Downtown Los Gatos
One of our favorite places for shopping and window shopping is around Santa Cruz ave in Los Gatos. It's a small section of the street (between Main st. and Saratoga Ave.), packed with small boutiques with unique merchandise.
We always love browsing the hangers, getting up to date on what's going on. Most of the items are quite expensive, but sometimes, if we're lucky, we find either a great piece on sale or another one that is worth its price.
Fillmore st, San Francisco
Fillmore street, San Francisco is one of our favorite places for shopping. It is a small section of the street, between Clay and Bush streets. There are not many chain stores here, most of the stores are unique with no more than a couple of branches. Merchandise is exquisite. So are the prices. It is not the place for your everyday items, but it's definitely the place to find real gems.
We love to check what's new at Marc by Marc Jacobs. When we need a present we go to Zinc details. Some of the finest clothing can be found at mio and if you fancy body care, try Jurlique.
When we're tired or broke or both, we stop at one of the nice restaurants for a quick lunch or coffee.
Santana Row, San Jose
Santana Row is one of the most fashionable shopping and entertaining centers in our area. It's one small stretch of street with a European style, located just across the Valley Fair shopping mall on the corner of Winchester Blvd and Stevens Creek Blvd.
There are several chain stores in the area - Anthropologie has a huge store, Ann Taylor LOFT as well. There is a Borders store, a relatively small H&M store and more.
Scattered between the big stores and also in the cross streets you can find small boutiques and exclusive stores. When you get tired of the extensive shopping and need some rest - there are several restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops in the area.
Stanford Shopping Center
One of the best shopping centers in the area is Stanford Shopping Center. It's an open air high-end center, with the atmosphere of a town plaza more than a mall. You'll find many well-known brands and upscale stores represented here.
There are the big department stores, like Macy's and Bloomingdale's. There are all the apparel and accessories stores you'd expect - Gap and Nine West, together with the more expensive ones like Michael Kors and Kate Spade. There is a huge Crate & Barrel and even several electronics brands like Apple and Bang & Olufsen.
The place is well designed and gives you the feeling of a promanade. It is surrounded with greenery.
There are several cafes and restaurants here. Our favourite is the La Baguette bakery, where we get a good ham&cheese baguette and a capuccino, and then sit in the adjacent courtyard for a quick lunch.
Valley Fair Mall
Valley Fair is a popular upscale mall, located in San Jose. It features well known brand names - Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Aldo and many more. There are also big departement stores like Macy's and Nordstrom.
In case apparel is not what you're looking for you can also find here a big Restoration Hardware store, a nice Williams-Sonoma, Papyruss and basically almost everything you can think of.
The mall is large, with about 1.5 million square feet of stores. Although it doesn't feel threatening, probably thanks to the layout, if you want to taste it all you'll need to make some special time for that, maybe take the day off.....
We love going there for a morning of adventure, checking out what's new in our favorite stores, looking for sales. When tired we stop for lunch at the huge food court or the fancier Nordstrom Bistro. There are several coffee stands and a Starbucks, in case coffee is needed to keep you going.
University Ave, Palo Alto
Downtown Palo Alto is the place to be when looking for the boutiques-and-galleries experience along with European style cafes. The best part is along University Avenue between High street and Webster street and on the cross streets on this stretch.
You can feel the vibrant atmosphere especially at lunch and dinner time when everyone - students, business people, tourists and local residents head into one of its many great restaurants and cafes.