Types of walk
The Costa Brava walks that we've tried to include in this blog are walks that are varied - a bit of history, some views, some woods, hopefully a stream or water, some cultivation and some pure nature and with some thing to see as an objective. We prefer round trips so you don't repeat yourself. Usually there are shortcuts if you don't want to walk the whole of our route
Walking is something we do a lot and so we probably walk further and quicker than irregular walkers. We've noticed in Catalonia that where timings are given on a sign if it says 1 hour then we typically walk it in 35-40 minutes. Our range is about 4-5km for a short week-day type walk and about 12-15km for a weekend afternoon/morning walk. We occasionally do longer than 15km. Normally it's about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
The main thing we like is variety. Some people just like to walk in nature with no signs of human activity or habitation. Others are happy just to pass through a couple of fields and be in the open air. We like a little bit of everything. Luckily the Costa Brava has something of everything - history, fields and meadows, pretty villages, remote hilltops, rivers, cliffs, sea, beaches and towns.
The second thing is that we need to walk round-trips. We have several walking books and guides (eg from the Catalan National Parks) and so so many are just one-way routes. That is they start at A and get to B and there is no way to get back to A from B without retracing your steps (tiring and boring for a long route) or having a vehicle at the start and finish which would mean two cars and shuttling backwards and forwards. There are some one way walks we do (eg along a beach, or where circumstances meant we couldn't complete a loop).
We tend to walk with children (and in the past year with a dog). The children have been on walks since they themselves could walk and were capable of walking 10km+ from age of about seven onwards.
We walk all year round, though from a practical point of view some of the best walking here is outside the main summer months - when the air is clearer giving better views and the tracks aren't dusty. If you do walk in summer do remember water and sunscreen.
