Like most other cities, Barcelona has a central focal point: Placa Catalunya. This is one of the main transit hubs for metro, busses and it's probably the first thing you'll see, as the Aerobus lands here. It's also where the locals...Open the full description
Like most other cities, Barcelona has a central focal point: Placa Catalunya. This is one of the main transit hubs for metro, busses and it's probably the first thing you'll see, as the Aerobus lands here. It's also where the locals go to shop. On the Placa itself, you have El Corte Ingles and FNAC – between them, you can get pretty much anything, from English language guide books to knickknacks and souvenirs.
The main shopping drag is Portal del Angel, where you'll find clothing shops aplenty – but probably not anything you couldn't get at home. For smaller shops and designer stores, you should get lost in El Gotico and Born, as the side streets have a lot of interesting small boutiques. The larger streets also feature shops aplenty, though mostly international brands.
For local design and second-hand threads, you should go to Raval – the area around Carrer Hospital and Carmen, and the streets joining them, has tons of stores, from comic book specialists to music stores, with tattoo shops thrown in for good measure.
There are a number of bigger malls around the city – Glories and Maremagnum are the ones closest to downtown. You'll most likely not be surprised at all by any of the shops you'll find here.
