin to everywhere in May and an often overlooked airport rose quickly to the top - Girona with flights from €40 each, each way for this little over 2 hour flight.
The catch - it was a late flight.
This doesn’t really bother me as our annual Palma flight is also a late flight and my children (8+4) know the score by now. However, after a 2 hour delay in Dublin airport thanks to air traffic controllers striking in France, we landed at 1am Spanish time with two very sleepy but cooperative children.
With the late flight always on the cards and a quick Google search of Girona I made the decision to book into a hotel in the city for the night and have the morning to explore this beautiful city. Best decision.
I’m already looking at when I can escape without girls to fully explore this gem of a city. She’s old, quaint, the houses line the river bank in hues of terracotta that tourists pour into Florence or Venice to fawn over. Yet Girona is relatively forgotten.
From here it was a simple search of campsites near Girona - which led us to