Stretching from the busy transport hub of Taksim Square, through Beyoglu and all the way down to the increasingly hip area Tünel, Istakal Cadessi is Istanbul’s busiest and liveliest shopping street. Once you’ve done the historic sights at Sultanahment – Topkaki Palace, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, and of course, the Grand Bazaar – this is where you want to be! Shopping (and eating and drinking!) your way along this fabulous bustling pedestrian street, the elegant old arcades and many fascinating...

While it has a long way to go before it catches up to Istanbul’s chicest shopping neighbourhood, Nisantasi, the tiny upmarket enclave of Akaretler looks set to provide some stiff competition in the future. For now, the elegant area comprises little more than a dozen or so exclusive designer stores – Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs and Marni to name a few – situated in three sets of recently renovated Ottoman-era row houses, lining two cobblestone streets which form a V. Istanbul’s newly opened W Hotel...

The Banyan Tree Phuket has one of the best hotel gift shops we’ve ever browsed in its Banyan Tree Gallery. If you like the divine Thai décor in your room – the silk cushions and bed throws, the Asian bed lamps, the striking silver vases and candlesticks, not to mention the enormous aromatic candles, you can buy it all at the Gallery. There’s even a bed with the beautiful bed linen you’ll find in your villa. Obviously that’s not going to fit in the carry-in, so instead you can choose from...

Aleppo’s labyrinthine souq is one of the Middle East’s most atmospheric and best for shopping. More authentic than Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, less touristy than Marrakesh’s souqs, and nowhere near as hassly as Cairo’s spruiker-riddled markets, Aleppo’s is a living-breathing souq where locals shop and where it’s still possible to pick up a bargain. Popular buys include textiles, tablecloths and cushion covers. Traditional jalabiyas, the long colourful local dresses, are ideal for lazing around the...

Buenos Aires’ Avenida Santa Fe may be best known for its ritzy shopping at the Retiro-Recoleta end, its chic fashion, shoes and accessories in Barrio Norte and Palermo, and its bargain basement finds the closer you get to La Rural, but squeezed in among the mainstream franchises and leather goods stores of Recoleta and Barrio Norte are two very groovy shopping arcades, Galeria 5t Avenida at 1270 and Galeria Bond Street at 1670 Avenida Santa Fe. These grungy, fluoro-lit, graffiti-walled...

If the atmospheric old literary favourite, Richmond café, gets you in the mood for reading some local literature, head to Latin America’s largest bookstore in the spectacular Grand Splendid theatre, El Ateneo (4813 6052), on swish shopping street Avenida Santa Fe. Built in 1919, the rundown theatre was saved, restored, and transformed into this majestic bookshop where the plush boxes have been turned into wonderful reading nooks and the stage is now an excellect café. Spanish readers will go...

Whimsical women’s boutique Cat Ballou is currently the cat’s miaow in Buenos Aires. Owned by two of BA’s most beloved designers, Alicia Goñi and Florencia Panelo de Pières (Parsons’ grads), the chic boutique on elegant Avenida Alvear in ritzy Recoleta (4811 9792) specialises in feminine boho style that would be more at home in San Telmo or Palermo Hollywood. The pretty, idiosyncratic and – dare we say it? – postmodern frocks hanging on the racks when we recently popped in reminded us of dresses...

San Telmo is cool in a very rough-around-the-edges way – it’s like Williamsburg (NY) or Newtown (Sydney) were ten years ago. There are scores of little boutiques featuring innovative fashion by up-and-coming young fashion designers, along with shops selling casual tees and funky street gear, and pre-loved and vintage clothes stores. Bu the charm of the place is that they peek out between plumbing shops, makeshift fruit and vegetable stands, dingy bars, and traditional dirt-cheap parillas...

Palermo, and its sub-barrios of Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood, must be the most written- and blogged-about shopping barrio in Buenos Aires (more on the Palermos from us next week; in the meantime whet your appetite at the JC Report), and as much as we love them, we prefer San Telmo. The cobblestone streets of San Telmo are a wonderful place to stroll and shop on a weekend, when calle Defensa – antique/collectables/vintage central – and its side streets are blocked to traffic. But the...

Dubai and Abu Dhabi may well have a well-deserved reputation for having some of the world’s best shopping, with their glam malls, fab boutiques, sleek designer stores and atmospheric souqs, but outside of the cities, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any store with anything worth buying at all. That is unless you live on a date palm farm in the desert. Having said that, we think the typical dusty roadside grocery stores, like this one pictured at Liwa oasis, do have a certain charm. This is where...