October
Wk 41–43
The quietest stretch among this region's best weather weeks: crowd level around 30 out of 100, weather comfort near 67.
- Crowd level
- 29–31
- Comfort
- 63–71
Spain · Costa Brava
Costa Brava: 220 kilometres of coast between the Pyrenees and the Tordera
A writer gave the stretch its name in 1908, "wild coast", after the ranges that fall steeply into the sea. In the province of Girona lie Empúries above L'Escala, the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes and the Dalí houses.
Busiest week
AugustCrowd level 100
Wk 32 · 3,653,210 overnight stays
Quietest weeks
JanuaryCrowd level 0
Wk 2–4 · measured against the region's own year, not against other regions
Sweet spot
OctoberCrowd level 29–31
Wk 41–43 · quietest while the weather still holds
Warmest month
25 °CComfort 78
July · around 73 mm of rain in the month
The overnight-stay figures come from a statistical area that this destination shares with Barcelona. They cover the whole area, not Costa Brava on its own.
Costa Brava in brief
The Costa Brava is the north-easternmost strip of the Spanish Mediterranean coast and runs some 220 kilometres from the foothills of the Pyrenees at Portbou to the mouth of the Tordera at Blanes. It belongs to the province of Girona and spreads there across three coastal comarques. Its name, Catalan and Spanish for "wild coast", comes from the broken rock massifs that fall steeply into the sea from ranges running parallel to the shore; bays lie between the headlands, and at the Golf de Roses the land widens into flat sandy beaches.
When is Costa Brava busy, when is it quiet?
Click a week. The panel on the right explains why it is busy or quiet.
Weather profile
Weather comfort is an absolute scale (0 = poor, 100 = ideal) and a second axis next to the season-relative crowd level.
JanuaryØ 1
FebruaryØ 6
MarchØ 12
AprilØ 31
MayØ 41
JuneØ 58
JulyØ 83
AugustØ 96
SeptemberØ 52
OctoberØ 31
NovemberØ 9
DecemberØ 6
Colour = season-relative crowd levelBar = weather comfort (Sun & warmth), absolute 0–100
Why this week?
October · Wk 41
Crowd level29/100 · fairly quiet
quietbusy
Weather comfort34/100 · Sun & warmth
-12 % versus the region's annual average.
- Contributing months
- October (100 %)
- Overnight stays/week
- 1,424,198
- School-holiday pressure (source markets)
- 5 % of source markets on school holidays · -2 % crowding from holidays
- Main source markets
- Spain (44 %) · United Kingdom (19 %) · Germany (13 %) · 88% of guests modelled
- Region range
- 504,057–3,653,210 (avg 1,609,631)
- Base years
- 2022, 2023, 2024 (excluding 2020, 2021)
v1: Crowd-Score aus der Eurostat-Basisschicht (Übernachtungen), moduliert vom Schulferien-Druck der Quellmärkte, region-spezifisch gewichtet mit dem Quellland-Mix. Season-relativ zur Region. Event-Schichten folgen.
Plan your trip
Pre-filled with the next date in week 41.
DestinationCosta Brava
Travel datesPick a week in the calendar
FlightSearch flights (opens in a new tab)
StayFind stays (opens in a new tab)
ActivityExplore activities (opens in a new tab)Ad · commission link
Photos: Johny Goerend · reisetopia · Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash
The travel year in Costa Brava, month by month
The year as a table to read and to cite: crowd level for every month, plus weather comfort and temperature from the climate normals.
| Month | Crowd level0–100, season-relative | Weather comfort0–100, profile “mild” | Avg temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1 | 28 | 5 °C |
| February | 6 | 35 | 8 °C |
| March | 12 | 43 | 10 °C |
| April | 31 | 55 | 13 °C |
| May | 41 | 72 | 17 °C |
| June | 58 | 79 | 22 °C |
| July | 83 | 78 | 25 °C |
| August | 96 | 76 | 25 °C |
| September | 52 | 78 | 20 °C |
| October | 31 | 69 | 16 °C |
| November | 9 | 46 | 10 °C |
| December | 6 | 31 | 6 °C |
The crowd level is season-relative: 100 is the annual peak of Costa Brava itself, not the busiest destination in Europe. The figures say when it is quiet here — not where it is quieter than elsewhere.
Weather comfort 0–100 from the climate normals, profile “mild” – the same profile as the recommendation above, not the selection in the calendar. A “–” means the data for that month is missing.
Index 2.0 · As of 25/08/2026
The windows worth catching
Three windows from the model: first whether the weather suits the region, then how busy it gets.
April–May
Wk 17–19
A second option, also with usable weather: crowd level around 35, weather comfort near 65.
- Crowd level
- 30–39
- Comfort
- 61–69
August
Wk 31–33
The region's peak: crowd level around 98 out of 100. Only if the dates are fixed.
- Crowd level
- 97–100
- Comfort
- 74–76
Costa Brava compared with Europe
How full the accommodation is here, measured against Europe – on the only measure on which two travel regions can be compared.
- Bed occupancy in Costa Brava
- 28.1
- European median
- 23.1
per cent of bed places, annual mean
per cent of bed places, annual mean
Furthest from the median: August, at 1.5× the value. Closest to the median: March, at 1.0× the value.
Mean across 12 months, weighted by their weeks. This occupancy compares travel regions with one another. The crowding in the table above compares Costa Brava with itself. The two measures are never combined.
Climate through the year
Average temperature with day/night range and precipitation across the twelve months.
- Avg temperature
- Day/night range
- Precipitation
| Month | Avg temperature (°C) | Day avg (°C) | Night avg (°C) | Precipitation (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 5 | 5 | 4 | 33 |
| Feb | 7 | 8 | 6 | 42 |
| Mar | 9 | 10 | 7 | 77 |
| Apr | 11 | 13 | 10 | 101 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 13 | 88 |
| Jun | 20 | 22 | 18 | 84 |
| Jul | 23 | 25 | 21 | 73 |
| Aug | 23 | 25 | 21 | 76 |
| Sep | 18 | 20 | 17 | 83 |
| Oct | 15 | 16 | 14 | 105 |
| Nov | 9 | 10 | 8 | 57 |
| Dec | 6 | 6 | 5 | 30 |
The band shows mean daytime to nighttime temperature. Precipitation shown as monthly total (mm). Typical monthly value (climate normal), not a forecast.
How sunny?
How much sun a typical day delivers, month by month, expressed as hours of full midday sun.
Very sunny
≈ 4.5 h of full midday sun per day, annual average
Jul
Sunniest month
| Month | ≈ h of full midday sun per day |
|---|---|
| Jan | 2.2 |
| Feb | 3.1 |
| Mar | 4.3 |
| Apr | 5.5 |
| May | 6.6 |
| Jun | 6.9 |
| Jul | 7.0 |
| Aug | 6.1 |
| Sep | 4.6 |
| Oct | 3.2 |
| Nov | 2.4 |
| Dec | 1.9 |
Basis: mean daily solar irradiance in kWh/m²/day; 1 kWh/m² is roughly one hour of full midday sun (1,000 W/m²). Not the same as measured sunshine duration. Typical monthly value (climate normal), not a forecast.
Directly reachable from
Destination airports of Costa Brava and every European departure airport with a direct connection to them.
Destination airports
Select a destination airport to see the direct departure airports.
“Directly reachable” means a direct connection exists according to our sources. We do not show a live timetable. Availability and flight days can vary by season and airline.
Ski areas in Costa Brava
Mapped ski areas in this region with slope kilometres, lifts and elevation, plus the long-term snow average from our climate data.
- Ski areas
- 12
- Slopes in total
- 389 km
- Lifts
- 132
- Highest point
- 2,747 m
| Ski area | Slopes | Lifts | Elevation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estació d'Esquí Baqueira-Beret | 154.44 km4.92 km cross-country | 36 | 1,504–2,600 m1,096 m vertical drop |
| Masella | 51.65 km | 18 | 1,615–2,509 m894 m vertical drop |
| La Molina | 48.62 km | 17 | 1,653–2,518 m866 m vertical drop |
| Boí Taüll | 34.9 km | 9 | 2,039–2,747 m708 m vertical drop |
| Estació d'esquí Port del Comte | 26.69 km | 13 | 1,744–2,122 m378 m vertical drop |
| Estació d'esquí de Port-Ainé | 21.9 km | 8 | 1,680–2,424 m744 m vertical drop |
| Espot | 20.03 km | 6 | 1,511–2,290 m780 m vertical drop |
| Estació d'esquí i muntanya Vallter 2000 | 14.29 km | 10 | 2,010–2,495 m485 m vertical drop |
| Estació de muntanya Vall de Núria | 6.47 km | 7 | 1,964–2,259 m295 m vertical drop |
| Rasos de Peguera | 5.75 km | 5 | 1,826–2,036 m210 m vertical drop |
| Tavascan | 4.24 km | 3 | 1,711–2,196 m485 m vertical drop |
| Estació d'esquí nòrdic Tuixent - La VansaCross-country only | 20.02 km cross-country | not available | 1,933–2,180 m246 m vertical drop |
Slope, lift and elevation figures come from open mapping and are complete to varying degrees. “Not available” means not mapped, not “does not exist”. Opening hours and season are not included. Snow figures are long-term averages for the whole region, not snow depth on the mountain and not a forecast.
Costa Brava in detail
Location and shape
The Costa Brava is the north-easternmost strip of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, in Catalonia; the name means "wild coast" in Catalan and Spanish. The writer Ferran Agulló coined it on 12 September 1908 in the magazine La Veu de Catalunya; it is not precisely defined in space, it is not an official geographical name either, and since the 1960s it has served above all for marketing. The stretch measures about 220 kilometres, from the foothills of the Pyrenees at the French-Spanish border near Portbou south and south-west to the mouth of the Tordera at Blanes; the Costa del Maresme follows to the south, and from the southern edge it is around 60 kilometres to the city of Barcelona. The area is administered by the province of Girona; three of its eight comarques lie on the coast: Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà and Selva.
Rock, bays, a wide gulf shore
The name goes back to the broken rock massifs that fall steeply to the sea from ranges running parallel to the shore, the serras; between the headlands lie small beaches and bays, the calas, some of them reachable by boat alone. Wild in Agulló's sense are the Cap de Creus peninsula as the easternmost point of Catalonia with the town of Cadaqués, the country around the Cap de Begur near Palafrugell, and the coast between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Tossa de Mar. The whole line is not made that way, though: at the Golf de Roses the land widens, flat beaches of fine sand lie at Empuriabrava and Sant Pere Pescador, and south of Lloret de Mar the topography passes into flat, partly marshy coastal land. The coastal ranges carry open groves of pine, cork oak and acacia along with Mediterranean maquis of broom, rock rose, rosemary and thyme; closed stands of forest are rare.
Cork, fish and the building boom
Until the middle of the twentieth century the coast lived from fishing and the cork industry; the cork was worked in Palafrugell, where a cork museum and a working factory stand, and in Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Palamós. The fishing ports that matter today are Palamós and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, along with L'Escala and Roses. Until then the places were small fishing villages; the building boom of the 1960s began on the broad beaches of the south, at Platja d'Aro, Lloret de Mar and Blanes, and campsites and apartment complexes followed later in the smaller places and bays between the rock headlands. Today the stretch counts 17 marinas and two commercial ports; Empuriabrava is a marina with 5,000 berths, navigable canals and a long, gently shelving sandy beach.
Ancient town, monastery, town walls
Above L'Escala lie the excavations of the Greek and Roman town of Empúries, whose ruins are 2,500 years old; at Ullastret inland an Iberian settlement has been uncovered. Near El Port de la Selva stands the ruin of the Romanesque monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, and Peralada is a fortress with a former Augustinian monastery church from the fourteenth century, used today as a museum, a casino and, in the summer months, a venue for cultural events. Tossa de Mar has a completely preserved medieval town wall with eight towers, Pals an equally complete and restored old town on a hill with flights of steps. Much of this stands away from the coast, inland, for instance in the provincial capital Girona with its cathedral, its so-called Arab baths, its old town with the ramblas and the Jewish quarter el Call.
Dalí, nature parks, dive sites
In Figueres stand the Castell de Sant Ferran, with the longest fortress wall in Catalonia, and the Teatre-Museu Dalí. With the Casa-Museo Dalí in Portlligat near Cadaqués and the Castell Gala Dalí in Púbol it forms the Dalí triangle. Several nature parks lie on or behind the coast: Cap de Creus with 3,073 hectares of sea and 10,813 hectares of land, the wetland Aiguamolls de l'Empordà between Roses, Empuriabrava and L'Escala, Albera at the foot of the Pyrenees, and Montgrí, the Medes Islands and Baix Ter. The Medes Islands off L'Estartit are a classic diving ground, as are the coast near Sant Feliu de Guíxols and the Cap de Creus peninsula. The wines and cavas of the region carry the designation of origin DO Empordà, and one regional speciality is called "mar i muntanya", with prawns and rabbit; bullfights have been forbidden by law across Catalonia since 2012, and Tossa de Mar was the first municipality on the stretch to ban them.
How it differs from Barcelona
The two are cut to unequal measure: here a stretch of coast some 220 kilometres long across three comarques of the province of Girona, there a single city on a plateau five kilometres wide between two rivers and a mountain range. From the southern edge of the Costa Brava to the city is around 60 kilometres, with the Costa del Maresme in between; Barcelona is at once the capital of Catalonia and the seat of a province of its own. On the coast and in its hinterland the old things stand scattered and single: the Greek and Roman town of Empúries above L'Escala, the Iberian settlement of Ullastret inland, the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, the eight-towered town wall of Tossa de Mar. In Barcelona they run from Roman Barcino with its 12 hectares through the Barri Gòtic to the eight World Heritage buildings of the Modernisme. At the water lies a further difference: on the Costa Brava serras running parallel to the shore drop steeply into the sea, with bays between them, some reachable by boat alone, and 17 marinas spread along the stretch; Barcelona opened its centre at the old harbour and the strip beyond Barceloneta to the sea only for the games of 1992, with a broad beach.
Frequently asked questions about the best time to visit Costa Brava
Short answers on timing, weather and getting there, all from the data on this page.
When is the best time to visit Costa Brava?
- The best time to visit Costa Brava is October (Wk 41–43): it is the quietest stretch among the region's best weather weeks – crowd level around 30 out of 100, weather comfort about 67 out of 100.
When is Costa Brava quietest?
- January (Wk 2–4) is the quietest time in Costa Brava. Crowd levels there sit at 0 out of 100, the lowest across the year.
When is Costa Brava busiest?
- Costa Brava is busiest in August (Wk 32) with around 3,653,210 overnight stays in the peak week.
What is the weather like in Costa Brava and when is it warmest?
- It is warmest in Costa Brava in July with an average of 25 °C and around 73 mm of rain in the month.
How do you get to Costa Brava?
- Costa Brava is reachable via 5 destination airports with direct flights, including Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), Girona-Costa Brava Airport (GRO) and Reus Airport (REU).
Quiet travel windows across Europe, once a month
The Crowd Report names the emptiest weeks of the coming months — for every region, not just this one. Free, unsubscribe any time.
Sources and data vintages
Every provenance note on this page, collected in one place.
- Cover photo
- Photo by Joshua Kettle on Unsplash
- Crowding figures
- Index 2.0 · As of 25/08/2026. v1 approximation, calculated from Eurostat overnight stays. Day tourism and cruises (Venice, Dubrovnik …) are still missing, so we show these destinations as quieter than they are. The crowd score is a model-based forecast, not a measurement.
- Climate data
- Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2025.
- Reachability
Data sources: direct connections from Wikipedia (“Airlines and destinations”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, aggregated and modified by us), cross-checked with Eurostat, Destatis and the UK Civil Aviation Authority; airport data from OurAirports (Public Domain). The derived connection data is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Data as of: September 2026
- Ski areas
Data sources: ski areas from OpenSkiMap, based on OpenStreetMap, licensed under ODbL 1.0; snow depths from ERA5-Land (Copernicus Climate Change Service).
- Region text
- Text by HolidayHub, written from Wikivoyage „Costa Brava“ (1775568) · Wikipedia „Costa Brava“ (270034239) · Wikidata Q216884. Wikivoyage and Wikipedia are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikidata CC0.
- Data basis
- All figures are approximations derived from open data (crowd level from Eurostat overnight stays, climate from Copernicus/ERA5-Land), not measurements.