In June I posted enthusiastically about Barcelona, but I can’t let the peak summer vacation season slip by without mentioning its sandy, sexy little neighbor just 45 minutes down the coast of Catalonia. The resort of Sitges (pronouced “SEAT-jess”) is a picturesque former fishing village with a population around 20,000 (its fetching seaside church – pictured at left — is an icon) that a century ago attracted the boho likes of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and other arty types. From there, pretty much like Cape Cod’s Provincetown, by the 70’s and 80’s it’d morphed into a resort that’s not just hetero-popular but also one of Europe’s top gay travel favorites every June-through-September (and, by the way, the backdrop of one of our first “Kiss & Tell” posts, last fall). I’ve been there a bunch of times, and it truly is a blast – not to mention less druggy and attitudinal than other hotspots like Ibiza.

There are several nice little museums in town, but the main event is of course the beach along the seafront promenade – a stretch of sand colonized by acres of rented blue chaises-longues, drinks-hawkers, and on the Bassa Rodona section hundreds of maricones (fags) and some tortilleras (dykes) from all over the Continent and beyond. The other gay beach requires a bit of schlepping westward over a rocky path to a stony, secluded cove where you can be free to sun your buns and wander the cruisy paths through the nearby underbrush; it’s called Platja Home Mort (Catalan for “Dead Man’s Beach,” Playa del Hombre Muerto in Spanish) because every once in a while somebody who takes a shortcut – through the railway tunnel – doesn’t quite make it.

Some homos actually come and stay as much as two weeks here, and almost everybody falls into the rhythm. Days at the beach and in the cafés, with an occasional excursion to places like Barcelona or Tarragona; a disco nap; dinner at lovely eateries like El Trull, Ma Maison, and El Xalet; then the nighttime-to-wee-hours circuit of myriad bars and clubs that varies according to taste but usually includes old standbys like El Candil, Mediterráneo, Bourbon’s, El 7, the delightfully sleazy El Horno, and the after-hours disco Trailer (plus of course plenty of newer offerings, like Bears and XXL). You’ll find different times of summer heavier on different nationalities: Dutch, French, Italian, German, and so forth — still not all that many North Americans, though.

Places to bunk? Up the wazoo, of course, and pretty much all are gay-friendly – the most romantic may be the Romàntic, a dreamy converted Belle Époque manse which also has an annex across the street called the Renaixença (one drawback at these two – no A/C, last I checked, but in-room fans seem to do the trick). For explicitly gay, the nearby Liberty is almost as attractive, and boasts air-conditioned rooms, while the newer Parrots, the outgrowth of a longstanding pub of the same name, is even closer to the beach and throws in frisky perks like a basement sauna (there’s a second bath house, closer to the train station, called simply Sauna Sitges). I find there’s something to be said for staying out of town, too – for example at the marvelous little clothing-optional gay resort Masia Casanova.

Wherever you end up staying, I can’t recommend this cool little town enough. Get general info from Tursime Sitges and gay-specific details from various sites including GayLifeSitges.com, GaySitges.com, GaySitgesGuide.com, GayinSitges.com, and Sitges-Gay.com. And you’ll definitely want to tote along our seven-language Gay Translator – it’s a sizzling United Nations of faggotry over here!

Yours truly,
Dave

This entry was posted on 08.1.2008 at 12:14 pm by Dave and is filed under BabelBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.