
Girona
Girona is the capital of a province in north-east Catalonia, with one hundred and eight thousand residents. It stands not on the sea but on rivers — the Ter, the Onyar and two more meet inside the city — half an hour from the Costa Brava shore. The old centre is walled, partly along Carolingian defences from the ninth century; the painted houses above the Onyar are the city's best-known view.
For anyone moving, Girona offers what the resorts nearby do not. This is a real city with a university, a hospital and a high-speed railway station: under an hour to Barcelona, half an hour to the French border. Girona airport is a low-cost base. In winter the city works exactly as it does in summer, and that is the main difference from Lloret forty minutes away, which shuts for the season. You cannot see the sea from here, and nobody pays for it.
- Lloret de Mar · 40 km — the nearest beach town
- Figueres · 40 km — the Dalí museum and the road to France
- Cadaqués · 70 km — the white town on the rocks by Cap de Creus
Girona sits in Girona, 33 km from the water. Winter here is livelier than in most towns on the Costa Brava: our rating is 5 out of 5, one of the few on this coast that does not empty out. You can live here without a car: our rating is 4 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast, and the town has its own train station. The sea is 33 km away: not a seaside town but a town near the sea, and the beach means a drive.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Sea temperature
5 months above 20 °CTourist load
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 10 384 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 000 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Girona
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 750 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 000 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 300 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 685 €/mo | SERPAVI · 77 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
from registries- Saint George's SchoolFornells de la SelvaSpanish bilingualCA, Spanish, English · 3–18 · privateCatalan curriculum with intensive English immersion, 5 km from Girona
Checked against registries and school sites: 2026-09-17. Fees are on each school's site: nobody publishes them centrally.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —Prices rising 8% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- Honduras4 908
- Morocco4 559
- Colombia1 558
- Romania1 383
- China857
- GM781
- Italy691
- India539
- arArabic~3 000
- frFrench~1 000
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from BCN
January 2026/2775 min to the airport- other countries76
- Italy16
- United Kingdom14
- France11
- Germany9
- Poland6
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Portugal3
- Ireland2
- Belgium2
- Denmark2
- Austria2
- Sweden1
- Norway1
- Finland1
- Czechia1
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Month by month
Air, sea, how busy it gets and what stays open — for each month on its own.
Where to look next
- Lloret de Mar2 365 €/m²
- Blanes2 068 €/m²
- Roses3 489 €/m²
- Puerto del Rosario1 967 €/m²
- Arrecife1 942 €/m²
- Tarragona1 833 €/m²