A great place to shop for the day. (Shopping in York in general)

Member Name: LastLine

Product:	Shopping in York in general
Date:	07/06/09 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of shops,

Disadvantages: Very busy in peak times.

York is a bit of an oddity as far as shopping goes. It's got a weird mixture of big names and shops that you've never heard of, all of which blend together visually to maintain York's olde worlde look.

York is easily accessible by road or rail. If you arrive by train you have just a few minutes walk to either the main high street (passing by the best bacon butty shop ever on the bridge - make sure to stop and try it), or if you turn right heading out the station, Micklegate, a street that amongst students is known as the Micklegate Mile owing probably mostly to the fact it's about a mile long and mostly pubs!

Anyway if you go down Micklegate first as it does have a few boutique type shops you might find that special present for someone, or alternatively might just find a pub you fancy stopping in for a drink, in either case as it's all downhill from this side it's not a long walk. As you cross the bridge at the bottom of Micklegate you hit the town centre which is more or less where you'd have come out if you'd gone the other way anyhow.

On the two main street's in York you'll find a lot of typical high street names, Boots, WH Smiths, HMV, Game, Carphone Warehouse, nothing particularly exciting but kind of essential if you live in the city full time I guess! York's real beauty from a shopping point of view is all the little side streets, presumably the rent on these properties must be considerably lower because this is where you find what you really came for - the shops you don't find elsewhere. There's a wide range to choose from really, clothing shops for the everyday to the eccentric, little food eateries where you can get a quick snack, old fashioned sweet shops and of course plenty of places to get those tacky gifts you've got to take home for friends and family!

Of special mention is Bradley's jewellers on Petergate, as this is where my wife and I bought our wedding rings from, the service there was brilliant, really friendly staff and although I came away spending an arm and a leg, due to the care and interest shown I didn't feel robbed. Heck, they even remembered us by name when we picked the rings up a couple of months later. True service that is.

Anyway, of course if you're going shopping you're going to want somewhere to stop and eat sooner or later and York has more than a couple of places. It currently boasts over 365 pubs in the town (a common statistic used to draw in students is the fact that there are enough pubs to drink in a different one every day of the year) and a good number of these serve food. If you're going in the school holidays I advise you sit down in the first place that has seats and you can afford, if you are going at quieter times have a good wonder around first as there's a huge range of places to eat, of particular note I found a Cantonese buffet above where the main Boots store now resides (that or WH Smiths) which serves brilliant food.

Drinks wise most places are much of a muchness but if you pass Milkshack stop in for a Milkshake, they have an enormous range of flavours and you can pick any combination you like to be put together, for a price, watch the kids and the enumbers though - a Jelly baby and jaffa cake milkshakes might sound good on paper but wait for the sugar to kick in...

York also has a rather well sized outdoor market that's open all year around closing Christmas day and possibly Easter Sunday, from fresh fruit to phone chargers it's worth a look. It's also intermittently joined by farmer's and international markets the dates for which I'm sure can be found on York's tourist information site. These offer a great range of meats and cheeses amongst other things and can add that little something to your visit.

Overall York's a great place to go shopping, but you need to make sure you have time to go. Asides from the highlights in town it's worth remembering that you have two out of town complexes to visit. The first, Monks Cross, being your typical out of town retail park with the likes of PC World, ASDA, Boots, Smiths and many more being situated there. The second is a designer outlet, the name of which evades me at the minute but used to be known as McArthur Glenn (it's changed names a few times over the years) This one contains a lot of designer names at factory places but is mostly clothes orientated, still worth a look if you've come clothes hunting I suppose, but it never caught my fancy much.

Summary: The place to go for shopping in Yorkshire.