Lark Street has a few gift shops and other unique stores with an alternative vibe. If you're downtown take a gander and support local shopkeepers by buying a glass pipe, a bustier dress with cherries on it, or a rainbow flag to hang in your front window.
Stuyvesant Plaza is the most upscale shopping venue in the area, located between Western Ave. and Washington Ave. Independent boutiques and brand stores like Crabtree & Evelyn dominate, with a few chain staples; there is a T.G.I. Friday's right next to the Starbucks. Color Me Mine is a neat little DIY craft shop where you can paint your own ceramics.
Crossgates Mall, otherwise referred to as "the mall," is the biggest shopping center in the region and at one point was among the top ten largest shopping malls in the United States. The best spot to park is by Best Buy, which is in the center of the mall. Flagship stores include Macy's, JC Penney, a recently expanded Forever 21 superstore, Best Buy, H&M, Borders and the Apple store. Crossgates has a Regal Cinemas complex with 17 standard stadium-seating theaters and one IMAX Experience theater. No thanks to local hooligans, after 4 pm on Friday and Saturday you must be 18 or older to enter the mall unsupervised, with the exception of the movies.
Crossgates Commons is an overflow of chain stores located across Washington Ave Extension from Crossgates Mall. Here you'll find what was once the largest Super Wal-Mart store in the country, which looks unremarkable until you realize there is an entire underground level devoted to grocery and toiletries. Worth a visit if you've never seen a shopping cart escalator.
Colonie Center was recently remodelled in an effort to combat its former reputation as a ghost town mall. CC has a new Regal Cinemas complex with 13 stadium-seating theaters. Major stores include Macy's, FYE as well as Boscov's, Sears, LL Bean, Barnes & Noble and Christmas Tree Shops. Eat at PF Chang's or the Cheesecake Factory, which are conveniently adjacent to one another between Sears and LL Bean. Colonie Center draws a more suburban crowd than Crossgates due to Crossgates' better accessibility by public transportation.
In the suburbs surrounding Albany, particularly on the drive down Central Ave toward Schenectady, you can find a strip mall wherever you go with chain stores like Target, Marshalls, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Some of the larger ones are Westgate Plaza, Northway Mall, and Mohawk Commons which used to be an indoor mall (Mohawk Mall)
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Albany (New York)
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Albany (New York) - updated Apr 2024
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Albany (New York) Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
