Going to Barcelona for work and have some time at the end of the week to explore Sitges. Husband and I are trying to figure out if renting a car for a day to make the trip is worth it (we've heard that coastline is beautiful), or if it's more sensible to just take the train.
Is it worth it to go to Sitges at all, given we'll only have a day there (after transit)?
Take the train it is more scenic.
The drive goes through many tunnels in the mountains south of Barcelona, so not much to see with a car.
Loved Sitges. Spent 3 days there.
The train is the R2 Sud and takes 27 minutes from Barcelona Sants. Ticket cost is very low.
Our family took the train in 2017. It was quite easy.
Train is much less hassle and it’s VERY cheap. One caveat… maybe buy tickets in advance. On weekends, day trippers and locals actually fill the trains and you can get shut out when buying at the station
Train would be much better. When we went to Sitges, we really liked it because it was April, cool, cloudy, and kind of windy and it was a nice break from the hubbub of Barcelona. Not very many people. No one on the beach. I jumped into the water briefly just to say I had gone swimming on the Spanish coast. So our experience was very low key. Must be much busier during the tourist season, as a popular beach town.
Wanted to circle back to this, having just gotten back from this trip. We did end up renting a car because we found one for about 50 Euro total (electric car, pre fuel, direct dropoff at the airport). For the convenience we felt it was worth it, especially since having an electric meant we had free parking in any blue marked spot on the street.
The drive was beautiful and took us up the hills/mountainsides along the coast. Not a single tunnel as indicated by other posters (though we saw the train go thru many tunnels on the same route). There were several "miradors" (overlooks) along the coast to stop and take in the view. Reminded me of the coastal highway 1 drive in California, but much much shorter (only about 30 minutes) and felt less windy. We were grateful to have the car so we could go to several other small nearby towns and explore the area thoroughly before leaving again.
The drive was beautiful and took us up the hills/mountainsides along the coast. Not a single tunnel as indicated by other posters.
Thanks for the update, which road did you go on? I'm guessing the c-31 it's the two lane that goes along the cliffs. I assume you'd take the c-32 which is parallel to it, that's the one with the tunnels, it's less winding and more direct.
@Carlos -- yes, we took the C-31 to hug the coast. The other route was more "direct" but didn't seem to save any time and was not scenic at all from what we could tell.
Thanks, happy you had a good time! I was just in the area in August, I also had a car, exploring those secondary sites around Sitges really make the most sense for a car. Lot's of great castles without any tourists, Calafell Castle is a favorite of mine.
