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Forums Other Destination advice Easy access shopping without a car ideally with hypermarkets/department stores

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    Good morning,

    I am looking for somewhere to visit where I can access grocery and fashion shopping easily after reaching the airport, train station or ferry port.

    Looking at Europe, South East Asia and Canada ideally.

    From my own reasearch to date, the best place I have found is Lille, with the Westfield shopping centre there in the immediate vicinity and there being a Carrefour hypermarket inside that complex. Further afield I see Vancouver is also an option and their public transit appears good.

    In most of France it seems that you have to drive to these out of town places.

    Any advice welcome, thank you.

    141 posts

    The one that immediately springs to mind is Val D’Europe near Disneyland Paris which is easily accessbile from Eurostar services.

    7,007 posts

    @lowonpoints – CAP3000 in Saint Laurent du Var next to Nice airport and very well connected to public transport into Nice or along the coast beyond Nice or towards Cannes.

    2,294 posts

    Amsterdam, loads of shops at Schipol but I’d advise hopping on a train to Utrecht. All the shops you want just steps from the station plus lots of historical interest and sights to see. Much easier and nice than Amsterdam for shopping.

    11,797 posts

    If you want to save money, choose Spain over France. They have fantastic supermarkets (including Carrefour, if you specifically want to shop there). I find prices on things like chocolate and toiletries well below the UK, where they have got to silly levels (but still not as high as France in many cases!)

    There’s a nice McArthurGlen outlet near Malaga airport with a large number of designer and other shops and a Mercadona supermarket, plus a food court with plenty of choice. I’m heading to a similar one in Tui next month, though you’d definitely need a car for that.

    If you’re after comestibles, bear in mind that AFAIK it’s still technically forbidden to bring pork and dairy products from Europe into the EU, though I haven’t seen any checks being made since the prohibition came into force.

    Portugal is even cheaper than Spain but I’m not very au fait with the public transport options.

    491 posts

    Not Canada, but not that far away! Mall of America. It’s very close to the airport. If I recall correctly IKEA is adjacent and Walmart, Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores close by.

    2,294 posts

    Not Canada, but not that far away! Mall of America. It’s very close to the airport. If I recall correctly IKEA is adjacent and Walmart, Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores close by.

    It is indeed, pretty much every hotel has a shuttle to/from the airport and mall. Don’t forget the rollercoaster/Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park for thekids.

    Minneapolis is one of my top 3 nicest airports in the US. They’ve done a great job on the recent refurb. Just don’t take a bag of chocolate limes through the TSA checkpoint, it confuses the poor dears.

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