11 Best Places to Shop in Mexico

Remarkable for its sheer enormity, the country's largest shopping mall is in the heart of the appropriately upscale (although a bit soulless) modern Santa Fe commercial district. Centro Santa Fe contains more than 500 shops and restaurants, a huge central ice-skating rink, a luxury multiplex cinema, and a kids theme park; it's also in immediate proximity to a giant convention center and several hotels. Anchor stores include some noted Mexican brands, including Casa Palacio, Liverpool, and El Palacio de Hierro, and you'll find a number of luxury boutiques, most of which have branches in Polanco or other more central neighborhoods. For ardent shopping enthusiasts, it's worth the 18-km (11-mile) trip from downtown. Until the Toluca–Mexico City commuter rail opens by the end of 2024, a car is the best way to get here.

This is the main shopping mall in the whole Puerto Vallarta–Riviera Nayarit area, offering 73,000 square feet of shopping on two floors and a magnificent view of the arriving cruise ships. This mall and the surrounding shops are mainly visited by cruise-ship passengers and Mexican out-of-towners looking for everything from sporting goods to clothing and housewares. Galerías Vallarta has restaurants, parking, a 12-theater cinema, and a fast-food court with the ubiquitous McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Chili's, and Starbucks.

The largest, newest, and most modern shopping mall in Puerto Vallarta, La Isla features top-shelf boutiques, gourmet restaurants, and VIP cinema theaters. Its only con is that it's outdoors, which makes it hard to walk around in the heat of the summer or during rainy days.

In the affluent Bosques de las Lomas neighborhood near Santa Fe, in the rolling hills west of the city center, this exclusive shopping mall stands out as much for its chic boutiques as for its location inside the iconic Arcos Bosques towers. They were designed by Teodoro González de León in 1996 and comprise two angular 35-story towers joined at the top by a four-story lintel. The shopping center isn't huge, but it contains an upscale food court and restaurants along with such retailers as Brooks Brothers, Kiehl's, and Lululemon.

This shopping mall is lively and full on weekends and evenings, even when others are dead. Its anchors are the Soriana supermarket and the second-floor casino. Surrounding these are tiny stores dispensing electronics, ice cream, fresh flowers, and more. This is also a good place for manicures and haircuts. Adding to the commercial center's appeal is the six-screen Cinemex movie theater.

An outdoor mall conveniently located across the street from San José del Cabo’s string of resorts, Plaza del Pescador offers guests an alternative to hotel dining. You'll find everything from sushi and gelato to tapas and a wine bar. Among the 25 shops and restaurants are a bookstore, jewelry store, fitness gym, and coffee shop.

One long block south of the airport, this mall has several banks with ATMs, a dry cleaner, a photo-developing shop, a pharmacy, a café, an Internet café, and several bars and shops. The whole place is anchored by the Mega Soriana supermarket and a McDonald's.

This small mall in the heart of the marina district is home to a number of fine-home-furnishing shops, several classy clothing boutiques, and, just behind it, a few good, casual restaurants.

Located within the Flora Farms grounds, The Shops is a series of (wait for it) shops that sell all kinds of things from organic produce from the farm to soap and body care products, including clothes, wines, and even jewelry. It’s a great place to grab a healthy snack or stock up on produce delivered daily from Flora’s local farm.

In the early 2010s, the 17th-century palace of the Miravalle family was turned into Centro's coolest hotel, which brought with it a collection of worthwhile shops arranged around its interior patios. The stores range from clothing stores like Casilda Mut, a tea shop, and a number of jewelry stores.

Set around a modern, attractive courtyard landscaped with cacti and succulents, this fashionable cluster of boutiques contains some shops worth seeking out, especially the contemporary Mexican fashion label Pineda Covalin, known for its colorful-print handbags, shoes, scarves, and neckties, and Casa Mendiola, with its selection of stylish housewares crafted by artisans from throughout the country. A jewelry shop and a couple of other clothiers round out mix, and there's also a café and rooftop bar, both of which have lovely settings if fairly ordinary food and drinks.