Shopping Tours in NYC

And what better city for shopping than New York? You can go bargain-basement on Canal Street for fake Louis Vuitton bags. You can window-shop along the poshest department stores and boutiques along Fifth Avenue. You can pick up trends and style tricks months before they hit Pittsburgh.

But what if you only have two days, and you want to come home with a closet-full of new clothes or a few stand-out designer pieces, and you don't mind the resulting credit card debt? A fashion tour of New York can help you best use your precious shopping time.

No one made shopping in the city look more fun than Carrie Bradshaw and company. If you'd like to follow in their Manolo Blahnik footsteps, Screen Tours offers a three-hour Sex and the City special. For thirty-five bucks, you can tell-all with your girlfriends across a table at the infamous coffee shop, or take a break on Carrie's front steps. Most importantly, though, you can browse the ladies' designer shoe meccas, such as the Jimmy Choo boutique Carrie frequents.

To truly hit the stores like a native, Shop Gotham offers walking tours of various areas of the city, ranging from two to five hours and $30-$80. They also give you a discount card for nearby restaurants and stores (Triple Five Soul is one of the standouts) you can use for three days. Get the goods on spots most tourists miss, like the Chelsea Flea Market's eclectic offerings of flowers and vintage clothes. For classic New York shopping, take the Manhattan Landmarks tour to breeze through Barney's, Saks, and Macy's (the world's largest department store). For hipper fashions, check out the Nolita and Soho tour, which comes complete with girly gossip about JLo and other celebrities' shopping habits. Your bank account may not forgive you, but your closet will be eternally grateful.

For a gal on a budget, a more sane option are the tours offered by Tightwad Treks. Their motto is “Dress like a diva…shop like a tightwad!”, and guide Pamela Parisi offers to help you get designer clothes for wholesale prices or less. Tightwad Treks are all multi-day walking tours, for groups or individuals. They offer several versions of the tours, divided by either where you want to shop, or what you want to find: the Garment Center, Uptown, or Accessories.

Make sure to do the Garment Center tour during the week—the district closes down on weekends. On this tour, for example, you'll peruse sample sales of designer showrooms of Michael Kors, Max Mara, Ralph Lauren, and Cynthia Rowley. You'll also get a list of current sales and happenings around the city for after the tour. And even if you can't find anything, you've had a brisk walk to get acquainted with the city that never sleeps, but always wears fabulous shoes.

For more info. on the Sex and the City Tour, check out http://www.screentours.com/tour.php/satc/,
for Shop Gotham, http://www.shopgotham.com/, and
for Tightwad Trek shopping tour, http://www.theeleganttightwad.com/treks.html

-Sarah Zoe Wexler

This article can also be found archived at Pittsburgh Fashion.