All posts in category SHOPPING

Craft Shopping in Nicaragua

Masaya Crafts Market, Nicaragua

Masaya craft market, Nicaragua

Like Guatemala, Nicaragua boasts a particularly rich handicraft tradition. Fine examples can be found in Granada’s boutiques, but we had more fun shopping in the sprawling old market of Masaya, a small city halfway between Managua and Granada.

Like many historic buildings in Nicaragua, the 19th-century Mercado Viejo has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times, yet it still offers an atmospheric setting in which to browse countless craft stalls. Shopping here turned out to be refreshingly low-key. Pleasant vendors may greet you as you pass, but there is no high-pressure pitch to browse their wares, nor is extended haggling required to bring prices down to earth. It’s quite a contrast to the bazaars of Turkey and the souks of Morocco!

We were particularly taken by the ceramics from nearby San Juan de Oriente. These pots and vases in various sizes and colors have ornately incised decorations in traditional animal and geometric motifs. Our carefully packed finds were sturdy enough to make it home in one piece. Other stalls presented rainbows of handpainted wooden masks, cheerful paintings of hilly coffee plantations and island villages, and serving pieces hewn from local hardwoods. Those with ample luggage space should consider purchasing a handwoven hammock, a heavy but high-quality souvenir.

We stopped in Masaya en route from Managua’s airport to Morgan’s Rock, but if we’d had more time, we would have opted for the excursion offered by Jicaro Island Ecolodge, which includes a visit to the market as well as two of the neighboring craft villages.

Read more about our recent visit to Nicaragua in the June 2012 Hideaway Report.

Masaya Craft Market, Nicaragua

Masaya craft market, Nicaragua

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by andrewharpertravelblog on June 11, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on June 11, 2012

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Austin’s Chic 2nd Street District

La Condesa

Adjacent to picturesque Lady Bird Lake, 2nd Street has swiftly become one of Austin’s most popular food and shopping districts. Officially, the district stretches from 3rd Street to Caesar Chavez, and Colorado Street to San Antonio Street. The best time to visit is during Sunday brunch, or in the evenings, when its tree-lined promenade teems with locals catching up with friends over margaritas. Austin prides itself on being “local,” and well over half of the design stores, boutiques and restaurants here are home grown. They coordinate with the district to put on art and cuisine series like Wine Down Wednesday and 2nd Sundays.

A central attraction here is the new Austin City Limits Live Studios, which sits at the intersection of Willie Nelson Boulevard and 2nd Street. Based in the W Austin Hotel and Residences, the acoustically enhanced venue is a welcome upgrade from its previous location on the University of Texas campus. Well-known design stores in the area include Bang & Olfusen, Design within Reach, and BoConcept, while boutiques like Estilo and Eliza Page focus on unique clothing and jewelry finds.

Where to Eat and Drink:

La Condesa offers sophisticated central Mexican cuisine, including small plates like Atύn Tostadas and Hamachi Ceviche. One could spend the better part of an afternoon here sipping a Classica Margarita while watching the 2nd Street strollers. After dinner, head upstairs from La Condesa to Mal Verde for a hand crafted specialty cocktail such as an El Cubico with tobacco-infused Sauza Hornitos Reposado or a Spicy Paloma made with fresh grapefruit-ginger juice.

Trace, a farm-to-table restaurant on the ground floor of the W Austin Hotel, has a well-regarded brunch, or you can enjoy a cocktail on the veranda here before catching a show at ACL.

Jo’s, an Austin institution since it first opened on South Congress in 1997, serves iced lattes and cappuccinos in a patio setting, and Royal Blue Grocery is a friendly gourmet corner shop with outdoor seating.

Second Bar & Kitchen

Sister restaurants Second Bar & Kitchen and Congress are a few streets over from the center of the district. Second Bar & Kitchen offers more casual fare like the Congress Burger with black truffle pomme frites. The sophisticated three or seven course menus at Congress include dishes such as beef tartare and seared scallops with pork belly. Reservations are key, although you can always wander down the street for a cocktail while you wait.

Complimentary parking (with validation) can be found at City Hall Monday through Friday until 5 pm. For a detailed map of the area, list of vendors and upcoming events see the 2nd Street District website.

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by andrewharpertravelblog on June 10, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on June 10, 2011

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The San Francisco Ferry Building

Copyright And One Half Images

The San Francisco Ferry Building’s latest incarnation as a gourmet marketplace has lasted just eight years, but it feels like it’s been around for much longer. Much like New York’s High Line, it was widely hailed as an instant classic on the day it opened, and continues to evolve, improve and delight.

During its zenith in the 1930s, 50,000 people a day rushed through the Ferry Building’s vast skylit Grand Nave. It was second in traffic only to London’s Charing Cross Station. New highways, bridges and railways in the last half of the century led to a slow decline.

A hideous elevated freeway that blocked it from view and severed pedestrian traffic from Market Street didn’t help matters. The freeway was demolished after the 1989 earthquake, and ten years later the city accepted bids for an ambitious $110 million dollar redevelopment project.

And so in 2003 a star was born. Dozens of local butchers, creameries, vintners and confectioners hung their shingles along with 175,000 square feet of gleaming new office space. The ferries continued to operate, transporting 11,000 commuters a day, but now their passengers could pick up sweet baguettes at Acme Bread Company and chunks of chèvre from the Cowgirl Creamery.

The Ferry Building is also justly renowned for perhaps the mother of all farmer’s markets, which caters to thousands of people on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The best day to visit is Thursday, when the street food fare includes Korean pork tacos, fresh lox sandwiches, green tea lemonade and scoops of guava sorbet.

Browse the aisles at Sur La Table or Book Passage, then steel yourself with a Blue Bottle espresso before setting out for a brisk afternoon constitutional along the Embarcadero. For a pleasant evening of jazz and sushi, I recommend a sunset ferry ride across the bay to Jack London Square for dinner at Yoshi’s.

Free walking tours are offered at noon on Saturdays and Tuesdays, to coincide with the farmer’s market. Validated parking is available at the Washington Embarcadero Lot directly across from the Ferry Building. On Saturdays the farmer’s market offers a clever “veggie valet” service that holds perishables so that shoppers can continue browsing.

-A.H.

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by andrewharpertravelblog on June 7, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on June 7, 2011

https://andrewharpertravelblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/the-san-francisco-ferry-building/

Ojai, California: Pretty as a Picture

Ojai Clock Tower

Ojai Clock Tower Copyright Joe Virnig

A recent trip to California concluded with a weekend gathering of friends to celebrate an “ending-in-zero” birthday. Most of the festivities were in Santa Barbara, with a smaller event in nearby Ojai. Santa Barbara is a place we know and love, and we have been fortunate to stay at the elegant Simpson House Inn, the Canary Hotel, the distinguished Four Seasons The Biltmore and and the superlative San Ysidro Ranch. But Ojai was new to us.

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by andrewharpertravelblog on March 3, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on March 3, 2011

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Handicraft Shopping in Bangkok

Thai Silk

Thai Silk, Copyright Christopher B. Shay

As the walls and shelves of our house house will confirm, Bangkok is full of wonderful shopping opportunities, particularly with regard to silks, gemstones, jewelry and handicrafts. But finding the quality shops takes some effort — they’re frequently buried in vast commercial complexes and at first glance tend to appear profoundly unremarkable. On a recent short trip to the city, we focused primarily on handicrafts, but also had a welcome run-in with several square yards of silk creations.

As always, Bangkok shoppers should exercise a healthy amount of skepticism, especially when it comes to handicrafts and antiques. More and more forgers are turning their talents toward certificates of authenticity. As we are no expert in these matters, we have devised a simple rule of thumb: If it is something we really like, and it doesn’t look like it came out of a factory, and the price seems reasonable, we will buy it. We came away with purchases from five establishments that we can confidently recommend.

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by andrewharpertravelblog on August 19, 2010  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on August 19, 2010

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Shopping on New Orleans' Magazine Street

Sucre, New Orleans

Sucre, New Orleans

The French Quarter has long dominated the shopping scene in New Orleans, and for good reason. It has a superb collection of antique stores and intriguing shops specializing in everything from toy soldiers to out-of-print cookbooks. Over the past few years, however, an interesting rival has emerged: Magazine Street.

Named after an ammunition magazine that existed here during colonial times, the thoroughfare begins west of Canal Street, then meanders along the curve of the Mississippi through the business district, the Garden District and Uptown before concluding at Audubon Park. The entire six-mile stretch is too far to walk, so we have focused on the stretch between Jackson and Louisiana streets, which is easily manageable.

If you are a poky shopper you can easily spend a morning here. These are the places we most enjoyed; those with even-numbered addresses are on the south side of the street, with the odd-numbered stores on the north side. Take a taxi to Magazine and Jackson to begin your wandering.

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by andrewharpertravelblog on August 3, 2010  •  Permalink
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Shopping on New York's Bleecker Street

Bleecker Street in New York

Flickr Copyright one2c900d

New York is best known for its grand department stores and luxurious thoroughfares such as Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and West 57th Street. But there are times when the bustle is too much, and we look for a more forgiving alternative. We have found that on Bleecker Street in the West Village. The stretch between Abingdon Square and West 10th Street is one of the most delightful parts of the city.

Just in the past several years, Bleecker has become one of the most sought-after boutique retail addresses in the world, with many overseas stores opening their first American or New York ventures there. Here, you will find a lot of big fashion names behind intriguing one-off shops. Here are some places we have particularly enjoyed, proceeding east from Abingdon Square (even-numbered shops will be on the west side of the street, odd numbers on the east side).

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by andrewharpertravelblog on July 20, 2010  •  Permalink
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Posted by andrewharpertravelblog on July 20, 2010

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Shanghai Shopping Discoveries

Shanghai's Taikang Road

Shanghai's Taikang Road. Flickr Copyright Jakob Montrasio.

This historic trading city has long been a destination for avid collectors and shoppers. With its heady mix of skyscrapers and traffic gridlock, modern-day Shanghai can be a bit of a madcap place to navigate, so if you have limited time to do your shopping, it’s best to have some informed guidance.

 

“There are better deals in Shanghai than in Hong Kong these days,” she said as she led around the lesser known markets, fabric stalls and historic neighborhoods of Shanghai. Martin spends her days carefully vetting new shops while keeping tabs on the changing stock carried by favorite establishments. She has a wealth of insider knowledge about the city and has established relationships with local vendors (notably, she does not accept commissions).

“If you are getting something made, it’s a 50 percent chance that it will be good, even if you see a sample,” she explained. “You have to make sure that a shop has its own dedicated tailor with proven quality.”

We recently had just a few days in Shanghai, so we first stopped at a suit tailor’s stall at the Shanghai South Bund Soft-Spinning Material Market, on Lujiabang Road, to take measurements, decide on style (the tailor has a wealth of fashion magazines to peruse), and choose the fabrics and colors we preferred. Once we settled on our clothing picks — which included a three-piece suit and a Thai silk-lined cashmere coat — Martin kindly negotiated the price for all the items and a timeline for their manufacture that fit with our travel schedule. Miraculously, the clothing — elegant and beautifully made, with quality workmanship — was ready for final fitting and adjustments two days later. We were very happy with the results.

For solo wanderings, Martin also recommended Taikang Road, a cutting-edge art neighborhood on the south side of the French Concession that is an attractive and compelling mix of old and new. Its dense square block of winding pedestrian alleys is packed with a smattering of restored historic stone houses, classy boutiques, art galleries, sophisticated wine shops and little cafés and restaurants. The worldly Martin uses her knowledge and longtime relationships for her customers’ benefit — without a doubt increasing their shopping power.

East of the Sun — RMB1,000 per hour, plus RMB400 for a four-hour driver

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by andrewharpertravelblog on July 13, 2010  •  Permalink
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