Main Street – many tiny independent shops. San Mateo Road – Supermarket, Pharmacy, Starbuck’s, Jamba Juice, McDonald’s
Santa Cruz/Capitola
Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz – The downtown shopping strip in Santa Cruz offers tiny independent shops and boutiques, but also chains such as Urban Outfitters, American Apparel, Gap, and Forever 21. Highlights are: Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue Old School Shoes, 1017 Pacific Avenue Pacific Trading Co, 1224 Pacific Avenue O'Neill, 110 Cooper Street Rip Curl, 1395 Pacific Avenue
41st Avenue, Santa Cruz/Capitola – Along 41st Ave you have several surf, skate and tiny esoteric and nicknack shops. Highlights are: O’Neill, 1071 41st Avenue Billabong, 4105 Portola Drive Surf Life, 1000 41st Avenue Freeline, 821 41st Avenue
Monterey/Carmel
Monterey Cannery Row – At Cannery Row you have small souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and coffee shops.
Alvarado Street and side alleys – Within the downtown area you are spoilt with choice. Here you have several boutiques, chain stores, bars, coffee shops, and restaurants.
Carmel Ocean Avenue & side alleys – Along the quaint streets and squares you have many boutiques, galleries, restaurants, and coffee shops/bars.
Carmel Plaza – The open air shopping mall features high-end designer stores but also popular chain stores such as Anthropologie, J. Crew, Bottega Venetta, L’Occitane, Louis Vitton, Tiffany’s… and a real good cheese store: The Cheese Shop.
Carmel Rancho Shopping Center – Within the mall you have a large supermarket (Safeway), drugstore (CVS), and bank (Bank of America), plus several smaller shops.
Pomeroy and Price Street – a few smaller beach and souvenir stores
Santa Barbara State Street – Shopping mile in downtown Santa Barbara with many tiny independent shops and well-known affordable and expensive chains.
Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center @ State Street and Ortega Street The mall features chains, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Gap, Macys, Nordstrom, etc. http://www.paseonuevoshopping.com/
Malibu/Santa Monica/L.A. (Venice)/Marina del Rey
Camarillo (north of Malibu) Premium Outlets – 740 E Ventura Blvd, Camarillo 160-outlet shops incl. Lacoste, UGG, DKNY, Fossil, Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Tommy Hilfiger etc. http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=20
Malibu Malibu Country Mart – 3835 Cross Creek Road (next to the Civic Center), Malibu http://www.malibucountrymart.com/ An outdoor mall with plenty of shops, e.g. Mac, 7 for all Mankind, Anouk, Ralph Lauren…and courtyards offering benches to relax or having a snack.
Malibu Lumber Yard – 3939 Cross Creek Road (next to the Civic Center), Malibu http://www.themalibulumberyard.com The contemporary outdoor mall is located next to the Country Mart and contains stores such as Intermix and Kitson. Moreover it offers lounge where you can rest during your shopping spree. The design and amenities give you more the feeling of a resort than a mall.
Santa Monica Santa Monica Place Shopping Center – 395 Santa Monica Place http://www.santamonicaplace.com/ Huge shopping mall with all common department stores and chains, such as Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Kitson, Kenneth Cole, Coach, Burberry.
Third Street Promenade – Shopping mile between Santa Monica Place Shopping Center and Wilshire Blvd. with shops like Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, J. Crew, Sephora, Kitson, … closed for traffic.
Main Street – Between Hollister Avenue and Rose Ave. Many small and independent boutiques, as well as coffee shops and restaurants. http://www.mainstreetsm.com/
Montana Avenue – Between 7th and 17th Street, several small, independent shops. http://www.montanaave.com/
Venice/Marina del Rey Abbott Kinney Boulevard, Venice – The boulevard is the shopping center in Venice and packed with independent stores, charming restaurants, and bars. Between Venice Bvld and Main Street.
Los Angeles Hollywood The Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, LA Huge outdoor shopping mall with all popular stores located south of West Hollywood. http://www.thegrovela.com
Melrose Avenue, between La Brea Ave and Doherty Drive. Melrose Ave is the shopping area for trendsetters and offers stores, such as MiuMiu, Agent Provokateur etc. But also less hip designers, such as Ed Hardy and Von Dutch.
Beverly Hills Beverly Center Shopping Mall, 8500 Beverly Boulevard, LA Next to common department stores, designers like D&G, Fendi, and Burberry etc. have their stores here. More under: http://www.beverlycenter.com
Rodeo Drive und Via Rodeo Drive Without doubts the most luxurious shopping mile in L.A. featuring Versace’s, Chanel’s, Tiffany’s etc. flagship stores. Even if you cannot afford it, don’t miss to do some window-shopping, watching people. At the end at Via Rodeo is a shopping arcade and at Rodeo Drive a small outdoor mall.
Downtown Citadel Factory Outlets, 100 Citadel Drive, LA http://www.citadeloutlets.com/ The giant outlet mall is located at Interstate 5 northeast of LAX. You cannot miss it since it’s huge complex is yellowish (I guess sandstone) and looks like an Egyptian fort. Here you can be sure to find all common American and European designers and brands.
LA Fashion District The District is located between 7th Street in the north and Santa Monica 10-Freeway in the south, Spring and Main Street in the west and San Pedro Street in the east. http://www.fashiondistrict.org/wholesalers/ Mon – Sun 10am – 5pm. Actually the district only opens for wholesales but there are about 1000 shops that are offering great bargains to walk-in customers as well.
Ontario Mills, One Mills Circle, Ontario Big outlet mall outside L.A. located at HWY 10 towards San Bernadino and HWY 15 towards Las Vegas. http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=1258
Huntington Beach/Newport Beach/Laguna Beach & more
Huntington Beach Main Street – Surf shops, boutiques and restaurants
Newport Beach Fashion Island, 401 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach Huge shopping mall with all common designers and brands. http://www.shopfashionisland.com/
Marine Ave, Balboa Island – Small shopping street with tiny shops and boutiques, nothing for a shopping spree but nice to stroll along.
Laguna Beach Coast HWY – The part of HWY 1 that runs through Laguna Beach’s city center and its side alleys are packed with shops. Walk down Ocean, Park, Forest, and Laguna Ave.
Del Mar Del Mar Plaza – 1555 Camino Del Mar, Del Mar European-styled marketplace with a common brand stores (Banana Republic, White House/ Black Market) and small boutiques and restaurants. http://www.delmarplaza.com/index.html