The perfect place to exercise your credit card, London has a number of world-class department stores. It's worth enduring the crowds to visit Harrods (87-135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge), a name synonymous with luxury. The prices can be hair raising but the ornate food halls are a great place to pick up a Harrods-branded souvenir.

Fortnum & Mason (181 Piccadilly) has been trading for more than 300 years and has a food hall that specializes in sumptuous hampers, while Liberty (at the junction of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street) is all about elegance.

Harvey Nichols flagship store (109 - 125 Knightsbridge) offers eight floors of shopping extravagance -- make like Londoners and call it Harvey Nicks, (dahling optional!) Selfridges (400 Oxford Street) will lure you in with its eye-catching window displays and keep you there with its five cafés, four restaurants, two bars and countless food hall eateries.

Of London's famous shopping streets Oxford Street is incredibly busy and rather disappointing, with plenty of flagship chain stores but little that you can't find elsewhere. Regent Street is much the same, but be sure to check out Hamleys (188 - 196 Regent Street), a six-floor, toy-filled children's wonderland. Head to High Street Kensington for a similar, yet, less harassed shopping experience.