Sitges

Sitges has figured out something most tourist towns haven’t: how to be genuinely excellent at several different things simultaneously. In summer it’s a beach town with some of the best sand on the Catalan coast. In October it transforms into the global capital of cult cinema. In February it throws a carnival famous enough to attract visitors from across Europe. And throughout the year it’s a working Catalan town with proper restaurants, a real art museum, and streets that function after dark for reasons other than pub crawls.

The Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya) has been running since 1968 and is not a small regional event — it’s where major distributors premiere horror, science fiction, and fantasy films before international release. Audiences are knowledgeable and opinionated. The atmosphere in the small seaside town during festival week is unlike anything else in Europe.

The Carnival: The Carnaval de Sitges has been LGBTQ+-welcoming since before it was politically convenient to be so, and the result is a carnival with a genuinely festive atmosphere rather than the self-conscious performativity you get at events that have retrofitted inclusivity onto an existing structure. The Rua de la Disbauxa (the main parade) draws tens of thousands.

Getting there: 40 minutes from Barcelona Sants by regional train (Rodalies line R2 South), departures every 20–30 minutes. Cheap and easy.

What to eat: The restaurants on Carrer Major and around the market are better and cheaper than anything on the seafront. Try xató — a Sitges specialty of salt cod, tuna, and anchovies in a romesco sauce — if it’s on the menu.