June 2, 2025, 4:56 am | Read time: 2 minutes
If you’re looking for long sandy beaches filled with typical Spanish package tourists, clubs, and sangria bars along the promenade, you won’t find that in Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. Instead, you’ll discover a slice of authentic Spain here.
Cadaqués, the small town with about 3,000 residents at Cap de Creus near the French border, is something truly special. Separated from the rest of the Costa Brava by a mountain range up to 700 meters high, the town has largely preserved its original character.
Attraction for Artists
Salvador Dalí also appreciated this, having expanded his family’s villa in Portlligat Bay in the 1930s and lived there from 1948 after his U.S. exile until his death in 1989.
Salvador Dalí invited artists like Pablo Picasso, Gabriel García Márquez, and Luis Buñuel to Cadaqués. The fishing village, with its many white facades, the equally white Gothic church of Santa Maria, narrow alleys, and the charming square near the promenade, has always had a magical appeal to individualists.
Dalí’s Villa is Now a Museum
Dalí’s villa in Cadaqués-Portlligat is now a publicly accessible museum. Visitors are guided through the house, filled with the master’s works, in small groups. From June 17 to September 8, the museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 7:50 p.m.; otherwise, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:10 p.m. Admission costs 18 euros, with a reduced rate of 14 euros per person. The world-famous large Dalí Museum, however, is located 30 kilometers away in Figueras, in the hinterland of the Spanish region of Catalonia.
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The Surroundings of Cadaqués
The surroundings of Cadaqués offer beautiful and clean bathing bays. Some are only accessible by boat or via challenging hiking trails. Those longing for long sandy beaches with classic Spanish package tourists, discos, and sangria bars on the promenade should not come to Cadaqués. Such vacationers will find what they’re looking for about 25 kilometers away in Roses behind the mountain range or in the dozens of similar seaside resorts on the Costa Brava, like Tossa de Mar or Lloret de Mar near Barcelona.
Text contribution: Jasch Zacharias