Places to go shopping

It is practically impossible to suggest only one route when going out for shopping in the city, since the necessities of each traveler eminently vary. We can, however help you so that you spend time in the areas most representative of a day of shopping in Madrid and therefore see your needs satisfied.

Basically, the city in itself is one big shopping center, since it is easy to find a shop on every street and on every corner.

Nevertheless, we would like to highlight five areas of shops in Madrid, due to the great variety of merchandise that is concentrated within them:

Sol-Mayor-Arenal area
Gran Via area
Princesa area
Bravo Murillo area
Serrano-Goya area

To start a trip through the main shopping areas, we will start in the Puerta del Sol. From here, the choices are many; we can go through any of the shops that are found on the plaza itself, where we will be able to buy any souvenir of the city or follow along any of the off-shooting streets from the plaza.

Toward the Palacio Real, you can make a full circle, going down Calle Arenal, and returning by Calle Mayor, which allows us to pass by an infinite number of shops of all types, that are concentrated on both sides of the street.

Right in front of the Comunidad de Madrid building, two pedestrian streets open up. Here most of the Puerta del Sol shops are concentrated. The Calle del Carmen and the Calle Preciados streets (where once you could find the now-vanished department store called Galerias Preciados, which was very important during the 1980s). Here, find tons of articles, from the traditional Mantones de Manila (embroidered silk shawl), to the best Italian or Spanish shoes.

In Preciados street, we find the famous shopping center El Corte Ingles, which currently has expanded to a large section of the surrounding buildings and the clearly dominates the shopping area.

There are also innumerable fashion stores (Benetton, Zara,…) that always seem to be full of people eager to buy. In this area, the crowds never let up during opening hours.

At the end of Preciados, reaching Callao plaza, we find FNAC, one of the biggest music and book stores in the city.

If we continue our walk through the area, we cannot forget the cosmopolitan and always busy Gran Via, where we find many first class stores and where we can find that precious porcelain by Lladro.

On this street we can find clothing, souvenir and accessory shops mixed in with cinemas, bars, hotels, and foreign currency exhange offices, due fundamentally to the great abundance of tourists that concentrate in this area.

If we get away a little from the area, toward the lower part of Gran Via, and after passing Plaza Espana, where we can contemplate the statue in commemoration of Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (author of Don Quijote), we enter in yet another commercial street, the Calle de la Princesa. This is also surrounded by shops on both sides, and with abundant shopping centers on a smaller scale than those previously mentioned (they belong to the chain of stores called 'Multicentros') where we can find the latest in fashion.

The street contains the second of the El Corte Ingles (of six that are currently in the city) and at the end of its path, we enter the heart of the Ciudad Universitaria and the palace of the Comandancia General del Ejercito del Aire (Airforce headquarters).

Going toward the north end of the capital, we also find a typical shopping area-Calle Bravo Murillo-the busiest part starts from Cuatro Caminos Plaza.

The quality of product is perhaps a bit worse than that of Gran Via, but it is still good, and it lets you save a bit of money. Just like in any other part of the city, you can find almost any product you need.

At the end of this long street, we will see the Plaza de Castilla, where the Torres KIO are found-a peculiar sight with its leaning towers that some have baptized 'Las Puertas de Europa' or the Gateway to Europe.

We cannot conclude this trip through the principal shopping areas without mentioning the most 'chic' part of Madrid: the Goya-Serrano area. Perhaps the most important signature fashions to be found in Madrid are on these two streets in the Salamanca neighborhood.

There you can enjoy the shops of the most important designers like Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste, Donna Karan, Channel, Gianni Versace, Gucci and more. Neither can we forget the renowned designers of our own country such as: Pedro del Hierro, Vittorio y Lucchino, Adolfo Dominguez, Hermenegildo Zegna, Agata Ruiz de la Prada, etc.

The majority of the shops concentrated on Serrano Street are situated between Maria de Molino and Puerta de Alcala. Besides boutiques, you can also find large department stores like El Corte Ingles.

The shops on Goya Street start at the intersection of Goya and Alcala and go to Plaza de Colon.

Beyond these shopping streets, we must not leave out the principal malls within the city:

La Vaguada M2, the biggest one, where around 350 shops in a large area are located along with all the complementary services. Plus, there is a level dedicated exclusively to leisure: cinema, bowling, discotheques, mini amusement park, and bars and cafes suitable to anyone's liking.

El Jardin de Serrano and the ABC Serrano, both in the up-scale Salamanca neighborhood, perhaps the best shopping centers for fashion.

Moda Shopping, where you will find many stores and complementary services. Pleasant and peaceful atmosphere where you will find top name brands.

Galeria del Prado, an elegant place, situated in the spacious annex to the Hotel Palace and organized within a pleasant space with tables for having a refreshment and resting. A select gallery which includes 39 stores from top-line signatures, hair salon, restaurant and bookstore.

Recent construction has added two new malls: El Centro Comercial Arturo Soria Plaza, in the center of the north end, and La Esquina del Bernabeu, in the surrounding of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.