Empordà Golf Club sits in a rural Catalan village between Girona and the Costa Brava coast. The nearest medieval town, Peratallada, is ten minutes away by car. Girona Airport is 30 minutes. Barcelona is 90 minutes. Thirty-six holes by Robert von Hagge — a pine forest course and a links-style course through dunes and lakes — occupy a landscape that feels like it belongs to a part of Catalonia that tourism has not yet fully processed.
Ranked 13th best in Europe by Golf World. A former European Tour Qualifying School host. The Hotel Terraverda on site — a 4-star property that feels more like a rural Catalan farmhouse than a golf resort. And green fees that represent the best value 36-hole complex in Spain.
Empordà is the course that Catalan golfers have been playing for thirty years without feeling the need to tell anyone. It is the best-kept secret in a country with more golf secrets than most of Europe.
Thirty-six holes by Robert von Hagge. The best-kept secret in Catalan golf. The medieval villages ten minutes away. Empordà is the discovery that makes the Mediterranean circuit complete.
The courses: what you are actually playing
Empordà has two distinctly different 18-hole courses: the Forest Course and the Links Course. The combination is the resort’s most significant asset — two rounds at Empordà produce two entirely different experiences without requiring a flight or a transfer.
The Forest Course (par-72, 6,165 metres) plays through a Mediterranean pine and cork oak forest that has the enclosed, specific character of the old Alcanada pines or the Algarve umbrella pines — each hole its own corridor, the forest providing both visual frame and strategic constraint. The course demands straight ball flight and precise approach angles; the protected forest environment means that lateral misses find trouble quickly.
The Links Course (par-71, 6,304 metres) plays through dunes and lakes in a landscape that is genuinely unlike any other course in the area. The natural topography of the dune system produces elevation changes that read as unusual for an inland location, and the water features on the back nine create risk-reward decisions that are different in character from the forest precision of the first course.
The two-course format produces the best available multi-day structure on the Gem course list: play the Forest Course on day one to establish the Empordà character, the Links Course on day two for the contrasting experience. For families with players at different levels, the Forest Course offers more forgiveness in its corridors; the Links Course is slightly more demanding.
For the family cup format — the competitive framework this platform has been developing across the Mediterranean course series — the 36-hole structure is perfect. Two rounds, two scoring opportunities, the family cup format manageable across both days.
The holes worth knowing
Forest Course 9th: the turn hole, played back toward the clubhouse through the densest section of the Catalan pine forest. The light through the canopy in the late morning is the image most associated with Empordà in European golf media.
Links Course 15th: a par-3 across a natural dune-framed lake. Short enough to be accessible for junior players, positioned well enough to be the Links Course’s defining visual moment.
The resort: what families actually need
The Hotel Terraverda is on-site and entirely correct for Empordà’s character. Not a 5-star resort property — a thoughtfully run 4-star hotel that feels like the Catalan countryside rather than a golf resort bubble. Local cuisine, a pool that is appropriately sized for the property, rooms that look out over the courses rather than over a car park.
The surrounding area is the most culturally rich of any Gem course location: the medieval villages of the Baix Empordà (Pals, Peratallada, Monells), the Costa Brava coast 20 minutes east, the Girona old town 30 minutes north, and the Dalí Triangle (the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, the Dalí house in Cadaqués, the Gala Dalí castle in Púbol) within 40 minutes. For families where not everyone plays golf every day, the cultural alternatives are exceptional.
Junior golf: Empordà does not operate a dedicated junior academy at the scale of the Tier 1 resorts. The resident PGA professional runs clinics and individual lessons. For a family prioritising course experience and cultural Catalan context over structured development programming, this is adequate; for a family prioritising development, the Camiral academy 30 minutes away provides the Tier 1 option.
Best time to go
April to June and September to October. The Catalan interior is warm in summer but not excessively hot — Empordà is noticeably cooler than the Costa del Sol courses. September is particularly good: the pine forest at the end of summer, the dune links in autumn condition, and the medieval village culture at its most vivid before the tourist infrastructure closes for winter.
Getting there: the logistics reality
Girona Airport (GRO) is 30 minutes — the same airport that serves Camiral, making the Catalan double-leg (Empordà discovery + Camiral championship) the most logistically elegant combination in Spanish golf. Both airports have year-round European connections.
Barcelona El Prat (BCN) is 90 minutes — viable and often better connected from European cities without direct Girona routes.
What to wear: the Inesea style edit
The Empordà visual environment — the Catalan forest, the dune landscape, the ochre farmhouse palette of the surrounding countryside — is one of the most photographically interesting on the Gem course list precisely because the two courses produce two different visual contexts. The forest palette (deep greens, pine shadow, dappled light) rewards the same botanical tones as Sotogrande’s cork oaks. The links palette (the straw-gold of the dune grass, the blue of the lake water) rewards warmer tones — deep navy, terracotta, warm stone.
The practical wardrobe decision for two rounds at Empordà: one outfit per day, with the forest and links character informing the colour choice. Stone for the forest day; terracotta or navy for the links day.
Three pieces worth packing
Two pollos or structured tops in different colourways — one for each course day, chosen to respond to each landscape.
A skort or ankle trouser — the Links Course’s dune terrain means the skort is the more comfortable choice; the Forest Course’s enclosed fairways make the trouser equally appropriate.
A light wind layer — the Costa Brava coastal influence means wind on the Links Course is the variable to prepare for.
The honest family verdict
Who should book it
Golfers building a Catalan itinerary who want 36 holes of distinctly different championship golf at accessible pricing. Families who want a culturally rich Catalan context alongside the golf. Those who want to find something before the editorial consensus arrives.
Who might look elsewhere
Families needing comprehensive on-site resort infrastructure and dedicated junior academy programming. For this profile, Camiral or the Algarve Tier 1 options serve better.
Official site
About the author
Diana Suke
Diana Suke is the founder of Inesea and Europe's leading editorial voice on women's golf fashion and culture. A business transformation director by profession, she coordinates junior golf programmes across Malta and travels the Mediterranean circuit with two competitive junior golfers. She came to golf in her mid-thirties and hasn't looked back.
inesea.co