9 of the Biggest Shopping Malls Around the World
If you like to shop when you travel, the world’s biggest shopping capitals are probably top of your travel bucket list. New York, Paris, Milan, London and Hong Kong are all world-renowned for their shopping facilities and huge numbers of tourists flock to each city year-on-year, credit cards at the ready. Whether it’s shoes, bags, clothes or jewellery, everyone has their weakness, the thing they make a beeline for when spending. These record-breaking shopping malls cater to all of them.
Here’s a look at some of the largest, most famous shopping centres around the globe.
1. CentralWorld - Bangkok, Thailand
You could spend a whole day at CentralWorld in Bangkok, the largest shopping mall in Thailand. The larger-than-life mall has brand name fashion, boutiques, gadget stores, bookshops and designer furniture as well as imported food, banks, beauty salons, dining options and even an ice skating rink.
Image credit TripAdvisor.
2. Berjaya Times Square - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Covering 7.5 million square feet of floor area, Berjaya Times Square is the fifth largest building in the world. The Kuala Lumpur mall has over 1,000 shops, 65 eateries and a huge offering of entertainment attractions, including Asia’s largest indoor theme park, Cosmo’s World, and Malaysia’s first-ever IMAX 2D & 3D theatre.
Image credit Berjaya Times Square.
3.Cevahir - Istanbul, Turkey
This is the largest shopping centre in Europe at an impressive 3.47 million square feet, located on the Büyükdere Avenue in the Şişli district of Istanbul. There are 343 shops and 48 restaurants in the shopping centre, which take up six floors. Events can be held on the centre’s stage, and there are 12 cinemas, a bowling hall, and even a small roller coaster.
Image credit TripAdvisor.
4. Dubai Mall - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
This sprawling mall in the glamour capital of the world is easy to get lost in. At over 12 million square feet (equivalent to more than 50 soccer fields), the Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world based on total area. The mall contains more than 1,200 shops, an ice rink, a SEGA game centre, a five-star hotel, 22 cinema screens and 120 restaurants and cafes. It also boasts the largest indoor aquarium in the world AND it’s the gateway to the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world. Yeah, Dubai likes to break records!
Image credit Lonely Planet.
5. West Edmonton Mall - Alberta, Canada
West Edmonton Mall is the largest shopping centre in North America, housing more than 800 stores and services. The mall features the attractions Galaxyland, World Waterpark, an ice palace, adventure golf, and more. Two hotels are situated at the venue, alongside over 100 dining locations.
6. SM Mall of Asia - Manila, Philippines
This mall is so big, it has a tram to shuttle shoppers around its four buildings! There’s an IMAX theatre with one of the world’s biggest 3D screens within its 406,962 square meters, and over 200,00 people pass through its doors every day. The mall also features an Olympic-sized ice skating rink.
Image credit Meetrip
7. Morocco Mall - Casablanca, Morocco
With over 200,000 square metres of floor space, Morocco Mall is located in Casablanca on the western coast of Morocco. It has a 1,000,000 litre aquarium with over 40 different species of fish, and visitors can go scuba diving with them. This mega-mall is the complete antithesis to the souks and medinas that Morocco is famous for! JLo even performed at the opening.
Image credit Morocco Mall.
8. King of Prussia Mall, Pennsylvania USA
The largest shopping mall in the United States covers nearly three million square feet. King of Prussia Mall opened its doors in 1963, when it consisted of two distinct buildings that have since been connected. This vast mall attracts 22 million visitors each year, thanks to its big-name brands like Nordstrom, Macy’s and Bloomingdales, plus other luxury retailers.
Image credit Visit Pennsylvania
9. New South China Mall, Dongguan, China
The world’s largest mall in terms of gross leasable area comes with a huge caveat - it’s mostly empty! For the first ten years, only about 1% of its space was in use by retailers, mainly because of the mall’s hard-to-reach position outside of Beijing. It was jokingly referred to as the ‘world’s largest abandoned mall’! Fortunately, it’s a lot livelier today, and has an IMAX-style cinema and theme park. There are seven zones modelled on various famous cities around the world, and the Paris area has a 25-metre replica of the Arc de Triomphe.
Image credit CNN.
A little more impressive than your local shopping centre, right? Whether you like to shop when you travel or prefer to spend your money on experiences, remember you can pay with your Latitude 28° Global Platinum Mastercard everywhere you travel with no international transaction fees or currency conversion fees on purchases.