Message: I'm due to fly out to NYC on 19 June with my girl friend for a 4 night stay. Apart from taking in the wonderful sights, we would also like to do a spot of shopping, as everyone talks about NYC being the shopping capital! Can you suggest the bests places to go to buy cut price designer clothes, Levi's jeans, perfumes and cosmetics.

Also any suggestions as to places to go on an evening.... we quite like to live the life as the Sex in the City girls, but nothing too pretentious.

Thanks in advance.
Tracy, England

Tracy, for shopping do a text search of this forum and you'll find dozens of threads.

For nightlife, visit Citysearch or www.sheckys.com. Also, there are websites that list some of the bars where Sex & the City filmed.

Enjoy NYC!

Century 21 is a large discount store all the way downtown near Chinatown. You have to have lots of patience and hit it right. By doing a search as Gekko suggests, (try discount shopping in nyc) you'll find lots more info. I'm not sure about perfume & cosmetics. Sephora is a very popular chain but I think you have that in the UK too, although the exchange rate will work in your favor here.

I don't think you'll find discount Levi's except at one of the discount shopping malls outside the city. Woodbury Commons is a very popular mall for designer discounts. There are buses from Port Authority terminal that take you there. If you do a text search here, you'll find more info,. Not sure they have a Levi store there either though. I think you'll find between the strong exchange rate of the GBP vs the dollar, Levi's at a regular Levi store are very affordable.

Places to go in the evening is such a huge question there's no way to begin. When you add not too pretensious it gets more complicated. Here's a URL to New York Magazine's website for new places
http://nymetro.com/nightlife/

Cut price designer clothes is what Century 21 specializes in. They're still not cheap, but they're slashed from the original price. There is one section of the upstairs women's department that has the big names and Italian designers. Be prepared -- it's a zoo.

Try Bluefly.

Has Bluefly opened a store or do you mean the website?

You'll find several stores selling Levi's at great prices on Broadway north of Canal, particularly on the east side of Broadway. No need to venture to the suburbs!

Also search this forum for nightlife advice (or click "Gekko" to see all of my posts -- I know I've posted lists of great venues in the past, particularly in the East Village and on the Lower East Side).

Thanks for posting your advice guys, now starting to get really excited about my first trip to the States! (staying at the Ramada New Yorker)

With regards to the shopping advice, Century 21 does sound a little chaotic, we may risk it on the day, but will see how things go. Checked the website for bluefly, looks good. Is this just one department store or are there a few scattered around the area? A friend of mine say that we should venture to some of the boutiques near Ground Zero, as there are some bargains to get there... do you know these? Where's Woodbury Common - is it near any major tourist attraction so we can plan our itinerary effectively?

Also checked sheckys.com and nymetro sites... so many places to chose from! Can you recommend any particular bar? We are not beer drinkers, more win & spirit drinkers and want to sample the odd cocktail or two (typical girls eh!), Quite like like to visit a nice wine bar during our stay. Are most of the nice bars in the same area or do we have to catch cabs to get from one to the other.

So many questions.... sorry!

Thanks again for help.

Tracy

On the Lower East Side, check out Punch & Judy for a great wine selection. Also Bar Veloce. (Use Shecky's.)

Enjoy!

Just got from NYC and one bar we wanted to go to but never made it to is called:
Pravda. It gets good reviews on this site for cool atmosphere and fun martinis. It is on Lafayette street, I think.

I'll try to answer some of your questions. I didn't realize Bluefly had a store. It's been a website for a while. After xxx16 posted, I did a website to discover they did a store for the holidays. If they now have a permanent store, it will be one, not a few.

H & M is very popular for well priced clothes here but probably not a big deal for you.

Woodbury Commons is an hour outside of NYC. Here's the website

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7

I haven't been but I think it may be near West Point (our Naval Academy) but if you go via the bus, that's not an option to visit.

We don't have wine bars the way you do. There are nice bars all over the city. One of the trendiest areas right now is the meatpacking district which borders Greenwich Village and Chelsea. Stella McCartney has a boutique there. There's a brand new hotel called the Gansevoort that has a rooftop bar. There are a number of other restaurants in the area which is relatively small.

Pravda is a once-great subterranean Russian martini bar on the east side of Lafayette just south of Houston Street and the Puck Building, across from Puck Fair (a good pub). Pravda isn't the scene it used to be, and the crowd reflects it.

But the drinks are great and you can call ahead to reserve a table.