Catalonia – Costa Brava & Medes Islands

About Catalonia – Costa Brava & Medes Islands

The Costa Brava is mainland Spain’s most celebrated Mediterranean diving, crowned by the Medes Islands reserve off L’Estartit. Decades of protection have produced enormous, tame dusky groupers, dense schools of jacks and dentex, gorgonian walls and light-filled caverns such as the Cova de la Vaca and Dolfí tunnel. Nearby Cap de Creus Natural Park adds rugged rock, sea caves and superb visibility, while the Boreas and Garcia del Cid wrecks provide artificial reefs. Formigues islets and Tossa de Mar round out a varied coast. Warm summers, mature marine life and excellent infrastructure make this a European classic. This region rewards careful planning and respects Spain’s marine-protection rules, offering rewarding diving across a wide range of experience levels through a long and varied season.

Highlights

• ✓Medes Islands: Spain’s iconic reserve with giant groupers and caverns.
• ✓Cap de Creus Natural Park: rugged rock, sea caves and clear water.
• ✓Boreas wreck: a 45 m buoy-tender scuttled as an artificial reef.
• ✓Garcia del Cid: a research vessel wreck with resident groupers.
• ✓Islas Formigues: gorgonian walls and barracuda schools off Palamós.

Getting There

Fly into Girona (GRO) or Barcelona (BCN); the Medes are dived from L’Estartit, with other sites at Cadaqués, Palamós, Tossa de Mar and Lloret de Mar, all by short boat trips.