Gay hotels Sitges – and our guide to the town
An introduction to gay hotels in Sitges
There are quite a few gay hotels in Sitges. The Hotel Romantic and its sister hotel the Renaixença, have been welcoming gays for decades. Both are quite grand hotels and atmospheric, but the accommodation and breakfast is relatively simple. Nonetheless, they’re friendly and a good place to meet other gay visitors. You’ll find other gay hotels and guesthouses by using the Gay Welcome accommodation map. A lot of gay visitors, especially those coming in groups, rent an apartment or holiday villa while in Sitges. It can be a very economical solution – and give you more freedom. Gay apartments and holiday homes for rent are also included in our Gay Welcome accommodation map – just click the link below to get started.
An introduction to Sitges
Is Sitges the gayest town in Spain? Quite possibly. It was home to Spain’s first gay disco back in the 80s, and has played host to artists and bohemians from Barcelona (just up the coast) for a century. Miro, Dali and Picasso used to frequent the town, along with Tennessee Williams and Douglas Fairbanks. In fact, the bourgeois of Barcelona have escaped to Sitges for decades – it’s only a couple of hours south of the city, and its big sandy beaches, good restaurants and bars and frequent festivals have always made it the getaway of choice. Because of this, the town benefits from grander, more historic architecture than most of Spain’s ugly concrete seaside towns, and still avoids being overrun by the hoards of lobster-pink English and German package-holiday-families that descend on Spain’s Costas Brava and del Sol every summer.
That said, despite the gay hotels, bars and clubs, don’t expect Sitges to be exclusively gay. It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of the visitors here are straight – it’s just that the proportion of gay visitors is far higher than other holiday resorts.
Gay life in Sitges
Sitges is one of the ‘big four’ gay holiday destinations in Europe – along with Ibiza, Mykonos and Gran Canaria. As well as a good handful of gay hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses, there are over 20 gay bars in the town – which is pretty impressive when you consider it’s not the biggest of places (30,000 people normally, 250,000 in summer). There are gay bars for all tastes – including bear and leather bars (see our links below for the best local magazines and gay websites for Sitges.) Many of the gay visitors find themselves following a daily routine when here. Get up late, eat breakfast, head to the beach from your gay hotel, light lunch, back to the beach, drinks at the Parrot Bar at around 5 or 6, back to the hotel or apartment for a disco nap, up at around 10pm, shower, change, preen, dinner at around 11pm, hit the bars at about midnight – and follow the crowd from one bar to the next (‘the circuit) and on either to the beach to cruise or to a club to dance the night away (the Sunday night foam parties at Trailer are legendary). Then start it all over again.
Gay beaches in Sitges
The main beach in Sitges stretches out in front of the town for a couple of kilometres – with a very pleasant promenade just behind it. It’s only a few minutes’ walk from most of the town’s hotels. The gay portion of the beach is called Platja de la Bossa Rodona, located opposite the modern, four-star Hotel Calipolis. To reach it, turn right once you get to the promenade, and keep walking till you see all the gay boys (and girls). It’s pretty crowded – but then again you’re sure to have plenty to look at. The nude gay beach is called Platja del Home Mort (“Dead Man’s Beach”) and is about a 45 minute walk west – if you’ve never done it before, just follow any gay men who seem to be walking in that direction. It’s quite a long way to walk – so take some drinks and some decent shoes. Behind the nude beach, on the other side of the railway tracks, is a cruising area in amongst the shrub and trees.
Restaurants in Sitges
The quality of restaurants in Sitges is pretty good. Most offer outdoor ‘al fresco’ dining, which is wonderful when its hot. Quite a few of the restaurants are gay-owned, or heavily-frequented by other gay visitors, so they can sometimes be a good place to meet people. It might be an idea to pop into your restaurant of choice during the day to book a table. And most have their menus on display at the door.
Getting there
Sitges is only 1 hour by train from Barcelona. From Barcelona airport, you can catch a train into the central train station, and then change platforms for a train to Sitges. An even easier option is to take the bus directly from the airport to Sitges itself – which only takes 45 minutes. A taxi will set you back about €60.
Top sites
Best sites for meeting other visitors or the locals
Meeting locals and other visitors is pretty easy in Sitges – just hit the bars. But if you’re looking for a little mid-day or mid-nigh fun, then we’d recommend the Chueca.com website for meeting Spanish, and either Gaydar or the Grindr smartphone app for finding non-Spaniards.
Best ‘What’s On’ guides
Checkout Gay Welcome’s own Events Calendar for events in Sitges.
Best restaurant guides
The Gay Sitges Guide has a good list of recommended restaurants – narrowing down the list from hundreds to just a handful. Then try TripAdvisor‘s Sitges page for reviews on each.
Best sites for gay bars
The Gay In Sitges site has a handy list of bars and accompanying map – which is quite useful. The Nighttours Sitges site also features a handy list with descriptions of each.
Best site for finding gay and gay-friendly accommodation
The Gay Welcome accommodation search page has the most comprehensive list of gay hotels and guesthouses in Sitges – as well as lots of apartments and houses to rent. Simply click on the link below to start your search for gay hotels Sitges – and click on the map of Spain, and then click on Sitges.