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Beverly Center is located at 8500 Beverly Blvd just off of
N. La Cienega, just south of Melrose Ave. This "super" shopping center takes up
a huge amount of room and is completely surrounded by La Cienega Blvd,
3rd Street, San Vicente Blvd, and Beverly Blvd. It is one of Los
Angeles' premier shopping centers. You can spend literally hours in here
shopping all the high end shops and yes we've done it! The design of Beverly Center is
nice in that the parking garages integrate very nicely with each
level of this center.
The Beverly Center is located on the west side of the road
and contains over 160 fancy high end shops. Great
clothes shopping here! A huge Macy's anchors one end of the complex with
Bloomingdales on the other side. A large movie theatre is located towards
the top of the mall. Parking is free and is in a garage next to the actual mall.
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You can also park at meters on La Cienega and its a short
walk to Macy's. Open M-F from 10-9pm, Saturday 10-8pm and Sunday
11am-6pm. Visit:
www.beverlycenter.com
If you enjoy African art, visit
Massa Musa, a
unique classy store located at
8741 W 3rd St, just
west of Beverly Center. They
bill themselves as "a sanctuary for the spirit". A two room collection
highlights some beautiful pieces, mostly from Western Africa. Visit
www.massamusagallery.com
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Beverly Hills - parts of wide Wilshire Blvd have some very
nice shopping - including the 9700 area blocks with Neiman
Marcus and Sak's Fifth Avenue.
Most stores don't
allow dogs inside, but not these stores, where little purse poodles
and pocket Chihuahua's are common. Shopping for handbags? You
can easily spend up to $40,000 per hand bag with many in the
cases coming in the $15,000 to $20,000 range. The most popular
designers have their own rooms within the store dedicated to
their products. Also view additional
Beverly Hills info here.
- Robertson Blvd
- Several blocks of Robertson Ave starting at about 4 blocks
north of Wilshire is an upscale trendy shopping district.
This area is also less than 1/2 a mile from the Beverly
Center (as described above). You may see some name brand
shops in this area but name brand shopping is not as common
here as in other more well-known shopping districts of
Beverly Hills...as say Rodeo Drive. The highlights here are
high end boutique stores. Looking for t-shirts made in India
for $150 to $200 per shirt? You can find them here!
This is an area of Beverly Hills where sometimes celebrities
are seen shopping - in tow with Paparazzi hanging on their
every move. We travel with a large camera and while hanging
out in a nearby gas station we had several people ask if we
were following celebrities including one mother daughter
team who had driven up from San Diego to this particular
section of Beverly Hills just to try and spot the "stars".
Regardless of whether you see any stars or not, you will see
some very fashionable dressed shoppers, maybe a Chihuahua or
two and a number of very expensive items for sale.
For those who are looking for name brand purses and bags but
don't want to spend the very high prices $3000 to $25,000+
consider a stop at "I Want That Bag", an authentic
bag reseller located at
464 S. Robertson Blvd - Phone: (310) 274-9696. They have
a very good selection of hand bags, all of which look quite
new and upon close inspection we could not see they had been
used. A number of celebrities bring their bags into this
store on consignment.
The well-known Kitson has several locations on Robertson Blvd
including at 115 N. Robertson - Visit:
www.shopkitson.com
and view some of our pictures of Robertson Blvd directly below.
- Rodeo Drive, one
of Beverly Hills most famous attractions is an exclusive
collection of high priced well known urban fashion shops
(clothing, jewelry, purses, & other boutique stores). The actual
length of Rodeo Drive is merely 3 blocks - but it is crammed
with sophistication and pricey wares. Want to see shirts for
thousands of dollars - well, you can in certain shops in this
area. You enter and exit the shopping area on Rodeo Drive via
stairs that lead up to the actual shops - which almost looks
like a movie set. Dressy clothing not required to walk through
this area - many tourists are here during certain times of the
year. Good photo ops at these locations. Want free parking for two
hours? Then park in the valet parking garage located under the fancy Two
Rodeo Center. Rodeo Drive is right off of Wilshire Blvd in Beverly
Hills. |
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Citadel Outlets (Los Angeles' first factory outlet
center) are located in the city of Commerce just off the 5 freeway near
Atlantic and Eastern Avenues. Huge impressive castle walls built in 1929
stand in front of all the shops and are easily seen from the 5 freeway.
These walls stood in for part of the filming of the movie, Ben Hur.
These outlets are located just north of the tall Commerce Casino
(www.commercecasino.com).
Recently huge LED screens were installed on top of the walls providing
advertising to the thousands of cars that drive by each day. For more
information about the Citadel Outlets please visit:
www.citadeloutlets.com |
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Fashion Island
is located in Newport Beach close to highway 1 (PCH)
at 401 Newport Center Drive. This very upscale shopping "island"
features a Bloomingdales and a Neiman Marcus. Great mix of outdoor
walkways and a large variety of shops. Visit:
www.shopfashionisland.com
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The famous
Grove Shopping Center
is
located in Los Angeles at 189 The Grove Drive within about a
mile of the areas other super shopping center (The Beverly
Center). Phone (888)
315-8883 or visit:
www.thegrovela.com
This is on our list of must "to do's" for our next visit to town
and we will update this review and provide photos at that time. |
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Intuition
is a boutique store popular with celebrities and is
located at 10581 W. Pico Blvd -
www.shopintuition.com
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Irvine Spectrum is a huge shopping complex located right
where the 5 and 405 freeways meet in Orange County. You can exit at
Alton Parkway from the 5 freeway. More information visit:
www.shopirvinespectrumcenter.com
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The
huge Promenade at the Howard Hughes Center is literally located
right next to the raised 405 freeway south just 10 minutes from LAX.
Take the Howard Hughes exit. Theatres and a
multitude of shops can satisfy even the most sophisticated shopper.
Lots of parking and lots of shops to fill up your entire day. An
open air food courtyard is located in the center of this
Promenade. From the 2nd floor you have excellent views of the
angry 405 freeway which sits literally next door. Visit
www.hhpromenade.com for more information and browse our photos below.
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Market Place is located in the heart of Orange County in Tustin just
off of the 5 freeway near Jamboree Ave - you can see it from this
freeway. Visit:
www.shopthemarketplace.com |
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Melrose Ave west of La Cienega
almost all the way to where it
hits Santa Monica Blvd has some very nice looking eclectic shops. These
shops considered Lower Melrose cater to the younger crowd. The shops on
Upper Melrose typically east of Fairfax Ave are for the 40's and above
crowd. |
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Sherman Oaks Galleria is located right
near the intersection of the 405 and 101 freeways - you can
see this huge complex from the freeways. This shopping
center reached cult status in the 1980's as it was featured
in the movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, starring Sean
Pean with appearances by Nicholas Cage and Forest Whittaker.
In part the Horror movie, Chopping Mall was filmed here as
well as parts of the Beverly Center. "Like oh my God" - ever
wonder where this phrase came from - its from Frank Zappa's
song in which he mentions the Sherman Oaks Galleria. This
mall closed for a major renovation in the late 90's which
completely changed its look. We first visited this mall
right after it re-opened in 2002. More info - visit
www.shermanoaksgalleria.com |
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Sunset Plaza is located on 8600 to 8700 block of Sunset Blvd and
features current European and American designers. This area of Sunset
Blvd is very fancy and contains many high end shops on both sides of the
street. Nice outdoor cafes are also located here. |
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Third Street Promenade is located in
Santa Monica only minutes walking to the beaches and the
Santa Monica Pier. This area is worth visiting for its
upscale shopping and unique street entertainers. Third
Street is closed to traffic which makes this a great walking
district.
Visit:
www.thirdstreetpromenade.com |
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Westfield has several shopping centers in the Los Angeles
Metropolitan area - we recommend the Westfield Century City located at
10250 Santa Monica Blvd just down from the Avenue of Stars. This is a
huge shopping complex with many high end shops, dining and a large movie
theatre complex. More information about this particular shopping center:
http://westfield.com/centurycity/index.html or visit their main site
here:
www.westfield.com |
About
Dave's Pick