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Port Vell Harbour And Maremagnum | Waterfront Shopping Centre | Barcelona

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A panoramic view of a harbor with sailboats, modern buildings, and a coastal skyline, showcasing a cable car tower and waterfront developments in Barcelona.
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VERDICT: We gave 4 out of 5 tickets and here’s why!

This guide forms part of our complete Spain Travel Guide, featuring destination ideas, scenic road trips, practical travel advice and honest first-hand reviews from across the country.

This article is part of our Barcelona: Ultimate Travel Guide. We spent five days exploring La Rambla, La Boqueria, the Sagrada Família, Port Vell and Barcelona’s distinctive neighbourhoods aboard the Bus Turístic. Follow our visit to one of Spain’s most exciting cities, featuring personal experiences, major attractions and practical visitor tips. Read the complete Barcelona guide here.

A tranquil marina scene with several boats docked alongside palm trees lining the shore, under a clear blue sky.
A close-up of an espresso martini on a round table, featuring a foam top with coffee beans, alongside a glass of white wine and sunglasses in the background. A colorful mural can be seen on the wall behind.

Discover how Barcelona transformed historic Port Vell and Maremagnum into a waterfront destination connected to La Rambla by the striking Rambla de Mar walkway.

Port Vell, in the centre of Barcelona, is the old harbor, and Maremagnum is a shopping center built right in the middle of it on the water.

Port Vell is the oldest part of the Port of Barcelona, with more than four centuries of history as the city’s first stable quay. Before the 1992 Olympics it was a run-down area of empty warehouses, rail yards and factories. As part of the Olympic urban renewal, the whole waterfront was reclaimed. The Moll d’Espanya was turned into a leisure island with the Aquàrium de Barcelona, the IMAX cinema, and the Maremagnum centre, all inaugurated in 1995.

Maremagnum was designed by architects Helio Piñón, Albert Viaplana and Rafael Coll. You reach it via the Rambla de Mar, the 380-meter wooden walkway that extends La Rambla over the water from Plaça del Portal de la Pau, with a swing bridge in the middle that opens to let boats in and out.

Originally it was focused on nightlife, multiplex cinema, cocktail bars and 25 discotheques, but in the early 2000s it was completely reinvented as a daytime, family-oriented centre.

Today it’s the only shopping center in Barcelona allowed to open 365 days a year because it’s classified as a tourist zone, drawing about 13 million visitors a year. It has about 22,000m² of retail across two buildings with international fashion brands like Mango, Desigual, Lacoste, H&M, plus its famous terrace of waterfront restaurants called “La terrassa”.

A busy street scene filled with people walking, trees lining the avenue, shops, and taxis in the background during golden hour.

Together with Port Vell, it turned what used to be an abandoned port into one of the city’s main leisure hubs, right where cool floating Miraestels sculptures, by Robert Llimós, look up at the sky.

Time Out Market Barcelona is the big anchor on the 2nd floor of Maremagnum at Port Vell.

It’s 5,250m² with space for 1,300 people, 14 curated kitchens, 1 full-service restaurant (Casa Amàlia for traditional Catalan), 4 bars, 2 indoor and 2 on the outdoor terraces, plus an events stage and studio.

The lineup is built around Barcelona’s best: two-Michelin-star Jordi Artal (Cinc Sentits), two-Michelin-star Fran López, La Balmesina’s 72-hour fermented pizza, Xuba Tacos, Monster Sushi, Bar Nuri tapas, and Paradiso, the Barcelona cocktail bar that was ranked #1 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2022 & that’s where we landed.

The idea is communal tables, order from different kitchens to one table, and proper plates. Our pretty sea views were shared with some very large, nosy seagulls. We enjoyed watching people walking along the walkway, the cable car that moved above us & the boats that came and went.

We enjoyed an espresso martini & a glass of Chardonnay in the shade.

A modern pedestrian bridge with curved arches over a body of water, featuring architectural support pillars and views of buildings in the background under a cloudy sky.

Open Hours: Maremagnum Shopping Centre

Daily hours are 10am to midnight, with Paradiso bar open until 1am, and open 365 days a year like the rest of Maremagnum.

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