Cala Margarida

Walk past the old fishermen's beach shacks lining the cove, gear up at the ramp, and enter over pebbles into water that drops gradually along a vegetated rocky coastline. The terrain is a maze of small rocks and mini-canyons where shy creatures concentrate — nudibranchs on every other surface, octopus tucked into crevices, scorpionfish trusting their camouflage against the stone. The route between the Cala Margarida islet and Morro del Vedell beach crosses varied ground: rock gives way to small posidonia patches where pen shells stand upright in the seagrass, and sandy corridors reveal buried rays if you look carefully. At 12-15 metres, the canyon walls close in slightly and the life intensifies — lobsters in the deeper cracks, moray eels watching from holes, cuttlefish hovering in mid-water.

Cala Margarida is the only shore dive in Palamós, and that changes everything about how the dive feels. There is no boat schedule, no surface interval at a port, no kit shuffle on a rolling deck. You walk to the water from a cove that has served Palamós since the Middle Ages, when it was a quarantine station for arriving travelers. The fishermen's shacks still stand. Underwater, what the site lacks in depth or drama it compensates with density — the shallow, sheltered rocks concentrate macro life in a way that deeper, current-swept sites cannot. Divers who have spent a morning photographing nudibranchs here describe it as one of the surprises of the Costa Brava.

The cove is in a residential area — keep noise and group sizes small. Parking is limited, so arrive early or arrange transport through your dive center. A first dive with a local guide is recommended, as the entry and best routes are not immediately obvious from the surface. DPV scooter dives along the north side of the cove are available through local operators for those wanting to extend the range beyond the main site.