Sitges

Carrer Sant Bonaventura and the streets around Plaça de la Indústria hold around twenty LGBTQI+ bars and clubs within less than a five-minute walk. That is an extremely high density for a town of 32,000 residents, and it is explained by Sitges working as a pan-European holiday destination rather than a local market.

The offer runs from the long-standing drinks bar to dance clubs, leather and bear venues and mixed terraces. The real high season runs from May to September, because in winter the town slows down and several venues close or cut their hours. For a scene that works all year, Barcelona is 35 minutes away on the R2.

Sitges's LGBTI calendar does not rest on a single Pride march but on four pillars. Carnival, between February and March, with the Rua de la Disbauxa on the Sunday and the Rua de l'Extermini on the Tuesday, famous for its drag element and its floats. Sitges Pride, in June. Bears Sitges Week, in early September, the reference bear event in Europe. And the orbit of Barcelona's Circuit, in August, which adds days here.

For Bears Week and for Circuit it is worth booking more than three months ahead. In August and in the first week of September hotel prices can double or triple.

Sitges has no administrative gay neighbourhood in the manner of Chueca or the Gaixample, because it is a small town where the LGBTQI+ scene takes over the whole old quarter. The real axis is Carrer Sant Bonaventura and Plaça de la Indústria, where most of the bars and clubs line up.

Around that axis, within a ten-minute walk, sit the small hotels that suit an LGBT crowd, from the Liberty to the Parrots and the MiM Sitges, the central beaches, Sant Sebastià and the Bassa Rodona, which is the gay beach in the centre, and the seafront promenade.

Sitges is a signatory municipality of the Diversity Charter and keeps an active LGBTI policy at the town hall. In practice, the professional support network leans on Barcelona, 35 kilometres away, which is the reference for psychological and legal help and for STI testing.

On health, BCN Checkpoint in Barcelona does free walk-in rapid HIV and syphilis testing, and provides free PrEP to Catalan residents. In Sitges there is a primary care centre and duty pharmacies, and for serious emergencies you are referred to the Hospital de Sant Camil, in Sant Pere de Ribes, five kilometres away.