Costa Daurada

Tarragona stands in the centre of the Costa Daurada: a coastline stretching for 92 km with fine sandy beaches and steep mountains. The area is renowned for its monasteries, prestigious wines, popular local traditions, including displays of human castles, or "castellers", and entertainment centres, such as Port Aventura and coastal cities like Salou.

The beaches of fine golden sand such as the one in Salou, from which the coastline takes its name (daurada is Catalan for golden), are perfect for family holidays due to the shallowness of the waters and their pleasant temperature. Bathing here is particularly beneficial for your health due to the high iodine content of the water. If you travel inland, following the wine trail, you'll soon come across large areas of land with vineyards and wineries which are open to visitors. The fact is, the Costa Daurada is a small strip of the Mediterranean with a number of microclimates that produce six Denomination of Origin wines and cavas. A walk through history will take you to the walled town of Montblanc (14th century) and the nearby Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet (12th century), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The protected natural spaces, which range from marshland and coastal dunes to inland massifs, reveal a wide variety of flora and fauna: Rojala-El Torn Beach; Tamarit-Punta de la Mora; Torredembarra Beach; the mouth of the River Gaià; the Masía Blanca Marine Reserve in Comarruga; the Montsant Ridge Park in the south; and the natural beauty spot of Poblet and the Prades Mountains. History, tradition, leisure, mountains and the Mediterranean.