All Sights

A half an acre conservatory near the resort town of Empuriabrava has been the answer to all the parents’ prayers in the area looking for something to do with their kids besides the beach. The Butterfly Park specializes in, you guessed it, butterflies, but the Amazon rainforest climate recreated inside, with 80% humidity and 28°C year-round, supports all kinds of critters and (creepy) crawlies from the jungle — parrots, deer, Komodo dragons, turtles and more.

The point of pride of the park are two animals that are the largest representatives by size among their species: Attacus atlas moths with the wingspan of up to 24 cm and the Victoria crowned pigeon, Goura victoria, with the body up to 70 cm in length. The park has over 30 types of tropical butterflies; every two weeks, they receive a shipment of nymphs from a specialized farm which later molt in the park and add to the winged population of the conservatory.

The entire butterfly life cycle is represented at a separate stand inside the conservatory, from eggs to nymphs to adult butterflies drying their wings prior to taking flight for the first time. Every cycle unfolds in real-time right in front of the visitors’ eyes.

Visitor information
Address: Carrer Santa Clara, s/n, 17486 Castelló d’Empúries
GPS: 42.258979, 3.085186
Phone: 972 450 761
Website: www.butterflypark.es
Opening hours: the conservatory opens at 10 am daily and closes one hour before sunset.

Phone: 972 634 113
www.calanguila.com

Les Cadiretes is a mountain range in the region of El Baix Empordà of the Catalan province of Girona, also known as L’Ardenya. The range adjoins the coast between Tossa de Mar and Sant Feliu de Guíxols and stretches inland toward the border of the comarca El Gironès.

The highest point of Les Cadiretes is the peak of Puig de Cadiretes reaching 519 metres tall.

Cala de l’Illa Roja, or the Red Island Cove, is named after the reddish rock sitting right next to it. The beach Illa Roja is one of the most famous nudist beaches of the Costa Brava.

The beach is 120 meters long and 20 meters wide. It is a large-grain sand beach that lacks any type of city beach infrastructure like outdoor showers, toilets, cafés or lifeguard stations. Considering that the beach visitors usually only wear birthday suits while there, it is a wild beach at its finest. Thankfully, its patrons keep it sparkling clean and garbage-free — litter, cigarette butts, let alone empty bottles or discarded cans, are hard to find.

You can reach the Illa Roja nudist beach along Camí de Ronda from Platja del Racó beach or Sa Riera beach. If you are staying in Sa Riera, it may be easier to access Camí de Ronda by going down the public stairs in front of Carrer Sa Punta Negra 44.