traveldk.com

Barcelona’s grand avenue of lavish Modernista buildings is fittingly home to the city’s premier fashion and design stores. From the international big league (Chanel, Hermès, Swatch) to Spain’s heavy hitters (Loewe, Zara, Mango; (Shopping Tips), it’s all here. And topping the interior design list is the perennially popular Vinçon Design Shops. Side streets reveal more sublime shopping, notably Carrer Consell de Cent, which is dotted with art galleries, and carrers Mallorca, València and Roselló.

Opened in 1978, Barcelona’s first fashion mall, Bulevard Rosa, is still one of its classiest, with over 100 shops showcasing clothes, shoes and accessories by Spanish and international designers. The adjoining Bulevard dels Antiquaris is a spacious mall, with over 60 antiques and arts shops.

The city’s booming centrepiece is also its commercial crossroads, flanked by the department store El Corte Inglés and the shopping mall El Triangle, which includes FNAC (books, CDs, videos) and Séphora (perfumes and cosmetics). Lined with shoe and clothing shops, the nearby Carrer Pelai is said to have more pedestrian traffic than any other shopping street in Spain.

Once a Roman thoroughfare leading into the walled city of Barcino, today the pedestrian street of Portal de l’Àngel is traversed by hordes of shoppers toting bulging bags. The street is chock-full of shoe, clothing, jewellery and accessory shops.

The genteel, classier extension of La Rambla, this well-maintained street offers a refreshing change from its cousin’s more down-at-heel carnival atmosphere. Chic shops and cafés, as well as their moneyed customers, pepper the street’s length, from Plaça de Catalunya to Diagonal. You’ll find everything from fine footwear and leather bags to linens and lamps.

Big and brash, traffic-choked Diagonal is hard to miss, a cacophonous avenue that cuts, yes, diagonally across the entire city. It is a premier shopping street, particularly west of Passeig de Gràcia to its culmination in L’Illa mall and the large El Corte Inglés department store near Plaça Maria Cristina. Lining this long stretch is a host of high-end clothing and shoe stores (Armani, Gucci and Versace among them), interior design shops, jewellery and watch purveyors, and more.

From zebra platform shoes to bellybutton rings and pastel baby T-shirts, this street’s other name could well be Carrer “Trendy”. Along this strip you’ll find El Mercadillo (Shops: Gifts, Garments & Goodies) minimall, crammed with hip little shops selling spiked belts, frameless sunglasses, surf wear and the like. Just off this street is Galeries Maldà, Barcelona’s first shopping gallery, with a range of shops and a cinema showing original version classics (Top 10 Versi Original Cinemas).

Old bookstores, family-run botigues de comestibles (grocery stores) and bohemian shops selling Indian clothing and accessories cluster along Carrer Astúries (and its side streets) and along Travessera de Gràcia. A string of contemporary clothing and shoe shops also lines Gran de Gràcia.

Amid El Born’s web of streets are all sorts of art and design shops. Passeig del Born and Carrer Rec are dotted with innovative little galleries (from sculpture to interior design), plus clothing and shoe boutiques.

Housed in a converted locomotive factory in the Barri de Sant Andreu is Barcelona’s gleaming new shopping complex. The mall offers everything under one roof, with over 200 shops, a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley and fast-food eateries galore.