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GETAWAYS
Guide: Best in Florida Shopping
From outlets to opulence
 Aventura Mall |
In Florida, the lure of shopping now rivals sunshine, golf, fishing and even Disney. Indeed, Orlando’s malls are now second only to Mickey as an Orlando draw. More than 90% of visitors from Mexico, Brazil, the U.K. and Germany pack vans and tour buses to the malls for bargains and luxuries. This fall, Orlando hotels are bundling spa and retail therapies in girlfriend-getaway packages (with extra-night-free deals through Nov. 15).
Meanwhile, all across Florida, drivers who once passed Stuckey’s now encounter a raft of outlet malls, 18 at last count, with more than 1,000 factory stores.
The seekers of chic have followed the wealthy who winter in Florida to fill Naples’ Fifth Avenue, the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables and Winter Park’s shady Park Avenue. The grandest address remains Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, for bijoux from Bulgari, Cartier and Chopard and objects for the seriously playful, from Grande Armée’s toy soldiers to ship models and historic swords at grown-up prices.
The biggest collection of haute and hot is the Bal Harbour Shops, now 40 years old and still offering the most luxuriant and vogue-ish window-shopping. Here you can outfit a wardrobe from Armani to Zegna — with Celine, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermes, Prada and Versace in between — or set the table with the glittery art of Christofle.
Shopping’s other addresses in south Florida are Aventura, north of Miami, with a mall of must-have names like Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Diesel, 7 For All Mankind and Betsey Johnson, and mammoth Sawgrass Mills in Fort Lauderdale. Sawgrass has 350 stores, more than 100 of them outlets, including a catwalk of company stores for Burberry, Ferragamo, St. John and more. Within five miles are a dozen hotels, including the Crowne Plaza, where the VIP-shopper package includes transportation across the vast parking lots.
furniture hot spots
The Home Front
While antique lovers find boutiques on every small-town Main Street, hunters of contemporary furniture have only a few meccas. The hippest collection is in Miami’s design district, where the global designs of Abitare, Kartell, Ligne Roset and Vitra are as cool as the small-plate restaurants and as hot as the nightlife.
For the vans and station wagons of the frugal stylish, the magnet is Ikea, the Swedish specialist in cheap chic. The Orlando location is handy to a Home Depot Expo, the huge Mall at Millenia and endless outlets. On weekends, the crowds can be as chaotic and boisterous as at the Magic Kingdom. And lines almost as long.
Webster’s Flea market
The Bargain Bin
At the crack of 6 a.m. every Monday, thousands of Floridians and visitors head to the dusty crossroads of state roads 471 and 478, near the dead center of the state. Not a beach or theme park in sight.
They come to shop. The Monday morning flea market days in Webster started in 1937 and got new life in the following decades. In a fatigued economy, vendors with 300 sets of salt and pepper shakers fret as much as any retailers. Still, in season, 20,000 or more shoppers, vendors and wholesalers spread out across 25 blocks downtown; still more spill their treasures onto the neighboring grass. After noon, when shoppers’ tour buses leave, cattle unload for Tuesday livestock auctions.
 [Photo: Barbara Picard] |
