Sitges: seafront promenade and rice.

Sitges is the easiest seaside Sunday from Barcelona. The train drops you ten minutes from the beach, the promenade is flat from one end to the other and the old town, perched on a rock above the water, can be walked in an hour. Outside summer you have the town almost to yourself: winter sun, terraces with space and rice to finish.

The day, hour by hour

10:00 · Train. The Rodalies R2 Sud leaves from Sants and Passeig de Gràcia and takes between 35 and 45 minutes.

10:45 · The houses of the americanos. The station is on Plaça d'Eduard Maristany, with the tourist office next to it (on Sundays it is open from 10:00 to 14:00). Walk down towards the sea along Carrer d'Illa de Cuba, Sant Bartomeu and Francesc Gumà. They are the streets of the indianos: locals who made their fortune in America and came back to build mansions, many now turned into hotels. Look out for Casa Bartomeu Carbonell, the one with the clock on the tower.

11:15 · The seafront promenade. You come out on Passeig de la Ribera and follow it towards the church. The whole promenade is 2.5 km and passes eight urban beaches; at a normal pace it is half an hour, but it takes longer because everything invites you to stop. At the end the steps climb to Plaça del Baluard and the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla, from the 17th century, the silhouette that appears in every photo of Sitges. From there it is known as the Punta.

12:00 · The old town. Behind the church, Carrer del Fonollar leads to the Cau Ferrat and the Maricel complex, and ends at the Vidal-Quadras bastion viewpoint, above Sant Sebastià beach. Come back along Carrer de la Davallada, with remains of the medieval wall, and continue along Carrer d'en Bosc, the oldest in the town, to the Palau del Rei Moro, a Gothic building.

12:30 · Cau Ferrat and Maricel. The Cau Ferrat was the home-studio of the painter Santiago Rusiñol and holds his collection of wrought iron, painting and ceramics; the Maricel Museum is right next door. The joint ticket costs €12 and is free for under-17s. They are open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00 from November to March and 10:00 to 19:00 from April to October. An hour is enough for both.

14:00 · Lunch at Maricel. You go down from the old town to Passeig de la Ribera: the restaurant is at number 6, facing the beach and a couple of minutes from the church. It is not the museum of the same name. It has its own rice section and seafood cooking; on Sunday it serves lunch from 13:00 to 15:15, and is closed on Tuesdays. Book on its website or by phone.

16:30 · Return. One last stroll along the shore and to the station. There are several trains an hour.

What to order

At Maricel, order one of its rice dishes: black rice with clams and artichokes, seafood paella without shells or soupy rice with lobster. For a starter, grandmother's cannelloni or Cantabrian anchovies with bread and tomato. From November to March look for xató, the curly endive salad with salt cod and anchovy and its almond and ñora pepper sauce: Sitges is part of the Ruta del Xató and in winter many menus include it. For dessert, a glass of Sitges malvasia, the town's sweet wine. Book by Saturday at the latest: on sunny Sundays the terraces on the promenade fill up at two.

If you have time to spare

Follow the seafront to the north: from Sant Sebastià beach climb to the hermitage of the same name, walk along the Balmins promenade and go down some steps to the Aiguadolç harbour. It is about 40 minutes more, with the sea all the way.

With children and with a dog

The whole route can be done with a pushchair, except the steps up the Punta, which can be bypassed. Sant Sebastià beach is the one for the town's families. Under-17s enter the museums free. With a dog, the promenade is fine; in summer, the only beach in Sitges with free access for dogs is Vallcarca, far from the centre.