Are there neighborhoods to avoid in Barcelona?
The short answer is no neighborhood requires blanket avoidance, but a few zones demand heightened awareness. The Raval, particularly the blocks south of Carrer de Sant Pau toward the port, sees persistent pickpocketing and occasional street harassment after dark; it's walkable in daylight and home to the MACBA and some good restaurants, but don't flash your phone there at midnight. La Barceloneta gets unpleasant on summer weekend nights when it floods with drunk tourists and the pickpocket density spikes. Las Ramblas is less a neighborhood than a gauntlet — keep your bag in front of you the entire length of it, always. The area around the Sagrada Família attracts the same tourist-targeting thieves you find anywhere crowds are distracted. Contrast this with places that have reputations they no longer deserve: Poblenou and Sant Antoni are perfectly safe and genuinely good to spend time in. Barcelona's crime is almost entirely opportunistic theft, not violence directed at visitors.
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