Sant Vicenç de Montalt sits on the Maresme coast about 35 kilometres northeast of Barcelona, wedged between Sant Andreu de Llavaneres and Caldes d'Estrac. It's small, quiet and noticeably expensive. If you've been scrolling through villa listings in this stretch of the coast, this town keeps coming up, so it's worth spelling out what living there is actually like.
The first thing you notice is how low and spread out everything is. Sant Vicenç de Montalt is not a dense town. Most of the housing is made up of detached villas with gardens, and a lot of them sit up on the slopes behind the coast rather than right on the beach. The centre is small, with a few restaurants and shops around the main square, and the marina and seafront are a short drive down the hill.
The population is only around 6,000 people, and it doesn't feel crowded even in summer. That's part of the appeal. You're close to Barcelona but you don't feel like you're living in a suburb of it.
This is one of the pricier towns on the coast, no way around it. A well-finished villa with a pool and sea views tends to rent in the range of roughly €6,000 to €15,000 a month, and the top end goes higher. To give you something concrete, we've listed a five-bedroom independent chalet in the town at around €12,000 a month, with 450 square metres, a lift, a pool and two gardens. That's the kind of place people come here for.
Below that you can find smaller houses and the odd apartment, but if your budget is under €4,000 a month you'll probably be looking at the neighbouring towns instead. Llavaneres and Cabrils offer more at that level.
The town has its own station on the R1 Rodalies line, the same line that runs up the whole Maresme coast. The train into Barcelona takes roughly 40 to 45 minutes to the centre, which makes a daily commute possible but not exactly painless. Plenty of residents do it, though, and a lot of families time it so one parent works in the city and the other stays local.
By car you're looking at about 35 to 45 minutes in normal traffic using the C-32 motorway, which is tolled. On a Friday evening in summer that can easily stretch. It's worth testing the route at rush hour before you commit to a lease.
The golf course is one of the main draws. Club de Golf Sant Vicenç de Montalt sits right in the town, and a lot of residents keep memberships there. If golf isn't your thing, the beach is a short drive away and the marina has a handful of places to eat with the boats in view.
For schools, the local options are decent for younger kids, but most international families with older children send them to the international schools in the area. Several are within a 15 to 25 minute drive, which we cover in our guide to schools on the coast.
Sant Vicenç de Montalt works best if you want space and quiet, you don't need to be in the city every day, and you're comfortable paying for the privilege of living in one of the coast's more discreet towns. It's not the most connected place in Maresme, and it's not the liveliest. What it offers is a particular kind of calm that's hard to find this close to Barcelona.
If that sounds like what you're after, it's worth seeing a few properties in person. The feel of the town, the exact position of a villa on the slope, how much sun the garden gets. These things don't come through in photos.
We handle villa rentals across the Maresme coast, including Sant Vicenç de Montalt, and we know which streets get the afternoon sun and which ones lose it. Tell us what you're after and we'll show you what's actually available right now.
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