What is there to buy in spain?

Question

What is there to buy in spain?

Answer 1

AWESOME purses... scissors from toledo ... wine bota bags are popular

Answer 2

Spain is known for it's high quality leather, especially shoes.  They also have beautifully embroidered shawls, though they are pricey.  Fans & flamenco dolls are popular with tourists, but what I usually buy are ceramic tiles--they have amazing, handpainted tiles that are fairly cheap.  If you are into wines, they have some great ones--I usually bring some back for gifts.  Granada is known for their gold jewelry (Islamic influenced--patterns of gold on black) & wood inlay boxes are also from there.   Seville is becoming known as a fashion destination comparable to Paris, if you're a clotheshorse & Barcelona has a lot of artists--paintings, jewelry, etc.

Answer 3

Kelbid has some good ideas, but she is mistaken about where Damasquinado jewelry is made.  The gold wire, pounded into Black steel is made in Toledo.  Granada is known for their marquetry inlaid wood.  Be careful, with any handcrafts, to try to get them from the actual craftsmen.  

A great deal of what was once made by hand in Spain (as is true everywhere) is actually mass produced in China, these days, and much of that marquetry, if it include mother of pearl, is actually made in India or Morrocco (I can't remember which, or if it's both)  If you speak Spanish, speak to the shop owners, and try to be sure you're getting the real thing

Also, she mentioned ceramic tiles, but there's also some exquisite ceramic tableware.  It's much more expensive than it used to be, at least for Americans, because of the dollar, but it's beautiful, and every region has their own style of painting them.

Also, if you can find it, handmade laces are very popular in the south.  

There are some very nice perfumes available only in Spain (or they are much more expensive when exported).

Alfonso Dominguez makes a couple of perfumes that I really liked, one called Agua Fresca de Rosas, and another called Agua Fresca de Naranjo.  MUCH more expensive, where you can find it here.

And if you go to Seville, there is a perfume available only there, called Agua de Sevilla (this is what I was looking for when I found the others).  There are three or four different fragrances under that name, and they are available at two shops on the Plaza Nueva, one, a perfume shop, and the other, a little clothing shop on the left corner of the Plaza as you're looking at that Perfume shop.  At the clothing shop, they carried a little tiny 100 ml bottle, that only cost 3 Euros, and I bought a slew of them for gifts.  They are really intended for schwag bags for the conventions, but they were willing to sell a bunch to me.  That was perfect.

You can get food gifts, I bought cans of tuna and pates that you can't get around here, and saffron, and Lavender.  We found a little open market of spices, etc. outside the Cathedral in Granada, don't know whether that was an every day thing, or just one day a week, or what, but we picked up some very nice things there, teas and spices, and saffron was selling there for like a song.

Answer 4

You´ve a thousand and one options... ( I know they are orientated to Madrid but the same applies for all of the country)

Souvenirs:

http://www.madrid-guide-spain.com/madrid...

Shopping in general

http://www.madrid-guide-spain.com/madrid...