Why I return to this enchanting Spanish seaside town year after year

What’s your favourite holiday destination? Be honest. I don’t mean one of those swanky bucket list locations you like to boast about at dinner parties. I mean somewhere you keep returning to, in good times and bad – somewhere you know you’ll have a great time, whatever else is happening in your life. For me, that place is Sitges.

Sitges is a beach resort about 40km south of Barcelona. It’s a 40-minute cab ride from the city centre, about half an hour by train. So far, so ordinary. But there are several things that make Sitges quite unlike any other Spanish beach resort.

There’s its colonial history. Back in the 19^th century it was a workaday town, whose inhabitants were mainly fishermen. There wasn’t much money to be made, so lots of locals sailed to Cuba, including Don Facundo Bacardi Masso, creator of the world’s most famous rum.

When they’d made their fortunes they returned home, and built ornate villas to flaunt their wealth. This colonial legacy make Sitges a visual gem. The narrow streets of the old town are crammed with splendid fin de siècle townhouses.

When Franco decided to bury the Catalan coast beneath an avalanche of concrete, Sitges was already well established. The prime sites were occupied, so modern developers went elsewhere. 

Another USP was added after its discovery by LGBT tourists. How this came about remains something of a mystery, but it may have all started with just one hotel. In less tolerant times, the Hotel Romantic opened its arms to gay holidaymakers and soon became a popular rendezvous. Since it’s only a small hotel, demand for beds and barstools quickly outstripped supply and other hoteliers also started embracing the pink pound, quickly turning a seaside town that had seen better days into somewhere hip.

But not too hip. Sitges isn’t really party central. The nightlife is lively, but during the day it’s actually quite sedate. There are several streets lined with bars, but for the most part this is still a town where ordinary Spaniards live and work.

Tourism is an important industry, but a lot of visitors are Catalonians. In many ways, Sitges enjoys much the same relationship with Barcelona that Brighton does with London. It’s a place where urbanites go to let their hair down, for a day or the whole weekend.

Yet the myth remains that Sitges is just a party town. In fact, you’ll see hundreds of Spanish families on its beaches, and lately I’ve seen a lot more British families too. You can see why they like coming here. The nightlife and gay scene gives Sitges a giddy buzz, but there is none of the tiresome macho stuff you get in more downmarket resorts, while the Spanish daytrippers and weekenders mean it still feels foreign and authentic. I know why British families like it, because I’ve been bringing my own clan here for 20 years.

Or rather, they brought me. It was my gay brother-in-law who turned me on to Sitges, 20 years ago this summer. My wife Sophie was pregnant with our first child (our son Edward, as it turned out) and she wanted a stress-free holiday a short flight away, in a place that wasn’t entirely bereft of culture.

When my brother-in-law suggested Sitges, we were unsure. Sophie was flaked out, and I’ve never been a big one for nightclubs. But we trusted his judgement, and I’m glad we did. Most holidays are a trade-off between relaxation and inspiration. With its sandy beach and historic old town, Sitges was a bit of both.

We returned to Sitges two years later, when Edward was a toddler. We were up at dawn, just as the other guests in our hotel were returning from the night clubs. We went to bed at dusk, just as they were going out. Yet it actually worked very well being on such a different schedule. While the other guests slept until lunchtime, we had the hotel pool to ourselves.

When our daughter Thea was born we went back again, and stayed in the same hotel, the Antemare (hotelibersolantemare.com). When the kids were older and needed more room, we transferred to the Apollo Apartments (apollositges.com). Having always paid my own way, I can recommend both places without fear or favour. However, I see the Antemare is now adults only. I do hope it wasn’t because of something our children did!

When Edward left school, last summer, Sophie took him to Sitges for a few days, before he started his first job away from home. They had a great time together, just the two of them, two adults in the same place where she’d taken him so often as a child. When Ed finished that job, this summer, she booked another holiday there – just the two of them again. But then some work came up for Ed, something he didn’t want to turn down, so I bought a flight and went with Sophie, on a sort of accidental second honeymoon. 

It was the first time we’d been to Sitges without our kids in 20 years. And I was worried. Then we were young; now we were staring down the barrel of middle age. Would Sophie recall the last time we came here, just the two of us, and draw some unfavourable comparisons? To me, she seemed even more gorgeous now than she had done on our first trip. I wasn’t entirely sure she’d say the same of me.

I needn’t have worried. We had a ball. All the old memories came flooding back, and we made some new ones too. It felt wonderful to return to a place we knew so well, a place where we’d raised our children, and see it through older, wiser eyes.

At the top of this piece I asked you to be honest, so I’ll be honest with you now. It probably could have been a lot of places. Sitges was merely where we happened to end up. Of course there are loads of things that make it special for me, and my wife and children. But I bet you’ve found a place which feels just as special to you, for a lot of the same reasons I’ve described above. Most people have a special place they return to, time after time, yet travel writers hardly ever write about these places. I don’t know why.

I can’t wait to go again, but mainly because it feels so familiar. Maybe our kids will come with us this time – if they don’t have anything better to do. As I get older I like to revisit old places, but that’s not just because I’m old and knackered. It’s because each time you dig a little deeper, and get to know a place a little better. After ten visits over 20 years, I think I’m getting to know Sitges. This place has been good to me. I think you might like it too.

Do you have a holiday destination you return to year after year? What makes it so special to you? Leave your comments below.