Neighborhood
Sitges
in Barcelona, Spain
Queer beach town 35 min south, with gay beaches and Carnival/Pride.
Where it is
Sitges is a coastal town on the Costa del Garraf, about 35 km southwest of Barcelona and reachable in around 40 minutes by train.
Address: Sitges
What it is
Sitges is now regarded as one of Europe's leading gay destinations: a compact town with numerous beaches, gay-friendly hotels and more than twenty gay bars. The year's highlights are Carnival, Sitges Pride, Bears Week and the Circuit festival, alongside old-town lanes and the seafront church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla.
History
In the late 19th century Sitges drew a bohemian circle of artists around the painter Santiago Rusiñol, becoming a progressive, liberal enclave. Even under the Franco dictatorship it remained relatively tolerant and grew into an international centre of LGBTQ tourism.