My sister and her ex (yes, they are divorced but decided to holiday together) had rented a house in Pals in the Catalan Region of Spain and I flew down for a few days.
The nearest airport is Girona and I flew in on a Ryan Air Flight from Luton airport. Luton must be the worst airport ever! It is being refurbished and the airport was so packed it was impossible to find a seat whilst waiting for my flight. (Having said that, this was school holidays, not a time when I usually take holidays and this probably accounted for the millions of screaming children and harassed parents who were commandeering all the seating).. My ex brother in law, Paul picked me up from Girona and Pals was about a 40 minute drive away. The house they had rented was owned by Golf Apartments Beach and Golf Resort (their main hotel was down the road) and was a nice terraced house with a small garden area. Helen and Paul’s son and his family were also staying for a week and it was nice to open up the back shutters and have a drink on the terrace each night.
Pals has become more commercialised now than when Helen and Paul used to go there some 20 years ago. There are a lot of camping/caravan sites and most of the visitors seem to be German, Dutch or Spanish. It is nice to go to a resort that is not full of British people but it is such a popular place now that the beautiful beach (with the Ile de Medes islands in the far distance) can get very crowded.
We were in the part of Pals called Plajta de Pals but we visited the old town which is perched up on a hill and has great views. It is a typical old Spanish town with narrow winding streets and an old church and a tower (the remnants of the original castle) at the top of the hill.
Down by the beach area again, there are lots of restaurants and bars. Our favourite was a beach front restaurant called Solimar. The veggie paella was fabulous and the waiters were very friendly. Another restaurant we went to was La Bodega d’en Prada which was also good.
All in all, a good place to visit but probably not during school holidays!
