Barcelona Shopping

Barcelona is almost certainly the best shopping city in Spain. From the giant El Corte Ingles on Placa de Catalunya to small boutiques, back street specialist music stores, to the fabulous La Boqueria market on the Ramblas.

There really is a great range of options for any serious shopper. Many stores are open until 10pm but the majority are shut on Sundays.

Department stores

Most visitors will find their way to El Corte Ingles on Plaça de Catalunya, right in the centre of the city and hard to miss. It is the city’s largest store and has a pleasant atmosphere. Across the square is El Triangle, a shopping centre with the FNAC store housing a good book store, including an English section.

Down in the port area, the Maremagnum complex includes sportswear – also a FC Barcelona store – lots of souvenir shops and restaurants and bars.

To the east, on Plaça de les Glories Catalanes, is the Centre Comercial Barcelona Glories, a large mall with lots of familiar international names. L’Illa at Diagonal 555-559 is an uptown mall, including an FNAC.

Barcelona markets

The world famous La Boqueria market near the top of the Ramblas will attract most visitors but there are other daily food markets across the city.

There’s a specialist antiques market near the Cathedral in the Barri Gotic – and it becomes an excellent Christmas market during most of December - and another at weekends on the Port Vell harbourside. The flea market, selling clothes, jewellery and furniture is at Plaça de les Glories Catalanes.

Clothes shopping

The best area is Eixample with Passeig de Gracia and Diagonal offering a wide selection from the very exclusive, such as Muxaert shoes (c/Rossello 230 and Rambla Catalunya 47) through to affordable fashion shops such as Zara, now with a good number of stores in the city. Mango is another brand worth searching out – it was founded here in Barcelona.

Food shops in Barcelona

As well as the markets, there are specialist shops worth searching out. Formatgeria La Seu at c/Dagueria, offers farmhouse cheeses from around Spain and the Scottish owner has Saturday cheese tastings. Colmado Quilez at Rambla de Catalunya 63 is a specialist Catatalan grocer and a fantastic xarcuterie counter.

Caelum, at c/de la Perrer 8, has tempting traditional sweets and other goodies from Spanish convents. The sticky marzipan is superb, or try the herb-flavoured olive oils. Casa Gispert roasts coffee and nuts and there's dried fruit and products like mustard and preserves. It's at c/dels Sombrereros.

If sausage is your thing, head for La Botifarreria (c/de Santa Maria 4) for an amazing range of hand crafted sausages, plus cheeses and hams. If you know your coffee, El Magnifico is as good as its word - a magnificent choice beans and blends, all at c/de l' Argenteria 64.

Bareclona books

The stalls down the Ramblas sell a wide range of books in English plus magazines and newspapers. In addition, Casa del Libre at Pg de Gracia 62, in Eixample, is the city’s largest book store and has a sizeable English section.