Melia Gran

Four-star hotel in Sitges

by mypriority about Melia Sitges

Melia Sitges is a four-star hotel, one of the best in Sitges. Location on the hill next to the sea makes it special. Room is nice too. Around Euro 100 a night.

It is a famous homo beach but who cares?

by klaudia

Hi,

As Sitges is my favorite place to go to the beach, I will tell you that in September you can enjoy it as much as now, in June. In August a sea tide may cover a half of the beach, but in September all goes back to normal. I don't know anything about the hotel Plajador, but if you walk all the way left from it along the sea you will find a nudist beach which is surrounded by rocks and is kind of private. You don't have to go nude because there are no rules for that, some people are nude and some are not. But the thing I like about it is that there are less screaming kids and it is clean. During 5 years of life in Barcelona I preferred to go by train to Sitges as it is the best beach area for me.

Have a nice holiday!

Natallia

Església de Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla

by MM212

Dominating the skyline of Sitges, the Església de Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla dates from the 17th century. The octagonal tower, however, is a 19th century addition. The church replaced a previous 14th century Gothic structure, which in turn had been built over the ruins of a Romanesque chapel. Behind the church is the old town of Sitges and some of the town's museums.

All year round in Sitges

by Labrix

"I'm in love with this town"

Sitges is full of history, art and traditions, people love and take care of their town and, even in the summer, when it is full of tourists, you can feel this special thing.

Besides, during Franco's dictature, it was a little oasis for the gay people, even now it's an important gay destination. This is also part of his special character

The town never stops, there are a lot of events that take place all over the year. You can find the most important ones (though not all of them) in the "Local customs" tips.

"Castellers"

"La Colla Jove de Sitges" is the name of the "casteller" group of Sitges. This is a very old tradition in Catalunya and it's really spectacular. Everybody, men, women and children, participate so as to try and make the highest possible human tower, always following the instructions of the "cap de colla", who is someone like a boss or a director.

The music is also a very important part of the "castells", the musicians begin to play when the "castell" is started, that means that the "castellers" are going to go ahead with the tower.

Everybody is in silence, and the greatest moment arrives when the "enxaneta", who is only a child, reaches the top and raises his/her arm. Then everybody explotes in a big acclamation. They have succeeded in the most difficult part, but they still have to go down without falling.

Here you can find a video of a "4 de 8", that means an 8 persons high castle with 4 persons in every level. It's a very difficult "castell"
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=50f21VaQQOU

PS. I took this photo from the "Colla Jove" website
http://www.jovedesitges.org/castells/Main.php?do=home

""Do not dirty the walls..."

... To be clean is a great signal of civilisation". You can see this message (wrote in Catalan) in a lot of houses in Sitges. This demonstrates how the people of this town love and care the place where they live.

It's beautiful, don't you think?

Jewel of the Spanish Coast

by ptitetoile

Sitges is a lovely coastal town 35 Km South of Barcelona. It is of course known for its warm temperature, beach, its night life and its gay life.
But it is not only that : when I arrived, I could not believe my eyes! It is not a mass touristic destination with hugly giant hotels and do not offer only the basic sun-sea-beach activities. Sitges has a past and you can feel it everywhere! In the small streets, on the promenade with the old houses on the waterfront and the old neighborhood of the Maricel Palace.
For more than one century the town of Sitges has been a cultural meeting point. At the end of the 19th century the famous Catalan artist Santiago Rusinol settled in Sitges, in a house known as " El Cau Ferrat". Here he celebrated the famous "Modern Style Parties", that made Sitges worldwide famous among artistic circles. Sitges was thus a important place for the catalan "art nouveau" called Modernism.

"Spanish tango capital"

In fact, I went to Sitges for the most famous summer tango festival. It was the eleventh edition of the festival and I finally had the time to see it for real after having heard so much about it! This was the occasion to see again my international tango friends from Netherlands and Switzerland and to discover the pleasure to dance tango on the beach ! I really loved it!
Beside the official Milonga that took place from 11pm till 3am in the "Jardin de Retiro", a garden with a dance floor surrounded by buildings that was nice but a bit too crowded, informal milongas were organised on the beach (yes on the sand and in the water!!!!) from 7 to 9 pm and then another on the promenade from 3 to....6.. 10...12 am!!!!
Between a couple of dances, you can imagine how great it is to bath its foot in the water of the sea! My favourite tango day was the last one, on the promenade, when there were less people and I danced all night long till 6 am, time of the train I had to take to travel back to the airport!

"Belgian Team"

During the six days, I share an appartement with my four tango-friends Charles, Corine, Tommaso and Cindy...We were almost the only representatives of Belgium at the festival (I think there were two more dancers but travelling lonely) It was great to share this experience together !