Chris Wilson, The Times

Forget its old reputation, parts of the Costa Brava are a good bet, says Chris Wilson

The Costa Brava is not what it was in the early 1970s. Watney’s Red Barrel has long been retired as a brand and there is a much greater awareness of the harmful effects of the sun, although mass tourism still blights some parts of the coastline.

The resorts of Lloret and Tossa de Mar remain magnets for fun-loving holidaymakers from across Europe. Snootyboots like me, who seek the authentic Spanish experience, would be advised to look elsewhere. Curiously, elsewhere is not that far away.

As we know, the Costa Brava comes in three parts. The high-rise southern end is for the foreign masses, the northern part is flat and good for water sports, but the middle section, the elbow, if you like, is the jewel in the Catalan crown. This is one of the places where the city types go to get away from Barcelona. It’s a small unnamed area around the villages of Begur and Tamariu with a rugged coastline, indented with coves where pine-fringed hills tumble into water so clear and with fish so stripy that you could imagine there was a coral reef. Here there isn’t enough space to put up high-rise hotels. Instead, small individual developments jostle with each other on the hillsides, competing to get the best uninterrupted view.

This being design-conscious Catalonia, there is a high proportion of “architect-designed” houses to choose from. On this exclusive part of the Costa Brava, where everything is getting so much more modern these days, that means lots of right angles, glass and stark concrete. One of the first houses we were shown had been designed with a picture window running the length of the property and facing the sea. It would have been beautiful had not the view been entirely obscured by a stand of protected Mediterranean pine only three feet from the glass.

The present owners had obviously accepted their fate and had decided to hang their washing directly in front of the window, just as I’m sure the architect had intended. They had also installed a swimming pool which was very long and thin. The effect in this small space was more of a slit trench in a forest, but it must have looked great on paper.

There are not many old houses near the sea, so I decided to consider a new development in the region called Son Forné, available through Your House in Spain. This has only five villas on land that borders a nature reserve, which apparently guarantees that no other construction will take place. The villas themselves are built to ensure maximum privacy. The design is contemporary and, looking at the superb sea views, it was possible to believe that the architect had got out of his office and actually visited the place on this one. The price of €1.5 million (about £1.02 million) seems a little steep for a four-bedroom villa in Spain, but it was one of the features that had a proud boast from the sales team that really put me off: each villa has an elevator.

Now I may have a gram or two of surplus flesh slung around my middle, but even I can make it up the stairs — without a lift — from my infinity pool to the bedroom. What sort of neighbours are you going to get if they have to have lifts, I wondered, as we headed off to “the Dutchman’s house”? A developer who spent his life building for other people, this Dutchman finally built the house of his dreams. It is in Begur, the nicest bit of the Costa Brava, and it has been built to the highest standards; a lifetime’s worth of experience has gone into making the perfect house. He has put it on the market for €1.25 million. There was just one question: why is he selling it? Apparently he decided he doesn’t like it, the estate agent sheepishly confessed. Nevertheless, the house, pictured below, really puts paid to the idea of the Costa Brava as a low-rent destination, although it seems the Dutchman would prefer an old-style cortijo (farmhouse) that you find only further south. You know what? Me too.

Country Property and Fincas in Spain