St. Petersburg
Shopping in St. Petersburg is expensive and most visitors leave with trinkets—a matryoshki doll, a bottle of vodka or caviar—rather than great antiques, art or fashion. The enclosed shopping malls like BGD on Upper Nevsky Prospekt are good for people watching, but the labyrinthine layout doesn’t invite serious shopping. Russian women love fashion, and you will notice that everyone wears high heels, even in the cold of winter and across cobbled-stone streets. A few trendy boutiques, like Day & Night and Babochka stock luxury fashion houses, but the items are a lot more expensive than in the United States. (Expect to typically pay a 60% premium for international luxury brands.)
