"Even back in 1932, when it first opened, Hostal de la Gavina must have felt like something of a throwback. Set amidst the sweeping lawns and rocky cliffs of a promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean, it’s a meticulously well-kept world of priceless antiques, elaborate tapestries, fine silks and glinting candle-lit chandeliers. Walking the grounds, you half expect to bump into Dalí working en plein air on some rocky overlook, or Ava Gardner sunning by the pool, as young as they were when they first signed the guest book way back when. If Barcelona is just an hour down the coast (and it is), it’s also at least half a century away — Hostal de la Gavina, like much of Catalonia’s spectacular Costa Brava, remains wondrously lost in time." - Tablet Hotels