Costa Brava Spain recommendations

[humpback]

I am traveling to Barcelona on vacation next month and wanted to take a day and go up to the Costa Brava and dive. Anyone have any recommendations for dive operators, locations, etc. If anyone has done a trip from Barcelona to Costa Brava for diving can you recommend the best way to travel - ie, train, bus, car, etc.

 

[Arnaud]

I am traveling to Barcelona on vacation next month and wanted to take a day and go up to the Costa Brava and dive. Anyone have any recommendations for dive operators, locations, etc. If anyone has done a trip from Barcelona to Costa Brava for diving can you recommend the best way to travel - ie, train, bus, car, etc.

Make sure you inquire about the conditions before getting on the road to go diving. The Medes Islands near the town of L'Estartit are considered the best spots in the area. Avoid going there on WE's. You can look into these two operators: http://www.grn.es/calypso/ and http://rei-del-mar.com/

L'Estartit is also home to Dive Inn (aka Scubastore).

If you don't want to drive this far, I can recommend those guys: http://www.palamosdivecenter.com/ I dive there every summer.

A car is definitely the way to go.

Enjoy!

 

[humpback]

Arnaud - I have never been - I am assuming from my research that L'Estartit is about 1 1/2 hour drive from Barcelona, correct? How far is palamosdivecenter? Their web site is not responding at present but I will continue to try. How is the diving?

 

[Arnaud]

Yup, their server seems down. It worked this morning, but was very slow.

L'Estartit is at least an 1 1/2 hour from Barcelona.

Palamos will be less, like an hour (with no traffic).

The diving is good, not great. Expect the water temp to be in the low to mid 50's at depth, some current, good viz, abundant fish life, nudies and gorgonias.

Just to be clear, this is not tropical diving.

 

[humpback]

Mid 50's lordy - sounds like 7mm to me. Thanks for the update.