Sant Feliu de Guíxols was, for centuries, this region's front door: the harbor everything moved through, crowned by a Benedictine monastery already a hundred years old when the last millennium began. That past hasn't gone anywhere — it's still there in the horseshoe arches of the Porta Ferrada, in the tiled domes along the passeig, in the very name of the music festival that fills the monastery square every summer — but Sant Feliu doesn't live off memory alone. It's a real, working town, with a market and year-round neighbors, and it happens to have the good fortune that the Costa Brava's most celebrated camí de ronda begins, literally, on its beach.
The monastery, the Porta Ferrada, and the hermitages of the district
The Porta Ferrada is the first thing to understand about Sant Feliu: a tenth-century façade of horseshoe arches on columns, with a later upper tier of Lombard arches added on top. It's the oldest surviving piece of the Benedictine monastery that gave rise to the town, and it's still its symbol today, present on the coat of arms and in the memory of anyone who's spent time here. Part of the old monastic complex now houses the town's Museu d'Història; the basilica, with its eighteenth-century neoclassical façade, still serves as the parish church. Every summer, the monastery courtyard hosts the Porta Ferrada International Festival, one of the oldest music festivals in Catalonia, with classical music, jazz, theater and dance.
Outside the town center, scattered across the hills of the district, several stone hermitages survive that once served as parish churches for farming communities before the town grew toward the sea. They're not the kind of monument with opening hours — they're the sort of discovery you make on foot: a bell-gable, a bell, a door shut most of the year, and pines all around.
The passeig, the Casino, and the sweets of a guixolenc
The Casino La Constància, with its tiled tower and dome, is the most photographed building on the passeig, and for good reason: behind a façade that looks pulled from another latitude entirely, it still functions as a social club, keeping an old-world café atmosphere you can borrow for the price of a coffee from this one. Around it, the historic center holds cafés with real character — ANNNA, where design meets local produce — and bakeries that have spent generations perfecting the guixolenc, the pastry that gives the town's residents their nickname: La Vienesa and the Pastisseria Gironès are the two addresses worth noting.
From the Carrer Major to the Passeig del Mar, the town unfolds a run of façades from the Gothic of the church of Sant Feliu to the modernisme of the Cases Patxot, testimony to the years when maritime trade filled the town with colonial money and the appetite to show it off.
Beaches and calas, on the way to S’Agaró
Sant Feliu's beach, the one in the center, is wide and easy to reach, with the whole life of the town a step away. For something more sheltered, there's Cala Jonca, small and less busy, and from there the best part begins: the camí de ronda toward S’Agaró, about 2.5 km of cliffside path covered at an easy pace in a little over an hour, climbing and descending stairs cut into the rock. Along the way come Cala Maset and Sa Caleta, perfect for a swim at the halfway point, before you reach the wide Platja de Sant Pol, already in S’Agaró.
It's a walk that asks nothing of the body beyond a little patience with the stairs, and rewards it with the most photographed stretch of coast in the whole Baix Empordà.
Where to stay: from the Alàbriga to the town beach
The Alàbriga Hotel & Home Suites tops Sant Feliu's luxury offering: five stars, a spa, a gourmet restaurant with sea views, and an infinity pool looking out toward S’Agaró. It's the choice for anyone after a stay with nothing left to plan.
Right on the beachfront, a handful of four-star hotels — the Elke Spa Hotel, the Hotel Boutique OMA, the Ilunion Caleta Park, the Van der Valk Hotel Barcarola — round out the rest, each with its own character: spa, design, accessibility, or simply the beach at the door. It's worth booking ahead in summer; the town is small and the options, while good, aren't unlimited.
