Shopping in Barcelona's design emporiums, fashion mills, and knickknack shops is more like museum browsing than going on a buying spree, although it can, of course, be both. Places like Vinçon and BD delight the eye and stimulate the imagination nearly as quickly as they inhibit your credit card draw (design is expensive). Passeig de Gràcia is becoming known as one of the great shopping avenues in the world, while searching through Barcelona's antiques district along Carrer de la Palla is always an adventure. The shops opening daily around Santa Maria del Mar in the Barri de la Ribera range from Catalan and international design artifacts of all kinds to Moroccan ceramics to high fashion to nuts and spices, while the megastores in Plaça de Catalunya, along the Diagonal, and in L'Illa, farther west, are commercial free-for-alls selling everything under the sun.

For high fashion, browse carefully through Passeig de Gràcia and the Diagonal between Plaça Joan Carles I and Plaça Francesc Macià. For music, books, sports, clothes, and food, try L'Illa shopping center on the Diagonal west of Entença or El Triangle in Plaça de Catalunya at the head of the Rambla. Antiques shopping alone could keep you booked solid in Barcelona, with two dozen of the best shops in the Gothic Quarter, another 70 shops off Passeig de Gràcia in the Bulevard dels Antiquaris, and more in Gràcia and Sarrià.

Barcelona's prime shopping districts are the Passeig de Gràcia, Rambla de Catalunya, the Plaça de Catalunya, Porta de l'Àngel, and Avinguda Diagonal up to Carrer Ganduxer. Farther out on the Diagonal is shopping colossus L'Illa, which includes FNAC, Marks & Spencer, and plenty of other consumer temptations. The Maremagnum mall, in Port Vell, is another option. Carrer Tuset, north of the Diagonal, has lots of small boutiques. For affordable, old-fashioned Spanish shops, prowl along Carrer Ferran. The area surrounding the Plaça del Pi, from the Boqueria to Carrer Portaferrissa and Carrer de la Canuda, has fashionable boutiques and jewelry and gift shops. Check along Carrer Banys Vells and, one street north of Carrer Montcada, along Carrer Flassaders for design stores, jewelry, and knickknacks of all kinds. Most stores are open Monday-Saturday 9-1:30 and 5-8, but some close in the afternoon. Virtually all close on Sunday.