Sitges

Sitges is a coastal town on the Costa del Garraf, about 35 km southwest of Barcelona and reachable in around 40 minutes by train.

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.

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.