What's on in Costa de Barcelona

The Costa de Barcelona is the stretch of coast that wraps around the city itself — the Maresme towns to the north and the Garraf coast to the south, with the capital sitting in the middle. It's the most accessible bit of the Catalan shore: wide, easy beaches at Castelldefels and Vilanova i la Geltrú, the elegant seaside town of Sitges with its art and its summer crowd, and old fishing-port quarters tucked between them. You get city culture and a beach day in the same afternoon, which is the whole appeal.

The summer fiesta calendar is busy and unmistakably Catalan. Sant Joan on 23 June fills the beaches with bonfires, cava and fireworks for the year's shortest night, and the towns follow with their festa majors — expect the Sant Pere maritime fiesta in Vilanova, beach concerts at Sitges' port, fire-running correfocs and the human-tower castells that Vilanova is famous for. Sitges keeps its own rhythm too, from wine fairs to its well-known summer Pride.

Everything runs through Barcelona (BCN) airport, one of Europe's best-connected, with flights from across the UK and Ireland. The local rodalies trains hug the coast and reach most beach towns directly from the city, which makes a car genuinely optional here — though hiring one opens up the Penedès wine country inland and the quieter Garraf coves between Sitges and the city.

Whether you're based in a Sitges hotel, a Castelldefels apartment or right in the city, this page is your guide to what's actually on while you're here — the festivals worth planning around and the neighbourhood fiestas worth stumbling into.