excellent retail therapy (Shopping Areas in Cardiff)

Member Name: princesshotpants

Product:	Shopping Areas in Cardiff
Date:	06/11/08 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: many shops, car free for many areas, nice looking shopping street

Disadvantages: none

This is a review about my personal shopping experience in Cardiff, there are 2 main shopping streets with little places in between the town centre; there's Queenstreet, which is a car-free zone and High/St. Mary Street, there used to be cars and busses allowed in this area but in the last 2 years, cars have been banned and only busses and taxi's are allowed. High/St. Mary Street have had their pavements widened and there are now loads of benches and trees where people can sit by. It's quite a strange sight as there used to be car lanes where the benches are now.

So, shopping in Cardiff for me has always been a pleasant experience, they have loads of shops and practically every shop I'll ever need to get to. As well as your mainstream shops like Topshop, MAC and Boots, there are department stores like Debenhams and House of Fraser and there are a few independent and less mainstream shops in the arcades.

Cardiff's shopping centre will be expanded very soon (September 2009), as they're building a new shopping complex where there will be a John Lewis' and loads of other shops. This will definitely add to my shopping pleasure as there will be even more shops for me to browse.

Getting through Cardiff city centre and all it's shops can take anything from a quick half an hour or less nip into town to pick up something specific, to hours and hours of browsing and window shopping pleasure.

Aside from all the clothes, beauty, furniture and electicals shops I love to browse, there are also loads of places to grab a bite to eat or sit and relax with a nice cup of coffee. There are 3 Starbucks, 3 Burger Kings, a KFC, McDonals, Weatherspoons and many other pubs, restaurants and bars you can eat and drink at during the day. There are many pubs and clubs for during the evenings as well (but I won't be elaborating on these in this review as they're not relevant to daytime shopping trips).

All in all, Cardiff has pretty much every shop I need in its town centre and then there are the large super markets and furniture shops like Ikea down Cardiff Bay, which is only about a 5 minute drive from Cardiff town centre.

I really enjoy shopping in Cardiff and would strongly advise anyone who hasn't been there yet to try it, it's very nice and has so many shops, you can definitely spend an afternoon browsing and shopping. Also, for those rainy afternoons, you can just stay in any of the arcades and spend your shopping time there in the warm and dry.

Summary: cant think of a better place to spend my shopping time