At the northern end of Cala Giverola’s two hundred metres of sand, where the beach runs out against the rock, there is a passage cut straight through the headland. Walk through it — it takes about ten seconds — and you come out on a completely different beach. Racó de Llevant is stonier, smaller and, on the sort of August afternoon when the main cove has no free towel space left, frequently almost empty. Giverola is really two coves pretending to be one, and most of the people who come here never use the door between them.
The Passage Through the Rock
The tunnel is short, low and unmistakably cut rather than natural — you can see the tool marks on the walls. It runs through the promontory that closes the cove to the north and delivers you into Racó de Llevant, an inlet of large pebbles and flat rock shelves with only a token amount of sand.
It is a worse beach and a better place to be. Lying down is uncomfortable without a mat, getting into the water means picking your way across stones that are slick with algae below the waterline, and there is no lifeguard, no bar and no shade beyond what the cliff gives you in the afternoon. What you get in exchange is water that stays undisturbed, rock structure right at the edge instead of open sand, and quiet. For snorkelling, it is the better half of Giverola by a wide margin.
Go through with something on your feet. Barefoot on wet, algae-covered rock is how people spend the rest of their holiday with a bruised coccyx.
What the Main Cove Is Like
Giverola proper is a generous cove by Costa Brava standards: close to 200 metres of shoreline, which is two or three times what most of the coves along this stretch offer. The sand is coarse and golden and turns to pebbles and rock as you approach the water, so the first few steps in are the least comfortable part of the swim. Water shoes solve it; nothing else does.
The water is calm — the headlands at both ends shelter it from almost everything except a straight easterly — and clear enough that you can pick out the dark patches of seagrass from the shore. When the wind does turn onshore, loose weed collects along the waterline and stays there for a day or two. It looks worse than it is, and it is a sign of a living seabed rather than a dirty one, but it is worth knowing before you judge the place on one photograph.
Behind the sand sits the hotel and apartment complex that gives Giverola its reputation. It supplies the showers, the toilets, the sunbeds and the beach bar, and it also supplies the crowd, so the cove is busy from mid-morning through to evening in high summer. The Cruz Roja staffs a lifeguard post during the bathing season on the main beach — not in Racó de Llevant.
The Meadow Under the Boats
The dark patches offshore are Posidonia oceanica, the Mediterranean seagrass that carpets the seabed here. It is not algae and it is not a nuisance: posidonia meadows oxygenate the water, hold the sand in place and shelter the fish that make snorkelling here worth the effort. They are also a priority habitat under the EU Habitats Directive, and they grow at roughly a centimetre a year, which is why a chain dragged across one does damage measured in decades.
That matters at Giverola because the cove is one of the standard summer anchorages on this coast. On a hot weekend in August you will count a couple of dozen boats sitting offshore, and the swimming zone shrinks accordingly. If you have come for the seabed, the practical answer is to be in the water early: before eleven the meadows are undisturbed, the visibility is at its best and the buoyed swimming area is yours. By two in the afternoon it is a car park with tenders coming and going through it.
Dive centres in Tossa and at the resort itself run guided dives along this stretch, and the rock walls at both ends of the cove are the usual entry points. For snorkelling without a boat, the north end near the tunnel and the shelves inside Racó de Llevant give you more to look at than the open sand in the middle.
How to Get to Cala Giverola
By Car
Take the GI-682 north from Tossa de Mar towards Sant Feliu de Guíxols for about five kilometres and follow the signs down to the cove. Parking at the bottom is run by the resort and has been charging around €20 a day in peak season for the space alone — nothing bundled with it. There is some unattended parking further up the approach for anyone happy to walk the last stretch, and outside the summer months the pressure disappears entirely.
On Foot (Camí de Ronda)
The coastal path from Tossa de Mar takes about an hour and a half each way and passes Cala Pola on the way, which makes a two-cove day out of what would otherwise be a drive. It is uneven, stepped in places and exposed to the sun for long stretches, so it is a morning walk in July and August rather than a midday one.
By Boat
Giverola is one of the terminals for the Fondo Cristal glass-bottomed boat, which runs down the coast to Cala Pola and on to Tossa de Mar. Arriving this way is the pleasant version and leaving this way is the useful one: you can walk the camí de ronda out and take the boat back. Sailings depend on the sea state and stop for the season.
Map
Eating and Sleeping Nearby
There is a chiringuito on the sand and a restaurant inside the complex, and both price accordingly — this is a captive market at the bottom of a dead-end road. Part of the sunbed and shade area is reserved for hotel guests, so the free sand fills from the middle outwards. A cool bag is not a stingy choice here, it is the obvious one.
For a real meal you go back to Tossa de Mar, ten minutes by car, where the streets under the Vila Vella walls have the range and the normal prices. To stay, the hotel and apartments at the cove buy you a beach two minutes from the door and very little else within walking distance; Tossa gives you the old town, the buses, the restaurants and a coastal path that brings you back to Giverola in ninety minutes.
When to Go
Water temperature is not really the variable here. The Mediterranean at Giverola is swimmable from June to October and cold on either side of that, like everywhere else on this coast. What actually changes the day is how many boats are sitting in the cove, and that follows the calendar closely: almost none before mid-June, a steady handful through late June, and a floating suburb every weekend from mid-July to the end of August.
The first two weeks of September are the best trade this cove offers — the sea is at its warmest of the year, the fleet has gone home, the parking has calmed down and the chiringuito is still open. Late May and early June are the other window, colder water but an empty beach and clear conditions for snorkelling.
In winter, Giverola is a walk rather than a beach day: the services close, the resort empties, and the tunnel and Racó de Llevant are yours alone. If you are choosing between coves for an off-season trip, our Costa Brava beach rankings set out which ones still have something open.
Practical Tips
- Use the tunnel. Ten seconds of walking separates the busiest part of the cove from the quietest.
- Water shoes, not flip-flops. Pebbles and rock at the waterline on the main beach, and slick stone throughout Racó de Llevant.
- Snorkel before eleven. Best visibility, no anchored boats, and the swimming zone still open.
- Bring food and water. There is one bar, it knows it, and the nearest alternative is back in Tossa.
- Remember there is no lifeguard beyond the main beach. Racó de Llevant is unsupervised, and it is where the rocks are.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the tunnel at Cala Giverola?
A short cut passage through the headland at the north end of the beach. It leads to Racó de Llevant, a rocky inlet that is quieter than the main cove and considerably better for snorkelling.
Is parking free at Cala Giverola?
No. The car park at the cove is operated by the resort and has been running at around €20 a day in peak season. There is limited unattended parking further up the access road, and the camí de ronda from Tossa avoids the question altogether.
What are the dark patches in the water?
Posidonia oceanica meadows — a protected Mediterranean seagrass, not algae or pollution. They are the reason the water here is as clear as it is.
Can you walk between Cala Giverola and Cala Pola?
Yes. The camí de ronda connects them directly, and the glass-bottomed boat covers the same route if you would rather only walk it one way.
Written for general information, not as travel, legal or safety advice. Racó de Llevant is rocky, unsupervised and slippery below the waterline; enter the water there at your own risk and with footwear. Lifeguard cover on the main beach is seasonal. Parking charges, sunbed allocation and the chiringuito are run by the adjoining resort and change without notice, and anchoring rules over the seagrass meadows are subject to regional regulation that is periodically tightened. Check current details with the Oficina de Turisme de Tossa de Mar before travelling.
Image Credits
- Header image: Cala Giverola, Tossa de Mar by Friviere, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- In-article image: Cala Giverola by Karsten Ratzke, released under CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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