Central Festival Mall of Phuket

Central Festival Shopping/Souvenir

Central Festival Phuket is an air-conditioned, fully equipped shopping mall lying just outside of Phuket Town. If you are coming from Patong, Central lies on your left, before the main crossroads as you enter Phuket.Central has free underground parking in case you have wheels but if you arrive by tuk tuk or bus it's simple to alight outside and use the main entrance. Many satellite shops make up the sum of Central but the logical place to start bargain hunting is Central Department store itself.

Thailand uses the American way of floor labeling, in that the ground floor is the 'first' and the first floor the 'second' so in Central's 'first' floor you will be greeted with the sight of perhaps 20 or so perfume, cologne and cosmetic counters. These feature Natalie, Chanel, Dior, Revlon, Etude, L'Oreal, Calvin Klein, Bvlgari, Clarins, L'occitane among many others. Prices are substantially lower than in the West and these are the real products, not fakes.Moving on through the store the watch section features Oris, Tag heuer, Longines, Frederique Constant, Swatch, and Maurice Lacroix. Taking the Maurice Lacroix PT6117 as an example - it retails for 52,400 baht here but after discounts you will be paying 31,440 baht. Quite a hefty discount, all in all, considering the original asking price is a lot lower than in the West. Take the receipt and the purchased article to the VAT desk at the airport and yet another 7% comes off.

For the present, however, you will not be able to buy a new Rolex or a Cartier in Phuket - you'll have to go to Bangkok for that.On this floor you will come across gold and silverware manufactured in Belgium along with a pearls counter, shoes by Elle, St James, Charles & Keith, and Rococco; there are handbags galore as well as Parker and Sheaffer pens, sunglasses by the usual suspects - Evita Peroni, Guy Laroche, Magi, Carrera, Adidas and Raybans - there don't appear to be great bargains here (4,000-6,000 baht for many Raybans models) but they're still a little cheaper than back home.

On the same floor you will find Thai silk scarves, hats, handbags and even a souvenir King's Cup Yachting Regatta silk scarf. A Jim Thompson silkware outlet close by is definitely worth a look through if Thai silk turns you on. Downstairs features a generous children's store with toys, clothes and accessories, bedding (try getting a king-size mattress on the plane with you…) and household goods. On the top floor expect to see lots of clothing outlets such as Billabong, Camel Active, Ripcurl and a Marks & Spencers shop within the shop. Here, you'll also find travel bags and suitcases in which to cram your newly bought purchases and a book-DVD-magazine-CD shop where you can buy a CD of Western Music for 399 baht and DVD movies for 499 baht; almost half the price of the same items in the West.

Returning to the first floor (ground level for the Brits) and going out into the three-level mall there are a cluster of gold and jewelry shops and clothing outlets such as Timberland, Lacoste, Guess, Esprit, Camel Active, Hush Puppies, Levis, The Body Shop, Yves Rocher, a Warner Brothers shop.This where 'Tops' supermarket is and between the hours of 00:11 and 14:00 and 17:00 and 22:00 (closing time) you can get spirits such as Gordon's gin and Johnny Walker whiskey at bargain prices but don't expect good wine to go for less here as this is a product that is heavily taxed in Thailand. Just why wine is taxed so much and spirits aren't is one of the vagaries of Thai government policy. Tops supermarket also has a 'tax invoice' desk for you to fill out your claim.

One floor up and you're in the company of such distinguished persona as Nike, Lee, Boots, Better Vision (spectacles are a real bargain in Thailand), St James & Trend, a Manchester United shop and a curious side corridor named 'Island Tourist Center' which consists of banks, banks, more banks and ATM machines.

On the third floor of Central Festival shopping mall stands a huge Supersports outlet which features bargains in every area. Just peeping in there was a 30% discount on Nike products and the shop even featured discounted ATVs at US $1,000!Up here, the fast food gets faster with pizza parlours, Black Canyon Coffee, and ice cream outlet and - what's this? Popcorn? Yes, there's the SFX Coliseum Multiplex where non-shoppers can hang out and watch one of the six movies showing while their counterparts explore the perfume counters and the watch displays downstairs.