On previous visits to Spain my food choices have been fairly limited, but on this trip the food was arranged for us by locals. We would get to try a much wider variety of Spanish food and in particular food from the Catalan region.
Sitges is a coastal town near to Barcelona. It lies to the south west of Barcelona airport and can be reached in 30 minutes by taxi or coach from there. Alternatively you can reach it by train from Barcelona.
I had visited before for a short beach holiday, but this trip was for a conference and in early December.
When I went before it was nice and warm and I was expecting it to be much colder in December. To my surprise the weather was very pleasant, certainly warm enough to hang out at the beach.
Our first meal was at Clos la Plana, a modernist house a short coach ride from Sitges. We were greeted with drinks on arrival then many dishes of tapas and further drinks. I had never had so many different types of tapas and they were way better than the ones you get outside Spain. Tray after tray was brought round by the staff and I tried many. They may have been the same ingredients as elsewhere but had original flavours I had never tried before.
After a couple of hours eating tapas it was time for the main meal. This was in the restaurant and we were served three courses with wine. Again the food was a bit different and fortunately there wasn’t too much as we were already quite full with tapas.
The night ended off with a party with more complimentary drinks. Clos la Plana was an excellent place for a party and the food really was something else.
The next day we spent time at the beach which was plenty warm enough in December for t-shirts, though the sea might have not been warm enough for swimming. We attempted to play beach volleyball and other games on the beach. I was particularly perplexed when we were asked to put up a tent as a team, blindfolded!
Then another meal. This time at the beach side restaurant PicNic. We were brought 6 dishes one after another of local food. Meats, seafood, vegetarian. Both tapas and paella. Some of the flavours were unlike anything I had ever tried before. I wish I’d photographed the menu to remember more. I particularly liked the salmon tapas and one that tasted like fish cakes – but nicer than British fish cakes. Again we could order drinks, both wines and drinks not on the menu. It was amazing, and something I would never have tried as a solo traveler.
We stayed in a 5 star hotel arranged for us. This was away from the town and a twenty minute walk from the coast. Not somewhere you would stay as a tourist but a good choice for a conference, with plenty of rooms to house 100+ people.
All in all a great little trip and I would certainly go back to Sitges.