Platja de Santa Cristina

This is the first cousin of the Treumal beach found in nearby Blanes: they're separated by a few coves but a world of difference. In Santa Cristina, development projects were on the brink of causing havoc back in the middle of the 20th century. However, in the end, good sense and the love of Lloret people for this spot, where the shrine of the local patron saint stands, triumphed in the form of a fragile balance between tourist facilities and a mass of intensely green pine trees that still endow the southern flank, where there's also an old fisherman's cottage that's looking a little wild these days. Painter Joaquin Sorolla immortalised the light, greens and blues of Santa Cristina in one of his most fiercely Mediterranean paintings. It's an ideal spot for wearing oversize sunglasses and a large hat in the style of a decadent film star.