Calella De Palafrugell, I'd never heard of it either, but me and the family have just come back from our holiday here and it has been the best family holiday we have had. When Mrs Cool told me she had booked us a holiday on a resort located on the Catalonian coast and that we would be travelling there by bus I was reminded of my 1st holiday abroad to Estartit with my Mam, Dad and Sister back in the 80's.
We travelled with Siesta Holidays but the bus we travelled on was nothing like the one I remembered from 1989. Each seat had a TV built into it with with hundreds of movies and TV shows on demand as well as a vast music library which kept the kids (big and small) entertained throughout the mammoth 30 hour journey. There was also food and drinks available to buy as and when you wanted them. I was expecting the food to be poor but it was actually really tasty and Karen, our hostess, was really helpful and friendly.
We left, sleepy-eyed, from Newcastle at 5.30am and travelled though Britain picking up fellow holidaymakers on the way. We travelled into France via the Euro Tunnel (a first for me) and through the Gallic Countryside stopping at various service stations having the odd croissant and coffee. We passed the Pyrenees into Spain and it wasn't long until we arrived at our destination at Camping La Siesta in Calella de Palafrugell.
We were staying in one of those caravan/lodge type things you get at some camp sites. The lodge (as I will call it from now on) was perfect for us. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen/dining area as well as decking outside for some al fresco dining. The site was just a few minutes walk to the beaches.
Although the beach itself was a bit 'stoney' for my liking, the views were fantastic. There were lots of great restaurants right on the beachfront. The 1st night we were there we had tapas at a restaurant called La Vela. We had tomato bread, salt cod fritters, calamari and cheese croquettes all of the food was delicious. The tomato bread tasted so fresh it was like eating a tomato. I think we must have been a bit too excited and hungry as we didn't take any photos of the food but trust me it was all great and after our meal we decided to have a moonlit walk around the town.
Our day at the camp site comprised mainly of a lazy lie in and once everyone was up we would put on our suncream. As a family of gingers we're about as tolerant to sunlight as Count Dracula but on this holiday we used a once a day cream Calypso and my god it was a revelation. We all applied our cream in the morning and that was it, we just had to stay out of the sun for the 1st 15 minutes and then after that we were set for the day. It was water proof too so we didn't even need to re-apply after swimming in the pool. Once we had our cream either me or Mrs Cool would go to the bakery and shop for our brunch which we would have at the lodge. We would usually have croissant, pan aux chocolat, tomato, avocado (obvs), cheese and charcuterie all washed down with fresh squeezed orange juice.
After brunch we would head to the pool which all the kids loved. Harry has recently been having swimming lessons at school and was keen to show off his skills, Heidi was still in water wings but by the end of the holidays she had discarded them and was happily swimming on her own. We got a GoPro a while a go and decided to take it with us for the 1st time. Here's a video we made with the GoPro at the pool.
I think from now on we will be using our GoPro a lot more as it was great fun making this video.
The next town to Calella De Palafrugell is Llafranc so we decided to have a walk along the coast one night and have a meal there. The walk took us about 20 minutes and again there was some great views. I loved all the boast anchored just off the beach, we found Hotel Llevant that also had a nice restaurant. They had a tasting menu that was incredible you can find the menu here.
Another restaurant we tried in Calella De Palafrugell was Sol i Mar which was literally one step off the beach. It was a bit windy that day but we still sat outside and the the kind lady who ran front of house gave our kids some blankets so they didn't get too cold. The view was incredible and the food even better. Mrs Cool had grilled shrimps with garlic and parsley, I had Sossos (whitebait), Harry had a massive portion of calamari and Heidi and Jack had spaghetti.
 |
| The view from our table at Sol i Mar |
 |
| Harry's Calamari |
 |
| Grilled Shrimp with garlic and parsley |
 |
| Sossos (whitebait) |
On our last night we decided to have out meal at the campsite restaurant. The staff here were always friendly and the food as really good. I always think why do restaurants on resorts like this abroad alway provide such good quality food at a reasonable price when the restaurants you get on British holiday parks always serve utter crap at ridiculous prices? Anyway, the kids had their favourite, chicken nuggets with chips and for some reason spaghetti. Me and Mrs Cool had Paella, I love Paella and had been looking for one since we got there but you always have to have it for a minimum of 2 people, it took me all week to convince Sam to get one and when it came we weren't disappointed we also had a big jug on Sangria (because why not?).
We had such a great time at Camping La Siesta in Calella De Palafrugell and we will definitely be back. We are already planning our next visit in 2 years time. Now I'm back home and melancholy is setting in I am looking forward to my holiday next year which will be in Cuba and I can't freaking wait. I'm looking forward to riding in a 1950's Cadillac around the streets of Havana smoking a fat cigar and drinking lots of Rum. Viva La Revolucion!
Well, that's all for now.
S
Very good I enjoyed the video x
ReplyDeleteThanks, we're going to start making more videos
Delete