Spain - Costa Brava Discussion Forum

Discussions regarding holidays in the Costa Brava.
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Just come back from Estartit, agree with most of what you say but still had a great time, great restaurants, Cafe Solo still going strong and had a really good night at Mariscal, live Rock Band on, lovely apartment...what can I say.
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Good to see that someone has been to Estartit this year as the baord is pretty quiet.

We will probably be going again next year.

Helen
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wow you know your stuff about estartit and a great post,,though i have to disagree politely on it being the best beach..lol...i worked in est in 90s as a youngster and i have fond memories,i popped back in around 4 years ago and it just wasnt the same,
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I too remember Estartit in its best days, i first went there about 1986,87 with my family and it was the best holidays i ever had,
Als bar was thriving in those days, i cant remember the name of the apartments we stayed in, we travelled with Amberline coaches in those days who i think are now out of business, i was 12 or 13 then and as it has been said in previous posts magical in those days.
I went back in 2010 with my own family who i wanted to show my Estartit to and i was not dissapointed because it brought back all my happy memories although it was considerly quieter i must admit but we had a great time, my wife and daughter loved the place, it is just so laid back, i have quite a stressful job so it done me the world of good to just chill out for a week. The beach is excellent
also, the scenery is marvellous and friendly people. We travelled overland with Siesta coaches including a Disney stopover, i see the journey as part of the holiday to be honest, we stayed in the Flamingo apartments which is slightly outdated but clean and spacious at least. We found a tapas / bar / cafe called Tex Mex where we would have a full English breakfast, the English owner Dougie was very welcoming to us, we also found an Irish bar called Clancys where we would get our evening meal, the owners were also very welcoming, for entertainment we would head up to the roof garden bar on the camp site where there was bingo, quizes and kareoke and reasonably priced drinks.
I suppose it is not quite the Estartit i remember i must admit but it will always have a special place in my heart, lets hope things change here for the future please as it would be such a shame for it to fade away altogether, we are due to go back in early September with, 6 of us on a family holiday and i hope they also find the magic we all discovered in Estartit.
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johnm100.just enjoyed reading your posts,brings back memories.We used to go camping that way every year from 1984 for 20 years on the run when the children were younger,self drive with eurosites etc.We visited Estartit many times,I remember Als bar,Nora Battys chip shop,and a great restaurant was Cheers.We used to drive through Torrolla de Montigri and one day we stopped there on a bridge to see the fish spawning,there was 1,000s of them,have a video of it.A couple of apartments complexes that was popular with the British were the Confort and Festamar,something like that ! great times,it used to be so busy then.
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Never been camping but may try it one year, we are going back this year with Siesta coaches, doing the Disney stopover again, this will be about my 7th visit, and my familys 2nd visit, it is such a nice relaxed town, but what happened to it?? It was once thriving wasnt it, as you say " great times " but i must admit it still holds a special place in my heart all these years later, i went with my parents 87,88 etc and never went back until 2010 with my own family and it brings back fond memories still, my family loved the place, shame Als bar has now gone though, i remember years back the apartments we stayed in was run by a lady and her husband who was the local policeman, i have heard that since then he found out she was having an affair and shot her, bit of local gossip, but i would love to remember the name of the apartments, you will probably remember the Amberline coaches around the town then?
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Mr Taco the tex mex is still there and serving breakfasts up until 4pm, Clancys Bar is still there but this may be the owner's last year. Sadly Spirals across from the Flamingo Apts. is no longer there.
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I know Tex Mex was there last year, shame to hear about Clancys though, what is Estartit like in early September? Any ideas? we have always been in June, July, are all the bars still open?
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It was great to find this thread. I'm also an old timer - I've been to L'Estartit every year since (I think) 1986. Certainly when I was first there most of what became the Square was a concrete slab. There was a Korean(I think) restaurant called Phongs about where Spirals is (or was). I was surprised to read above that they'd gone, they've been there for a good many years now. I'm not heading out this year for another couple of weeks yet and so it's been interesting to see what's changed.
I'm surprised Clancy's is still around, it's been on the market for years and the last time I went there a few years ago they were pulling the shutters down behind me as late as 21:30 ;)
I think I'm quite lucky in that I've grown up with the place, though I do miss the square being packed beyond belief and taking half an hour to get served in Rockefellers (until you get known as a regular ;) )
Ummm, what else has been and gone.. so many places in fact. It's true it's simply down to numbers, you need a critical mass to keep that level of bar life going. It used to take about 15 minutes to get from the dance floor in Maxim's to the garden, the last time I was up there at 3am there can't have been more than a couple of dozen people inside and the garden was closed. The people I went out with then migrated to Ibiza once that took off though have started coming back, with their own kids now.

Overall it's not too bad in my eyes, they overdeveloped west of the Avinguda de Grecia and left places unfinished for years. We used to label that side of town The Bronx :) The most glaring holes in the main town are the Miramar site (subject of much local contention - what's happening with that now, if anything ? ) and El Freu just along from it.
Certainly as of last year, YC's is still a nice place to chill out, and El Rancho is banging in the small hours.

Much Fun!
Jason. (aged 41 3/4)
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Gutted Spirals is gone :( We were there 2 years ago and the owners were handing the bar over to their daugther.

We've been going to Estartit on and off for about 12 years and were considering going next year.

Helen
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Good to see more Estartit fans on here, so is Clancys shutting down does anyone know? Were due to go early September and we did plan to have our evening meals each night in Clancys
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Clancys is still open at the moment but the old fella died last year and there was talk of this being her last year.

Spirals downfall was it being given to the daughter and leaving parents with massive debt
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Paradisio. So sad to hear about spirals the owners were a lovely couple who had made a great life for themselves in Estartit. Did the daughter try to change the bar?

Helen
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I was talking to the ex owner of spirals, he was serving behind the bar in Clancys, this was a couple of weeks ago, soon as i walked in and spoke he recognised my scouse accent as he is also a scouser, didnt mention what happened with spirals though only that he used to own it. There is a lot of talk of Estartit dying a death but it is still ticking over at the minute, dont know about the future though, especially with the way the euro is right now,
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We are off to Estartit in less than a week now, I hope Clancy's is still open, we spent many a great night there with Margret and Co, she looked after us terrifically and nothing was too much bother, I will check and report when we get back.

Its nice to see a lot of people reminissing, we didnt really find the place until about 2004 after many a year on mobile home holidays in France. The 1st year we went to Castell Montgri and subsequently got out into Estartit we knew we had wasted our time and money in France for all those years (We came to the conclusion the French really don't like the British no matter how much you try, spend or visit!!) and most importantly the kids loved it more. We then went back every year with bigger family parties apart from 2011 when we didnt holiday anywhere.

Even though it is run down a bit and perhaps it has seen better days but we still love it just exactly for that, a big, heaving, crowded, overly loud "Brits on the P*ss" resort is the stuff of our worst nightmares, so Estartit suits, I recommend it to anyone who asks.

Cheers

Paul
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Hi Paul,

You are probably in Estartit right now, is Clancys still open? I miss not going to Estartit this year, been last 2 years but my daughter wanted to go to Salou & Port a ventura etc this year.

Let us all know how it was this year, yes it is as you say a little run down but at least it is quiet.

By the way Tex Mex does a great breakfast,
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johnm100 wrote:
Hi Paul,

You are probably in Estartit right now, is Clancys still open? I miss not going to Estartit this year, been last 2 years but my daughter wanted to go to Salou & Port a ventura etc this year.

Let us all know how it was this year, yes it is as you say a little run down but at least it is quiet.

By the way Tex Mex does a great breakfast,


Hi John

We are few days back from Castell Montgri/Estartit and it seems like a distant memory now!! Anyways, having arrived at the site very smoothly we duly unpacked etc in the caravan and we headed into town for a nosey, I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news, Clancy's is indeed shut down and is on the market for 240k Euros, we were a bit crest fallen so thought we would pop around to The Barracuda Bar/Apartments only to find that had gone too!! :cry After visiting Toni's we were told Margaret still lives there but doesnt open the bar any longer.

The only Irish/Brit places now are Toni's (Up for sale for the sum of 700k Euro!! :really ) Fighting Cocks, YC's Sport Bar, Harveys and O Malleys. Don't get me wrong we do enjoy all sorts of resturants/bars but its nice to have a chat with Brits/Irish when you are out there. To be honest we thought the place had gone even further down hill with lots of business's and properties up for sale or to rent which I suppose is to be expected during the current economic climate, although one bit of good news, the building site that seemed to be on Santa Anna shopping street forever is more or less complete and looks quite smart.

Having talked to a lot of ex-pats out there they confirm the UK market has really plummeted due to the demise in the coach holidays, we never did that ourselves but even we remember Intabrava, Club Cantibrica, and the like, think we only saw a Siesta coach dropping off at Castell Montgri and that didnt seem overly full,its strange really because you would have thought Ryan Air into Girona would have picked up the slack but alas not, people obviously enjoyed the coach experience as part of their holiday.

I must admit I think we will be heading further South ourselves next year most probably Salou, as much as I love Estartit it is not the same place and perhaps we are now not the same people and want actually a bit more for our hard earned pounds.

Cheers

Paul
P.S. We will get back though, probably when the Grand Children are just a little bit older.
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Oh my you have put wonderful memories flowing again in my mind ...I first went to L'Estartit in 1974 , we stayed at the Miramar right on the beach road with Senoria Trill and family , lots of trees and mosquitoes all night long but the food was very Spanish cooked by Señor Trill , wonderful . We then found the Flamingo hotel up on the back road , very basic run by the Baserious family who owned the Monserat restaurant on the front by the huge roundabout , they lived in the apartments above it . We did Blue sky's , Laker holidays , lots of other companies that don't exist there now , but every year we met someone new and friends forever , one couple plus her family we still see regularly now , 35 years now , we did about 27 visits going 3 times in one year , flying , driving , going by train , oh my the fun we had there , millions of photos and so many good times . However it all started going downhill when they did coach trips there for £49 return from the north , all in , boozed up , terrible food and ruff and I mean ruff ! Youngsters wanting cheap booze did it for us , terrible noisy nights with discos belting out aweful music , still it was changing even then . We tried to book one year and no one was going there anymore so we moved to the Canaries , Majorca, Madeira , Mykonos it just seemed to stop , no L'Estartit anymore , we still look back on those days as wonderful holidays , things change we can't stop them . Gerona patrons bought the apartments for little trips away from the city when they had free weekends , it's still very popular with them , we the British move around the world finding other places to visit , finding out what it's like in other countries , but all in all we made Spain they way it is much to our disgust at what it's like now , but it's still a wonderful country ...bless them ...Andre
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An old topic bug as I'm new though I would comment
As I have written in other topics I worked for impact holidays .luckily I was sent to CDP and not estartit as for me personally estartit never did anything for me .to british for my liking,but each to their own and it sad to read of its demise and i understand why folks liked it

So it seems not to be doing so well now.
Before all that though in 90 To estartit and went with some mates ( Iwas 16 ) and had a ball even Winning the talent show :really and having a bicycle as my prize ,l :(

So I had got the summer bug and returned to Spain in 91 (as a i mentioned )and went to work for impact holidays at la siesta in CDP as a fresh faced 17 year ( and all the madness that went with it)
I did though go back to work in castell montgri on the ents team in the summer of 93
I duly left after 6 weeks as the then manager was a gal called susan who made Stalin look compromising :really
That said I have fun and some good memories.
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