Recommended shopping in Europe

[nox]

So I'm getting my first vacation in two years and I'm hitting up Europe. I'm not in any city for more than 2 days. Yes, I'm nuts.

London, Paris, Madrid, Lyon, Antibes, Florence, Rome, Venice, Munich, Koblenz, Amsterdam.

I'm interested in anything good. Lately I'm trying to grow my casual/street collection, but I really do like button-up shirts. Muscular build.

Anything worth checking out? Anyone want me to get them something (small, I'm backpacking)?

 

[brotherleader]

when will you be there (since you might hit the sales)?

 

[hossoso]

Originally Posted by nox

Anything worth checking out?

Nope. I'm joking but combining backpacking trip with European shopping spree seems odd/difficult. Are you going to just ship back all of your purchases as you buy them? Are you going to go with an empty backpack and just buy clothes everyday until it is full or you don't want/need any more clothes? I actually did that once in Seoul or somewhere in Asia, the Customs officials were very curious as to why I was entering their country with only an empty duffelbag. Remembered, it was in Fukuoka, when I took the Beatle over from Busan! Fun stuff.

 

[nox]

The purpose of my trip isn't shopping.

However, I've shoved almost everything into the 25L daypack, leaving 35L available. I don't really love shopping, but if there's something special I'll take the time.

If I find anything more that's great, I'll have to buy more bags or ship or wear it back.

I'll be there in June, during Euro2008.

 

[abrocketsfan]

i just did 3 weeks in Europe as a pseudo-backpacker ... i didn't do much shopping at all even though i wanted to, and i'm glad ... teh exchange rate is bad right now plus things just aren't as cheap over there as you can find them here in the us ... besides we know where to shop here and when the sales are ...

i picked up some small things from local artisans, but everything else was well out of my price range ...

 

[nox]

Oh for the days when the Euro was a joke...

I heard that Spain is still decent? I was recommended Mexx/Zara.

 

[brotherleader]

It will be a great time to be there since the summer sales start at the end of June (I think the 25th this year) in France, and most other places as well. It's worth stopping in Colette (Paris- 213, rue Saint-HonorÃ

, 1st Arr) just for the sight, it's an overpriced zoo but I'm always entertained by the people you see there. Kenzo has some serious markdowns for their sales.

 

[kronik]

Out of curiosity, how much is this trip costing you?

 

[Nil]

Have you ever been to these cities before? If you haven't, do yourself a favor and spend those 2 days in each city seeing the important sites and skip the shopping. Come back for clothing when you have more time.

 

[breakz]

Originally Posted by kronik

Out of curiosity, how much is this trip costing you?

With exchange rates the way they are: a lot.

Also: listen to Nil's advice. Don't spend your time shopping if you're trying to cram 11 cities in about three weeks. You'd just miss out on too much.

 

[nox]

I think by the time I'm done it'll be between 5-6K. I probably bought about 1000$ worth of **** for the trip, including my APC NS.

Could do it for a lot less if you showed up with a backpack and a tent - most cities in europe have small campgrounds close to city centre, so you can camp out if hostels are full and avoid the whole booking mess. It's all online now but booking stuff is a pain.

You can find flights to london for 800$ return from some discount airlines - from the west coast. You just have to sacrifice comfort. The airline I'm going with packs 360 people into a plane that most companies fit 300 into.

If you do go discount you could look at prebooking seats - you can get those front-row emergency-escape seats for a decent premium (waaay less than a normal airline anyways), and it resovles all the space issues. Also close to emergency exit if the plane falls apart.