Last Updated on 29 April 2024 by gerry

I can’t deny packing up our stuff from our home from home in Arenys de Mar was tinged with a wee bit of sadness. We’ve had a fantastic six weeks here and we’ve very lucky to be staying on in Maresme county at Santa Susanna. The transfer from Arenys to Santa Susanna could not have gone more smoothly to be honest. A northbound train pulled into the station just a few minutes after we got there and our apartment at the Odissea Park hotel was ready early just a few minutes after our arrival there.

Santa Susanna is a bright spacious resort and feels like it’s quite a recent development. We are in the Zona Hotelera where there are about a dozen hotels spaced out along the coastal road / railtrack with shops and eateries well spaced out among the hotels. This is pretty much a 100% tourist location – there are older “urbanisations” up on the very hilly hinterland and across the fields from the hotels, we can see some large supermarkets and a wine celler place.

It is quite a stark contrast from the non-touristy Arenys de Mar, so I think it will take me some acclimatisation. We spent the evening orienting ourselves along the main drag. Santa Susanna is closely adjacent to Malgrat de Mar, where the buildings and streets have been developed for a much longer time. There is not really much signage officially demarcating the two municipalities but the difference is pretty self evident. On first impression, it seems to me that Malgrat de Mar has suffered in terms of occupancy with the development of the Zona Hotelera next door. None of the bars and eateries in the Malgrat seafront streets were open as we walked by at 5pm in the afternoon.

On our previous visit to this area, we had noticed that this part of Malgrat was basically shutdown at the time (in March). There is a small bit more life about it now in April, but not much. We ate at an Italian place closer to Santa Susanna that specialises in pizzas, burgers and desserts. After returning to our hotel, I decided to go supermarket exploring and see what Carrefour across the fields had to offer. It is a very large supermarket located in a shopping centre called Espais Susanna. My first impression was that the prices were more expensive that I’d hoped, but the range of products available was great. All the same I came away with just some bread and vegetables, some home cooked fidueà in mind.