Platja d’Aro is this coast's practical face: the longest, easiest beach, the liveliest shopping streets, the widest range of things to do with children in tow. It's part of the municipality of Castell-Platja d’Aro, together with S’Agaró and Castell d’Aro itself, and that pairing sums the place up well: a modern beachfront and a village life that, a short way inland, still smells of medieval stone. It isn't the quietest corner of the Costa Brava, but it has its own — a run of calas heading south that get smaller and more secretive the further you walk.
The Platja Gran and the town center
Platja d’Aro's main beach is long, fine-sanded and fully serviced, which makes it the easiest place around to spend a day with no plan at all. Behind it, the center is a run of shops, boutiques and restaurants that never really shuts down, whatever the season. Every Friday morning, the municipal market — in the Masia Bas car park — fills dozens of stalls with fruit, clothing and crafts, and it's one of the few places where the town feels as much like a neighborhood as a destination.
With children: parks and adventure
Few towns on the Costa Brava are as well set up for a family trip. The Parc dels Estanys, with its ponds and paths along the coast, is the quiet breather between one beach and the next. Parc Aventura offers rope courses and zip lines strung through the trees, and PP's Park adds more classic rides — carousels, small roller coasters — for the youngest visitors. And for a different pace entirely, the Club Golf d’Aro – Mas Nou has 18 holes in the hills above the sea, with views that justify the round even if your scorecard doesn't.
The calas to the south
South of the main beach, the coastline breaks into smaller calas: Cala Rovira, Cala del Pi and Cap Roig, short stretches of sand between rock and pine, a world away from the mood of the center. Following the coast further, right at the edge of S’Agaró, the camí de ronda begins toward Platja de Sa Conca — that stretch already belongs to the route we describe in the S’Agaró profile.
Cala del Paller, the best-kept secret
Close to the boundary with Sant Antoni de Calonge, the camí de ronda hides the Cala del Paller: a small, rocky cala, the kind that barely shows up in the guidebooks, with the clean, transparent water typical of this stretch of coast.
It has none of the Platja Gran's facilities and none of Cala Rovira's name recognition — and that's exactly its charm. You reach it on foot, not by car, and that alone is enough to keep most people away.
Castell d’Aro: the past, close by
Inland, just minutes from the seafront, Castell d’Aro is the historic heart of the municipality: a medieval castle and stone streets that offer exactly the contrast the beach's pace calls for. In a single day you can go from the sand to the medieval Empordà without more than ten minutes in the car.
For anyone who'd rather have a hotel than a villa, the area has plenty on offer, from the Hotel Aromar and the Hotel Spa La Terrassa by the sea to the more secluded Hotel Cala del Pi.
