Do you love shopping but are tired of going to the old familiar boutiques and malls back home? If you're looking for a foreign destination, whether it's just for a spin or for a weekend shopping trip, you could hardly find a better city than Milan, Italy, the city of fashion, luxury and the latest trends.

Plus, Milan is super accessible with very cheap low-cost airfares.

Compare flight prices to Milan

Before heading to Milan for shopping, also check out our tips for the cheapest and best accommodation in Milan.

Luxury brands, showrooms and boutiques

Head to Milan for the best and latest that the world of fashion has to offer. The centre of Milan is literally littered with boutiques and shops selling clothes, jewellery, watches and other fashion accessories. Perhaps few places in the world have a greater concentration of shops than Milan. After all, many of the world's top brands were born here.

Be prepared for the cheapest items to start in the hundreds of euros, while the most expensive items can run into the tens of thousands of euros.

The most famous district with hundreds of shops of brands such as Gucci, Prada, Dolce e Gabbana, Zara, Louis Vuitton and others is definitely the Quadrilatero d'Oro della Moda aka the Golden Quadrilateral of fashion with the famous shopping streets Via Montenapoleone, Via Manzoni, Via Pierto Verri or Corso Venezia. Not to be missed is the huge Armani megastore on Via Alessandro Manzoni, one of the best in Milan.

An equally famous luxury shopping arcade is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II with flagship stores for Prada, Versace and Louis Vuitton. Apart from shopping, this arcade is one of the most famous architectural gems in Milan.

The 10 best hotels in Milan

Mid-range shops

If you don't exactly want to spend thousands, Milan won't be a forbidden city for you either. You'll find hundreds, maybe thousands, of shops selling high-end fashion, but at affordable prices in the tens of euros, all over the city. There are, however, areas just made for shopping:

• Corso Buenos Aires - a long avenue north of the Golden Quadrilateral of fashion combines luxury and casual shops in stand-alone establishments and entire department stores
• Rinascente - a huge department store right on Piazza del Duomo next to the Vittorio Emanuele II arcade with hundreds of shops
• Corso Como - a shorter avenue with the department store 10 Corso Como with popular discount "outlet" corners

Outlets around Milan

There are three outlet towns in the wide area around Milan where you can shop for designer goods at a discount, and you can usually find collections from previous years at more than 70% off.

• Serravalle Design Outlet - 97 km from Milan, special buses for 20 eur / return, see online ticket booking
• Vicolungo Outlet - 63 km from Milan, free shuttle buses run from Milan and Turin on weekends and for 14 eur on weekdays, see details
• Foxtown Mendrisio - 61 km from Milan in Mendrisio, Switzerland (no passport needed, Switzerland is in Schengen), special buses for 20 eur / return, see online ticket booking, alternatively you can take a direct train from Milan to Mendrisio, from where you can reach the outlet centre in 10 minutes, the ticket costs around 12 eur return and you can find the connection e.g. via the Swiss Railways website sbb.ch.