Go shopping in Madrid – The best shopping areas
In addition to its museums and monuments, Madrid is famous for its shops, shopping centers and markets where you can find everything, for all economies and anywhere.
Shopping in Madrid is another important activity to do in the city.
Here we are going to talk about the main purchases that can be made in Madrid, the best areas to do it and some practical tips for tourism on the rise, shopping tourism, an activity that can be carried out 365 days a year.
What to buy in Madrid
In Madrid we can find many shops and shopping centers to go shopping.
We can find everything, from stores of the main and most important fashion designers to smaller ones with prices for all budgets but with quality clothing and footwear and for all tastes thanks to the variety of stores from the most elegant to the more alternatives.
Clothing and footwear are the main items you can buy in Madrid thanks to its wide range of shops.
Other products that you can buy in Madrid are books, software, movies or CDs as there are a wide variety of specialized stores and shopping centers that offer these products.
And another typical element of shopping in Madrid are the markets.
El Rastro is one of them, the most famous, and is held on Sundays and holidays.
There are also others that are held periodically in different neighborhoods in addition to the seasonal ones, such as the famous Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor.
In the Plaza de España it is also common to find craft markets. They could not miss the tourist product stores that are near museums or in the busiest streets.
The main places to buy in Madrid
In almost any area of Madrid you will find a store with something you need.
Scattered throughout the city you will find El Corte Inglés, the most famous department store in Spain. The Inditex Group, headed by Zara, is also found almost anywhere in the city.
The main commercial areas of Madrid are the following:
Buy in the central area of Madrid
It is the most touristic area and also one of the most commercial.
The surroundings of Puerta del Sol, Gran Vía or Plaza Mayor are ideal for buying all kinds of products at prices for all budgets.
Some of the streets are pedestrianized, which favors commerce and here you will find stores of the main chains mixed with stores that have seen time pass through their windows and are the history of the city.
The Salamanca District
If you are looking for clothes from the main designers and the best brands, this is your neighborhood, the most exclusive for shopping. We can highlight Velázquez, Goya, Ortega y Gasset and Serrano streets, filled with very expensive shops selling bags, accessories, footwear, clothing and jewellery.
Of course, we also find more affordable stores, but the charm of these streets is their expensive stores.
Chueca and Salamanca
This is the area where you will find the most modern and alternative shops. If you are looking for original and avant-garde clothes, you should walk through these streets, especially Fuencarral Street. And meanwhile you enjoy one of the most bohemian areas of the city.
Chamberi and Arguelles
e here we must highlight Calle Princesa, full of large and small shops and also the boulevards that begin with Calle Alberto Aguilera and end with Calle Génova, in Plaza de Colón
The trail
Located in the area between Lavapiés, Puerta de Toledo and Embajadores, it is the most important market in Madrid. We can enjoy it every Sunday and holidays between 9am and 3pm and what you won’t find here is that it doesn’t exist. Clothes, ceramics, music, video games, jewelry, painting, antiques and everything you can imagine are sold. And you can also sell.
The malls
They have spread, not only in Madrid but throughout Spain, in recent years and shopping centers have become entertainment, shopping and meeting centers for everyone.
In them there are numerous shops and restaurants (almost always the same in all the centers) as well as cinemas or bowling alleys.
They are usually on the outskirts of the city, so a car is essential, but there are also others within Madrid such as La Vaguada, Príncipe Pío, Fuencarral Market, ABC de Serrano or Moda Shopping.
Freedom of schedules in Madrid
For a few years there has been freedom of business hours in Madrid, so it is possible to make your purchases almost at any time and on any day.
That is why it is very difficult to give a guideline of business hours but as a general rule, small shops usually open in the morning from 10am to 2pm and in the afternoon from 5pm to 9pm.
The big stores have a continuous schedule and open between 9am and 10am until 9pm or 10pm.
On Sundays all the shops in the center and those in the shopping centers are open. In the rest of the city it is more difficult to find stores open on Sundays but depending on the place there are also some.
