Costa Brava: Tossa de Mar to Begur

This is the road most people mean when they say Costa Brava. The GI-682 leaves Tossa de Mar and climbs onto the cliffs, then runs 23 km north to Sant Feliu de Guíxols with the sea on your right the entire way, in switchbacks, with no centre line in places and a viewpoint every few hundred metres.

Get to Tossa early: Barcelona to Tossa is 105 km on the AP-7 and the C-35, about an hour and twenty minutes, and the coast road is empty before nine on a weekday and a queue by mid-afternoon on a summer weekend. Walk the walled old town before you start.

From Sant Feliu, continue on the C-31 past Palamós and turn for Begur on the GI-653. Begur sits on a hill with three coves below it; the descents to Sa Tuna and Aiguablava are steep and narrow enough that the front axle lift earns its keep. Aiguablava's parador has the table with the view; Sa Tuna has the fishing boats.

Return on the C-31 and the AP-7, or extend the day north to Cap de Creus for the full 430 km version described in the blog. Fuel in Palamós; there is nothing on the cliff road.