Sitges

Feb 19, 2018Europe, Travel1 comment

This article is part of our roadtrip diaries, find the itinerary: here

Sitges is a small beach town in Catalunya, 20 minutes aways from Barcelona. One of those destination where you just spend your days at the beach, discovering restaurants or wandering in charming streets. We were there in October and it was just perfect, the weather was still beach-friendly, without the summer crowds. I am sorry that I didn’t take a lot of pictures to do this beautiful town justice. It was the end of the roadtrip and I just wanted to relax. I only remembered to take pictures on our last day, before hitting the road. So unlike me!

It’s a very honeymoney destination and cheap direct flights to Barcelona from just about anywhere in Europe and Morocco. You can track a cheap ticket and surprise your loved one with a romantic beach escape. Either, to celebrate something or for no reason at all!

It’s also known as a gay-friendly destination, it was refreshing to go out at night and not get all the unwanted attention 🙂

How to get there?

Sitges is only 20 minutes from the Barcelona airport. Otherwise I can’t stress enough on how Spain is such an amazing destination to do a roadtrip and discover slowly.

EAT

Beach house

My typical hipster healthy food place with amazing fresh and hearty salads, international food and a faux-laid-back decor with a beach vibe. A more than welcome break from the tasty but greasy tapas. They also have a promising breakfast menu with smoothie bowls and all that jazz.

Red velvet

My coeliac friends I got your back! This is an artisanal bakery that offers a lot of gluten free options. So if your hotel breakfast wasn’t enough, plan a second breakfast here. Their gluten free eggs benedict are delicious. They also have a lunch menu, but I didn’t try it… and yes I sometimes have breakfast for lunch, because I love breakfast!

Pic nic

A little more upscale, right on the beach with maybe the best tapas we had on this trip. I still didn’t make up my mind between this restaurant and the local one in Tarifa.

 

Picture from their website

Where we stayed

Hotel Montserrat a very good value for money. Don’t expect luxury if you don’t pay for it. But it was clean, well located and very welcoming. It’s a family business and the staff is very friendly, one guy surprised me by speaking few words of Moroccan, that was sweet 🙂 They offer free coffee all day long… that was reason enough to convince me, there’s a lavazza machine at the reception and you can make coffee whenever you want. the buffet breakfast is included and offers fruits, a variety of breads, tomatoes, cheeses and hams for a real catalan breakfast. Stay away from the juice though, highly sweetened and smells like weird chemicals. The true highlight of our stay was the balcony in our room. It was small but typically spanish, right above a charming streets. Omar and I used to sit down and unwind with drinks and spanish olives every afternoon after the beach.

Beach house: We’ve been to the restaurant more than once and were very happy with. They also rent apartments that are amazingly furnished and highly recommended locally.

 Breakfast spot

SEE & DO

 

Beaches

I read somewhere that Sitges has more than 17 beaches! So there’s something for everyone in here.Even a bunch of nudist beaches. We usually went for the main beach since we were there off-season and it wasn’t crowded at all. But the locals go east of the church during the summer to escape the tourists crowds.

Walk

My favourite activity in Europe, it’s such a pedestrian friendly continent and that’s what I love the most about it. Especially where you are in a small charming town, there’s nothing better for me than just get lost and discover shops, cafés, people-watch and detoxify my body. You can either walk through the narrow streets of the old town, or walk by the beach on Passeig Maritim.

Shop

There are so many cute boutiques in Sitges, selling anything from handmade goods to fashionable clothes to original art. We window shopped as we walked through town, but were too busy at the beach to spend much time actually going into the shops.

Day trip to Barcelona

It’s 20min away by train and one of the most vibrant cities in the world. So if you’ve worked enough on your tan, buy a train ticket for a cosmopolitan day. We did just that on the third day, because Omar wanted to buy new hiking shoes and I was craving good ramens (and pictures). It works the other way around too, if you’re in Barcelona and want to treat yourself to a quiet beach day, Sitges is your friend. Because personally I hate Barceloneta, Barcelona’s main beach. First because it’s a beach right in a center of a big city: Hello pollution! Second, because it’s full of pickpockets and it gets me paranoid while i’m supposed to relax at the beach.

Museums & Art Galleries

We personally didn’t visit any of them, but if you’re looking into a cultural afternoon, there is a surprising number of museums for such a tiny town (village?). The most famous ones are the Museo de Maricel and the Palau de Maricel, right on the ocean in the old town.

Film festival

If you are a cinephile, Sitges hosts an annual International film festival: the theme is fantasy and horror. It started the day we were about to leave. I would’ve loved to check it out. the banner looks promising right? And the whole town was decorated with the theme of the festival: restaurants, streets, hotels… everybody was in the game it was really cute. I looked at the program and it seemed interesting, from kitsch vintage-like movies to indie philosophical movies and big budget ones from all over the world. The last editions awarded movies such as: Swiss army man, the invitation, the gift (one of my favourite movies), train to Busan (a gem for zombie movies fanatics)… I would’ve stayed longer to attend the festival if my friends didn’t have to go back for work.

Film festival banner

Can you tell how happy I am? Instagram: _justdalal_

Thank you for reading the article, I hope that I passed on some of the joy I had discovering Sitges. It was a well needed break from our fast-paced roadtrip.

xo xo Dalal
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1 Comment

  1. Lisanne

    Great post! Love the photos

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