Car Hire in Sitges, Spain

Sitges

Located between the sea and the mountains on the Mediterranean Coast of Garraf, the town is provided with beautiful natural surroundings. Since the 1960´s Sitges has been the “counter-culture” resort in Spain. During Franco´s reign it developed as a popular gathering point for the youth of the counter regime. Nowadays, the town is best known for attracting large numbers of gay tourists and hence has a year long thriving nightlife.

Attractions

The town is picture perfect; stunning beachfront, narrow winding streets lined by whitewashed buildings and bustling with life. There is no better place to begin your exploration of the town than the beach front. Walking along the fine sands of Platja Sant Sebastià gives you a perfect perspective of the pristine seaside architecture of the Passeig Maritim. Visible from the beach front are the surrounding mountains and propped up above the town is the 17th century seaside church of Sant Bartolomeu I Santa Tecla. The winding large staircase takes you above the harbour to the foot of the church.

Sitges is a town steeped in creative history. The town offers visitors an impressive architectural and cultural heritage. This rich history is celebrated at Cau Ferrat Museum the house and studio of artist and writer Santiago Rusiñol (1861 - 1931), one of the leading figures of Catalan Modernisme. The artist moved to Sitges in 1891 and helped turn it into a meeting point for artists and intellectuals, giving it the bohemian air that it still preserves. Alternately, the Museu Romàntic "Can Llopis" is a perfectly preserved 19th century house which allows us to take a closer look at the lifestyle of a family of Catalan householders who lived in opulence during the years of Romanticism.

Perhaps Sitges is most famous for its seasonal attractions, in particular, the Carnival that the town has been celebrating nonstop for almost 100 years, between the months of February and March. The festivities involve characteristic carnival elements; non-stop floats, parades and jam-packed streets until the early hours. If you are around and about this time of year, it is well worth the effort to sample the festivities.

On an international scale, there is the Sitges International Film Festival that takes place in October every year. The festival celebrates the weird and wonderful cinema genre of terror and inaugurates a number of national and international films. The festival is spread across three cinema venues; El Retiro, Casino Prado and El Auditori Sitges Cinema. Famous directors and celebrities can often be spotted milling among the film-buff crowds. Alternately, projects like The International Barcelona-Sitges Vintage Car Rally, the International Jazz Festival or the Summer Concerts Series also attract large international interest.

Shopping

In Sitges one is certainly not starved of shopping opportunities. The town is simply bursting at the seams with trendy fashion boutiques and all manner of garment merchants. Catalunya prides itself on having a small, but internationally celebrated designer clothes industry and this is well represented in Sitges.

The main street, "Parelladas" Street or Cap de Vila, that is considered the town centre both lead to the Sitges seaside promenade and are always bustling with visitors and are where one can get lost looking for traditional crafts and souvenirs. Sitges is renowned for its specialist shoe and textile manufacture tradition and the shops contain products that cannot be found elsewhere.

Nightlife and Eating Out

For the size of the town, Sitges´ nightlife can be described as nothing less than spectacular. The town is brimming with fine restaurants of all persuasions from Catalan to Chinese, tapas eateries on every street, cafés, bars and nightclubs.

A dish of international fame and unique to Sitges is el xató. Typically xató consists of an escarole salad with salted tuna, cod and a sauce prepared from olives, almonds, anchovies, in short, mouth-watering. Xató menus can be discovered in all manner of places but some of the best are the traditional Catalan eateries, Can Pagés o Cal Pinxo on the Passeig de la Ribera. Sitges has developed its own unique culinary style with seafood as the central ingredient; a good place to experience the delights of the sea is at El Vivero on Avenida Balmins.

The incomparable Sitges' night life is captured by taking a walk along one the most famous streets and most fondly named: La Calle del Pecado - The Street of Sin). It is full of restaurants, pubs, music bars, and so on. A route through the Sitges' nightlife should start here: eating dinner, having some drinks and moving from one pub to the next until late at night.

The party goes on in the small hours in some of several Sitges' discos. Two of the Spanish pioneer discos are especially famous: L'Atlántida and Pachá. "L'Atlántida" has an open-air area, a little beach of its own, and every summer they organize lots of parties.

Sitges is also internationally known for being a worldwide gay tourism centre. San Buenaventura street is the main gay nightlife meeting-point, but there are lots of exclusive gay scene pubs, bars and discos, where you have fun until the early hours.

Tourist Information

Patronat Municipal de Turisme
c/ Sinia Morera, 1 Tčl.
08870 SITGES

• +(34) 93 894 4251
• www.sitgestour.com

Airports

The nearest airport to Sitges is Barcelona “El Prat” Airport and is situated just 10km from the city centre and can be reached from almost any destination. The airport has excellent road links northwards to the Costa Brava destinations.

Alternately, to the south Reus-Salou Airport has expanded in recent years due to the expansion of Ryanair operations to the region and serves airports such as London Stansted. The location of the airport gives superb access to the town.