24 hours in Sant Jaume

The adventure of discovering the Delta starts in Sant Jaume d’Enveja where you will surely have found the right accommodation and a good restaurant to have dinner the night of your arrival. It is advisable to get up early to live a great experience. With the first lights of the day you have to take the road to the Gola de Migjorn where a magnificent sunrise from the beach is waiting for you. Magical lights that paint the sea and the sun and offer a unique spectacle. A silence broken only by the flight and the squawks of the birds.

Once in Migjorn and when the sun starts to be high it is time to take a walk on the beach. You have to go up to the Migjorn’s viewpoint to observe a magnificent natural environment and then you can go to the Finca del Violí where you will find several lagoons, a wetlands area, paths to walk around the area, a viewpoint, an ornithological observatory and itineraries designed to enjoy the birds and the landscape.

I’m sure you’re hungry. Time for breakfast, for many one of the best moments of the day. A good option is to return to Sant Jaume and have a good breakfast in any of the restaurants of the municipality. Black pudding, eels in sauce, a good prawn omelette … a little bit of delta cuisine.

The Ebro Delta is an ideal territory to cycle through and after breakfast it is convenient to do some exercise. We can follow Route 10 proposed by the Natural Park and start pedalling towards Els Muntells walking through the rice fields and go towards the beach and the Platjola lagoon. Along the way we can see many birds.

From La Platjola you can reach the Serrallo by the sea and enjoy these immense and deserted beaches of the Delta. Time to start thinking about lunch, an option, since you are close to Els Muntells, stay there and taste a good rice. The other possibility is to continue to Sant Jaume and choose one of the many restaurants in the village where you will find the most representative dishes of the gastronomy of the delta.

The afternoon is for walking. You can walk along the whole riverbank along a signposted path that offers beautiful views of the Ebro and the Lo Pasador bridge. Upstream you reach the village of Balada; downstream you pass through the Interactive Rice Field (don’t miss the experience of stepping on mud between the ears of rice), through the riverside forest and through Mas Illa de Riu, a splendid building from the beginning of the 20th century that has now been converted into rural accommodation.

A day in Sant Jaume should include a visit to the Interpretation Centre of the Barraques. The Barraques are the typical constructions of the Delta, made with the natural materials that the farmers had by hand, straw, mud and “borró”. The visit to the Centre is the best way to know how people lived in these lands more than a hundred years ago and to know a little more about the history of Sant Jaume.

It starts to get dark and you have to find a place to eat. First you can take a walk along the Carrer Major, with the church flanked by two slender palm trees and the “Xalet”, a beautiful colonial-style building.You can buy typical products of the Delta, “pastissets”, sponge cakes, black pudding, rice… in the village shops and then walk to Lo Pasador to watch the sun set behind the mountains. And now yes, a good dinner.