Sitges is a lively seaside town on Spain's northeastern coast, just 35 kilometres from Barcelona. Once a meeting point for ...

If you want to visit the world's happiest beach, you can escape Barcelona crowds at the same time and visit this paradise on Spain's coastline.

Spain dominated the podium, with two of its beaches among the top three. Sitges Beach, just 25 miles from Barcelona, took the top spot with a near-perfect “beach happiness score” of 98.42.

While the top spots were all locations in Europe—Spain’s Sitges Beach took the highest honor—Cannon Beach in the Pacific Northwest came out as the No. 1 “happiest” beach in the United ...