With only four weeks away until Christmas, the time has definitely come for luxury gift shopping. Thanks to the power of online retail and luxury brands being made more accessible than ever before, you can almost certainly find and purchase that perfect gift wherever you are in the world. However, part of the fun of Christmas shopping is in the atmosphere and the rush that comes in selecting those impulse buys you know a friend, family member or loved one will cherish.

If you’re lucky enough, you may be travelling ahead of the big day and so can taste the luxury items offered up by some of the world’s biggest and best shopping destinations. If not and you can arrange so, you could do a lot worse than booking up a last-minute trip to one of our three chosen cities to find some special gifts in time for Christmas. The cities below, as well as being cultural havens, are synonymous with luxury shopping and you will be able to bring back a number of treasures from your travels – or even high-end fragrances and jewellery sourced from the airport! – in time to wrap up your holidays.

1. New York
Perhaps the shopping Mecca of the world, New York City is the perfect destination for seasoned shoppers. Home to flagship stores that house some of the world’s most recognizable high-end brands, NYC is the perfect place to spend if you’re looking to make some extravagant gift purchases.

Find yourself along Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, etc. and you can almost smell the opulence in the air. As well as the city’s ever-iconic department stores like Bloomingdales and Macys, New York is home to flagship stores from key designers (Tom Ford, Louis Vutton, etc.) while Tiffany and Cartier give the perfect opportunity to indulge in stunning jewelry. Bonus points go to NYC as a Christmastime shopping destination, due to the magic of the city during the season!

2. Milan
Sure, Paris is an amazing city that offers the discerning shopper a wealth of luxury shopping opportunities. However, Italy’s Milan is perhaps overlooked in favour of its French cousin despite this fashion capital really owning its reputation as one of Europe’s focal points of affluent fashion.

The city’s fashion week is one of the most high-profile in the world, and the catwalk trends translate to the shops. Oft-described as a haute couture powerhouse, Milan is home to big-name boutiques including, as you would expect, iconic Italian brand names such as Armani, Fendi and Dolce & Gabbana. If you’re inspired by the pages of Italian Vogue, then a trip to Milan could satisfy your Christmas shopping needs and also result in an updated wardrobe for yourself too.

3. Dubai
It’s not just the Western world that provides a luxury shopping experience for travellers; increasingly, key cities in the Middle East and beyond are offering an alternative to the obvious European and US shopping destinations. Of course, Dubai is at the heart of this as perhaps the flashiest, most glamorous city in the United Arab Emirates.

As such, if you can manage to get there, it’s an ideal plane jaunt for shoppers ahead of Christmas. Among the impressive spectacle of the city’s skyline, all jutting skyscrapers and shiny buildings, you will find a wealth of shopping opportunities, epitomised by the Mall of the Emirates where over 400 retailers are showcased under one roof. It offers a different kind of shopping experience, but different is good – especially when this much choice is involved. From luxury jewellery to designer threads, make sure you remember to buy an extra suitcase to bring back those all-important Christmas gifts.

Author: This guest post is by Luke McNaney of The Jewel Hut.