Portugal Info
Joined: 21 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
Home Country: portugal
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:40 pm Post subject: SHOPPING IN PORTUGAL |
 |
|
SHOPPING IN PORTUGAL
GENERAL
Shopping in Portugal is not so expensive in comparison with other European countries. The assortment isn't as extensive as in the neighbouring countries either. Everywhere in Portugal you can buy directly from the producer. It is not only for economic products, but also for arts and crafts, despite Portugal's modernisation. In the morning market which is held mostly in the centre of the town, one can buy the daily needs.
The shops are opened from 9.00a.m. to 7.00 p.m. and big supermarkets have usually opened 7 days a week from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.
SOUVENIRS/ GIFTS
Portugal has a fine tradition of handicrafts, most notably wickerwork, ceramics, embroidery, rugs, copper, brass, wrought iron, woodwork and leather. It is also popular for its leather goods, which mostly come from sheep and lambskins. Hundreds of shops all over the country sell leather jackets, coats, gloves, pocketbooks, wallets etc.
Filigree jewellery is another best buy, particularly from the Minho region in the north, where gold and silver threads are worked into fine, intricately designed brooches, earrings and pendants.
Artesanato Regional Português
One of the oldest handicraft shops in Lisbon, with a rich assortment of genuine hand made regional products displayed in 300 square metres of showrooms.
Praça dos Restauradores, 64
Loja dos Descobrimentos
Located right beside the Casa dos Bicos, this shop stocks a wide variety of regional Portuguese articles, especially hand-painted tiles and ceramics. Also has a workshop where you can watch a craftsman at work.
Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, 12- A.
Lisbon
Centro Colombo
Lisbon's largest shopping centre, this is a leisure complex rather than just a shopping centre, with a multiplex cinema, a health club, golf driving range, bowling alley, funfair and a karting track on the roof. Wheelchairs and pushchairs are available free and there are kiddycars for rent. The nursery, chapel and a breakdown service are downstairs by the car park.
Avenida Lusíada
1500-392 Benfica
Centro Vasco da Gama
A popular shopping destination that can be combined with a visit to the Parque das Nações, the former Expo site. Stores are conveniently clustered by type.
Avenida Dom João II
1990-094 Parque das Nações
Lisbon
MARKETS
Street markets are an integral part of Portuguese life. Most Portuguese towns and cities also have covered markets which are open in the mornings from Monday to Saturday, selling all sorts from fish and vegetables to handicrafts and clothes. Almost every smaller town and village has a weekly market. The majority take place in the morning, although in tourist areas they often continue into the late afternoon. Portugal's most famous market happens every Thursday in Barcelos in the north. Here, visitors can pick up all kinds of souvenirs, including locally made pottery, lace, embroideries and rugs.
Tuesday (and Saturday mornings) - Lisbon's most famous flea market, the Feira da Ladra held in the Alfama district, is good for antiques, bric-a-brac, jewellery, clothes etc.
Wednesday - Cascais
Thursday - Carcavelos
Saturday - Coimbra (on the last Saturday of the month), Estremoz (Saturdays), Lagos (first Saturday), Loulé (Saturdays), Albufeira (second Saturday)
Sunday - Portimão, Oeiras (first Sunday of the month), Sintra's Feira de São Pedro (second and fourth Sundays)
SHOPPING IN LISBON
Shops operate all over the city, but Baixa, in downtown Lisbon, is the major area for browsing. Rua Aurea (Street of Gold, the location of the major jewelry shops), Rua da Prata (Street of Silver), and Rua Augusta are Lisbon's three principal shopping streets. The Baixa shopping district lies between the Rossio and the river Tagus.
Rua Garrett, in the Chiado, is where you'll find many of the more up-market shops. A major fire in 1988 destroyed many shops, but new ones have arisen.
Antiques lovers gravitate to Rua Dom Pedro V in the Bairro Alto. Other streets with antiques stores include Rua da Misericórdia, Rua de São Pedro de Alcântara, Rua da Escola Politécnica, and Rua do Alecrim.
Regardless of where it's made -- from the Azores to the remote northeast province of Trás-os-Montes -- merchandise from all over Portugal ends up in Lisbon stores. But if you're going to a particular province, try to shop locally, where prices are often about 20% less than those in Lisbon. A general exception is the fabled handmade embroideries from Madeira; prices there are about the same as in Lisbon.
Products made of cork, which range from place mats to cigarette boxes, are good buys. Collectors seek out decorative glazed tiles. You also might find good buys in Lisbon in porcelain and china, in fishermen's sweaters from the north, and in fado recordings.
Intricately woven lightweight baskets make attractive, practical gifts. It's best to shop for handmade lace in Vila do Conde, outside Porto, where you get a better buy; many Lisbon outlets carry the lace as well.
The best buy in Portugal, gold, is strictly regulated by the government. Jewelers must put a minimum of 19.2 karats into the jewelry they sell. Filigree jewelry in gold and silver is popular in Lisbon and elsewhere in Portugal. The art of ornamental openwork made of fine gold or silver wire dates to ancient times. The most expensive items -- often objets d'art -- are fashioned from 19 1/4-karat gold. Filigree is often used in depictions of caravels. Less expensive trinkets are often made of sterling silver, sometimes dipped in 24-karat gold.
SHOPPING IN PORTO
Much of Porto's commercial space consists of shops that appeal mainly to residents and, except for their curiosity value, only rarely to international visitors. In recent years, many of these have clustered in shopping malls. The newest and most elegant are the Centro Comercial Peninsular, Praça do Bom Sucesso, and the particularly charming Centro Comercial Via Caterina. It's in the pedestrian zone of the city's most vital shopping street, Rua de Santa Catarina, at the corner of Rua Fernandes Tomar. The storefronts inside duplicate the facades you'd see in a folkloric village of northern Portugal.
If you're looking for the designer wares of noteworthy clothiers from France, Italy, and Spain, these malls will have them. Other shopping malls have a sometimes uneven distribution of upscale and workaday shops. They include the Centro Comercial de Foz, Rua Eugênio de Castro, which is adjacent to the sea and especially pleasant in midsummer, and the Centro Comercial Aviz, Avenida de Boavista, rather inconveniently located in the middle of the city's largest concentration of automobile dealerships. The big but seriously decayed Centro Comercial Brasilia, which is, to an increasing degree, being stocked with inexpensive manufactured goods from Asia, is on Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque. More chic and upscale, with a greater emphasis on clothing, furniture, and housewares, is the Centro Comercial Cidade de Porto, Rua do Bom Sucesso, whose shops are interspersed with restaurants, bars, movie theatres, and cafes.
The local showcase for the fabled Arraiolos carpets is Casa dos Tapetes de Arraiolos, Rua Santa Catarina 570 (tel. 22/205-48-16). The nubby, pure wool carpets of Portugal that teams of women spend hours crafting are sold here in all their glory. Look for symmetrical patterns that make full use of the subtle palettes of grays, blues, greens, and soft reds that have attracted non-Portuguese homeowners to these carpets for many generations.
Cutting-edge home furnishings, most of them in a minimalist Iberian style that evokes the best of the movida movement that swept over Spain after the death of Dictator Francisco Franco, are sold at Móvel, Rua 1 de Maio 243 (tel. 22/961-70-20). For high-quality leather ware, including suitcases, wallets, belts, briefcases, duffel bags, and handbags, go to Haity, Rua de Santa Catarina 212 (tel. 22/205-96-30). At Casa dos Linhos, Rua da Fernandes Tomás 660 (tel. 22/200-00-44), you'll find linen and embroideries -- many of them excellent examples of the exquisite handiwork that has traditionally been produced in the north of Portugal. A bookstore that has been cited as the most beautiful in Iberia, stocking a small percentage of its titles in English, is the Livrario Lello, Rua das Carmelitas 144 (tel. 22/201-81-70). Partly because of its inventories, but especially because of its lavish Art Nouveau design, this is the best-known and most prestigious bookstore in Porto. A fixture among readers in northern Portugal since around 1900, it has two floors of lavishly ornate iron and plasterwork, a small cafe on the second floor, and a staff that's congenial but impossibly slow. And if you're looking for any of the standard international perfumes, as well as more esoteric brands available for the most part only in Iberia, head for Perfumaria Castilho, Rua de Sá de Bandeira 80 (tel. 22/208-56-58).
Among voguish women's fashion designers, Ana Salazar, Rua Nova de Alfândega 65 (tel. 22/203-97-01), is the market leader. In Porto, she maintains a high-tech showroom with a minimum of architectural distractions. Here you'll find women's clothing that's sexy, clingy, and chic, at prices that are expensive compared to most other clothing outlets in Portugal but relatively reasonable when compared to the clothing of other designers in, let's say, Paris. In addition to office wear, eveningwear, and sportswear, you'll find bags, shoes, and other accessories. |
|
Register
Log in
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
