Spain is part of the club that year after year sits at the top of various indexes of the world’s most LGBTQ+-friendly countries. More than just a good place to live, it’s also a mecca for visitors from all over the world. Its tourism industry is huge—which is probably why so many international resort companies are based there—and it’s a prime destination for LGBTQ2S+ visitors.
Compared to some of the other members of the LGBTQ2S+-friendly club—Canada and Iceland, I’m looking at you—this Mediterranean country is also a party animal. People don’t usually hit the clubs until after 2am, usually because they’re tied up dining with friends and pre-drinking until well after midnight.
On a recent trip to the northwestern region of Galicia, I dropped by A Coruña, a beachside city of fewer than 250,000 people—smaller than Windsor, Ontario, or Garland, Texas. Not known as a tourist destination, A Coruña has two gay bars and a gay sauna. A mecca, no, but friendlier than similar-sized cities in many other countries.
The following ranking of “gayest” Spanish destinations is arbitrary. Madrid has certainly become one of Europe’s favourite LGBTQ+ playgrounds, with something for everyone. I know people who would put it atop a global list. But its metropolitan-area population is 6.7-million, the second-largest in the European Union after Berlin—a visitor would expect Madrid to have something for everyone. As well as population size, this ranking also considers expectations, visibility, variety and uniqueness.
7. Benidorm
Little known to those in the Americas, this resort town on the Valencia region’s Costa Blanca is known for attracting straight Brits of an, um, less sophisticated sort who like to, uh, have some beverages. But wherever there are mass numbers of sun seekers, there are at least some queers—we need cheap holidays, too. Gay life is focused on roughly a dozen bars in Old Town; try Bears’ Bar, Company Bar or Escape Bar. The scene is more discreet than others; imagine that most patrons are sneaking out of the hotel room they’re sharing with their straight friends/siblings/parents to enjoy a night on the prowl.
6. Ibiza
This could be a controversial choice for such low placement because if an LGBTQ2S+ person was going to name one Spanish island, it would be Ibiza. It’s legendary. Many LGBTQ2S+ people love to club and many will make a summer pilgrimage here once or twice or annually, standing in long queues, and paying exorbitant drink prices, at the likes of Amnesia, Pacha or Hï Ibiza. But though we show up at the megaclubs, and though the crowds they attract are mostly LGBTQ+-friendly, we are not catered to. Our numbers can be overwhelmed by the straight people who also love to club—and straight guys can take up a lot of space. Focused gay venues in Ibiza tend to be smaller and located in the town itself, mostly around Calle de la Virgen, not beachside. They’re lovely and fun, but not exactly places that someone jets over an ocean to visit. We’d love to see an Ibiza megaclub host a regular queer night, with rainbow flags splashed all over the social-media posts.
5. Sitges
Its proximity to Barcelona—about 40 minutes by train—makes it the easiest of Spain’s resort towns to get to from a city. Day trip! And on weekends it gets so much more gay when Barcelona residents, as well as tourists, flood to the town of about 16,000. There are a couple of dozen gay bars, a sauna and a sex club. The rainbow-flag beach, Platja de la Bassa Rodona, is right in the middle of things, near Hotel Calipolis. Platja dels Balmins is a gay-friendly nude beach a little further out of town, while even further out is Cala de l’Home Mort/Playa del Hombre Muerto, which is quieter, gayer and, we’re told, cruisier. The only thing preventing Sitges from being higher on the list is the fact that it’s also easy for straight people to get there.
4. Barcelona
With a metropolitan population of almost 5.7-million people, Barcelona has LGBTQ+ life aplenty, beautiful architecture, urban beaches and a certain brand of Catalan cool. The city’s district of Eixample is often called “Gayxample” because of all of its bars, clubs and saunas. If you had any doubt about whether Catalans could party, let me remind you that the internationally known circuit-style party promoter Matinée Group is based here. Fashion? The trendy Addicted/ES and fetishy Boxer brands call Barcelona home. This is a tight race, though, and Barcelona sits in the fourth position partly because its queerness is split with Sitges and partly because of….
3. Madrid
… Pride! Madrid Pride has become an ersatz Euro Pride, a time of year when it seems there are no straight people within a one-kilometre radius of the core. The gaybourhood Chueca rocks 24/7 and actually has bars that open before midnight, which is much appreciated by older, calmer queers. Compared to chill Barcelona (chill, that is, aside from the throngs of tourists), Madrid has a bit of a manic vibe that always makes it feel more exciting and, to be honest, more horny. It’s a city where people meet strangers, then the strangers’ friends and so on. Where else does the cover charge for a sex club cost less than the two drinks that are included in the cover?
2. Torremolinos
This resort town on Spain’s Costa del Sol has a population of less than 70,000, but at least four gay beach areas, depending on how you count, and about 20 gay bars all clustered around the historic centre. A 40-minute train ride from Málaga, it’s a little like the southern twin of Sitges—a suburban gay utopia. We are ranking it above Sitges because of its long history of LGBTQ+ liberation (Spain’s first gay-friendly bar was opened here by a British gay couple back in 1962), the density of its scene in relation to the straight scene, and for its kink and leather community, which is unique. The LGBTQ+ community here feels established, like they live here and welcome visitors, but are not dependent on them.
1. Maspalomas
Located on the southern end of the island of Gran Canaria, this purpose-built resort community is weird and doesn’t feel like a “real” place. But for most of the year, LGBTQ2S+ visitors seem to outnumber straight ones, and visitors definitely outnumber the 36,000 or so locals—many of the hospitality workers commute from Las Palmas in the north of the island. Those straight visitors who do come to Maspalomas tend to be older Germans and Scandanavians who chose the destination for its value proposition (cheap wine and cheese!); they tuck in at night before the clubs even open, so they’ll stay out of our way. Yumbo Centrum, a massive indoor-outdoor mall filled with gay bars, sex clubs, underwear stores and a sauna, provides one-stop for all a visitor’s homosexual needs. The cruising in a vast swath of dunes is unique in the world. Their Winter Pride is as well attended as their Pride, perhaps even better attended. The Canary Islands also have their own distinctive style of drag, built around a fantastical androgyny, which knocks audiences on their asses each year during carnival. Is Maspalomas to every queer’s taste? Perhaps not. Is it undeniably the gayest place in a very gay country? It is. Case closed, pending appeal.
