In Palamós, the day starts early on the quays: crates of fish unloaded, gulls everywhere, Catalan voices calling out to one another. Cruise ships dock right in the basin, a five- to ten-minute walk from the centre — no shuttle needed. This Costa Brava town was not invented for tourism: it is a working fishing port, renowned throughout Spain for its red prawn, with a long sandy beach and an old quarter turned toward the sea. The port call is savoured at a Catalan pace, between the fish auction, coves and medieval villages in the hinterland.

The prawn that made the town

The gamba de Palamós, a bright red crustacean caught at depths of more than 400 m, enjoys a quality label that guarantees its origin. Since trawlers were motorized in the 1930s, it has been the pride of the town and the delight of its tables: simply grilled, it commands a high price and is well worth it. The restaurants on the quays list it depending on the catch; ordering "the gambas" here is no tourist cliché, it is taking part in the local economy.

The Museu de la Pesca and the fish auction

Housed in a former port warehouse, the Fishing Museum — the only one of its kind on the Spanish Mediterranean — tells of the life of the crews, the techniques of yesterday and the sustainable fishing of tomorrow. Depending on the schedule, you can watch the afternoon fish auction from a gallery, as crates file past the buyers on a conveyor belt. A concrete way of understanding that here, the sea remains a livelihood before it is a backdrop.

Old quarter and seafront

Behind the quays, the old core climbs in narrow lanes toward the 15th-century Gothic church of Santa Maria. Painted houses, shady little squares and neighbourhood shops: nothing spectacular, everything pleasant. Below stretches the Platja Gran, a large, gently sloping sandy beach a few minutes from the ship — a mask and a towel are all it takes to turn the port call into a beach day. The seafront promenade links the beach, the marina and the old port.

Coves and the coastal path

Walkers will follow the camí de ronda, the customs officers' path that hugs the coast northward. After La Fosca beach and the ruins of the castle of Sant Esteve, it reaches the cove of S'Alguer, lined with fishermen's huts with colourful doors, one of the most photographed spots on the Costa Brava. Allow an hour to an hour and a half of easy walking, among umbrella pines and crystal-clear waters. Along the way, signs tell of smuggling in days gone by: these paths were used by the customs officers who kept watch over the coast.

Excursions inland

From the port call, several excursions head to Girona, about 45 minutes by road: a cathedral with the widest Gothic nave in Europe, the lanes of the Jewish quarter and houses hanging over the Onyar. An hour's drive leads to the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, an immersion in the world of the surrealist master. Closer by, the medieval villages of Pals and Peratallada line up golden stones and artisans' stalls. La Bisbal d'Empordà, the capital of Catalan ceramics, often rounds out these tours with its pottery shops lined up along the road.

At the end of the day, the trawlers come home in a well-ordered ballet, escorted by gulls, and the terraces fill up for vermut hour, the Catalan aperitif ritual served with olives and anchovies. You return on board with a scent of the sea and, perhaps, the vivid memory of a red prawn grilled with coarse salt. Palamós proves that a port call does not need famous monuments to leave its mark on travellers: a real port that lives from the sea is enough.