Costa Brava (1 Viewer)

I am going to the Costa Brava at the end of May for a week with my wife. We don't want to hire a car and I want to be near good birding sites so I am flying into Girona. I hope to stay in Empuriabrava so I have access to Aigumolls d'Empordia but I also hope to visit Cap de Creus.

I have some questions

1. How do I get from Girona airport to Empuriabrava by public transport?

2. How accessible is Cap de Creus without a car?

3. Is there anyway to get into the Pyrenees by public transport and see some mountain birds?

Thanks in advance

David

Aiguamolls and Cap de Creus

david kelly said:

1. How do I get from Girona airport to Empuriabrava by public transport?

2. How accessible is Cap de Creus without a car?

3. Is there anyway to get into the Pyrenees by public transport and see some mountain birds?

Click to expand...

Hi David

I can't help much but...

1. There are buses, and taxis of course, that go from Girona airport but I don't know the details so you'd have to google it.

2. You could walk into the Cap de Creus Park, where you can find stuff like Orphean Warbler, Wryneck and Ortolan Bunting, but the actual Cap de Creus itself, where the lighthouse is, is much more difficult and perhaps impossible.

I have seen one of those tourist 'buses', where a tractor made up to look like a train pulls coaches, and I suppose they must run from nearby towns but again I don't know the details. In any case, I think it's a 'there and back' trip, staying for a short time before returning so wouldn't give you long to go off on your own birding.

3. The roads don't favour east-west travelling in this part of Catalunya, with perhaps the best route being towards the Queralbs-Vall de Nuria from Girona airport.

However, I'm sure there must be some special day trip to the Vall de Nuria if you do a search. This would get Citril Finch and a few raptors may be.

In the end though, I can't believe that summing up the day trip tickets for a family for tours to the Cap de Creus and the Pyrenees, if they exist, comes to more than the cost of a hire car. Although, actually, I've just remembered that car hire prices are hiked extortionately through the summer aren't they?

All that given. There are lots of places and birds in the Emporda in addition to the Cortalet reserve so you'll be o.k. even without travelling I think. For species, take a look here under 'summer' and 'all year round', although there will still be some late passage, e.g. Red-footed Falcon, etc:

http://www.catalanbirdtours.com/Spain birding/AE bird watching holiday.html

http://www.catalanbirdtours.com/Spain birding/CAP birding trip.html

Good luck anyway.

David

I've been birding twice in that area in the last couple of years. There are airport buses to Roses and Empuriabrava but not that frequent so it will depend on your flight times. Try the airport website or sarfa.com-it has bus timetables

There are buses to Cadaques but as Stephen says getting to the cape and lighthouse would be very difficult. There are coastal paths from Cadaques so some of the area can be explored on foot. I believe there are ferries/boat trips from Roses to Cadaques though I don't know if they will have started when you go