Oct/090
London Shopping Vacations
London, as a vacation destination, is very hard to beat. It is the most popular city in England for city breaks and longer vacations. Most people travel there to take in the wonderful sights of the capital city of England and some endeavor to see the British Royal Family (with the Queen being the top of everyone's list). Many people head to London to take advantage of the finest shopping in the land.
London, Paris, New York, how many times have you seen these three cities mentioned together? It is most likely that you will have seen them together on a bottle of fine perfume or a luxury cosmetic product. The reason is that these three cities are the top three shopping cities of the world. You will be hard pressed to walk through any of London's top shopping districts without seeing the flagship store of at least one huge retail chain.
Whatever you want London will have it. Grouped together in places such as New Bond Street, Knightsbridge, Oxford Street etc., you will find all manner of designer shops, fashion shops and boutiques, department stores, bookshops, music shops, jewellery shops and virtually any type of retail outlet you can imagine.
Oxford Street And Knightsbridge
This is where you will find many of the nations flagship department stores. Oxford street has the likes of Selfridges and Knightsbridge has the famous Harrods and also Harvey Nichols. Oxford Street is said to be the busiest shopping street in Europe.
Bond Street
Armani, Gucci and virtually any luxury brand can be found on Bond Street. Associated with designer clothing, perfume; art, antiques and other items of luxury Bond Street has the biggest number of suppliers the Royal Family than anywhere else in London.
Covent Garden
Bond Street is great if you are rich and famous but for ordinary folk Covent Garden is the best place to go for fashion clothing. Covent Garden is home to a large number of smaller independent fashion stores and boutiques and this is the place to go if you are in search of a decent pair of shoes.
Other Shopping Areas In London
Covent Garden is great for clothes but you may also want to visit the famous Carnaby Street which is becoming popular again. If you want bespoke tailoring then Savile Row is the most famous place to go but look around Piccadilly, especially on Jermyn Street. If you are looking for jewellery but cannot afford Bond Street try Hatton Garden (near Farringdon) which has many long established jewellers to choose from. Books are best found on the Charing Cross Road but also look around Covent Garden.
London has lots more places in which to go shopping and the above list is not comprehensive, there are simply too many. Other places to go shopping, especially for unusual items, are the many London markets, too many to list here.