From the legendary Grand Bazaar to Akmerkez or Metrocity, ranked as the best shopping malls in Europe, to the stylish streets of Nisantasi and Bagdat Caddesi, Istanbul has what you're looking for. This colossal city on two continents is a shopper's treasure trove, complete with crowded markets and bazaars overflowing with goods of all kinds, skilled artisans, jewelers and metalworkers at every turn, leather producers, carpet sellers, handicrafters, and top brand name styles.

Despite the presence of world-class supermarkets and shopping centers, one of the best shopping venues in Istanbul remains the street market. Everyday of the week there is a street market somewhere, and often the range of goods is hard to beat even in the large modern shopping malls, not to mention the prices. These lively street markets are an age-old tradition in Turkey but appear to be in no threat of disappearing, and practically anything can be found there from clothes to ceramic plates, to cheese, olive oil, and spices, to pillows. One of the best street markets is the Ulus Pazar on Thursdays near Akmerkez, where export overruns of famous brands are a mainstay.

No trip to Istanbul is complete without a trip to the unforgettable Grand Bazaar. The oldest covered market in the world, the Bazaar has been bustling with commerce and treasured by bargain-hunters for centuries. Here you'll find over 4,000 shops, entire city blocks covered by vaulted ceilings and lined with an incomprehensible array, an entire street lined in gold and silver jewelery shops, another with the fantastic, and famous Turkish, Central Asian and Persian carpets, hundreds of handicrafts, painted tiles and ceramics shops, clothes of all sorts and styles, kilims, calligraphy, marbled paper, copper, inlaid wood, and leather goods of all kinds. The Grand Bazaar is a wonderful, sensation-filled place to spend an entire morning or afternoon, taking your time, admiring, and of course, practicing your bargaining skills with some of the most competitive merchants in the world.

Not too far from the Grand Bazaar is a market of another type, also very popular with visitors and locals alike, the Egyptian Bazaar, or Spice Bazaar. As its name implies, this is a fantastic place to find spices, nuts, fine caviar - local, Russian, and Iranian, the best in the world, and foodstuffs of all kinds and at affordable prices. Like the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar also has its own vibrant pace and colorful atmosphere, and therefore makes for an interesting visit of its own right.

For a less typical, perhaps more upscale shopping experience, Istanbul, a crucial stop on the trade routes for centuries and still a textiles superhub, certainly has its share of modern style. The wide boulevards of Bagdat Caddesi on the Asian side of the city, the classy Nisantasi just next to the Conference Valley and the well-designed shopping malls all cater to jet-setters and style makers.