Fly into Barcelona and head north to explore Catalunya. Two great hotels are the Aigua Blava (rooms from €119) – a lovely, large traditional hotel and Castell d’Emporda (rooms from €121) – a contemporary converted castle far from anywhere. Once you’ve caught up with yourself and explored the odd spot such as the Dali Museum in Figueres you can plan an eating festival of your very own by taking in three of Europe’s finest and most avant garde restaurants – without having to stray too far: Les Cols (which can put you up in one of five crystal pavillions each decked out like a futuristic ryokan), heavyweight ‘No.2 restaurant in the world’ El Cellar de Can Roca and Can Fabes.
