Sant Antoni

Centered on its restored 19th-century iron-and-glass market hall, Mercat de Sant Antoni, this corner of the Eixample has transformed over the past decade from a sleepy residential grid into one of the city's most talked-about neighborhoods for specialty coffee, natural wine bars, and independent bookshops and design stores. It keeps the same wide, grid-planned Eixample streets as its more famous neighbors around Passeig de Gràcia, but with far fewer tourists and much better prices.

The Sunday book and coin market outside the market hall is a long-standing local tradition, and the streets around Carrer del Parlament have become a dense strip of small-plates restaurants and wine bars popular with young Barcelonins. It's an easy walk from El Raval and the university area.