Izmir Shopping Tips by mindcrime Top 5 Page for this destination

Evil Eye Beads

The famous blue/yellow/white beads that protect people from evil eye are cheap enough for every friend you have back home!

In Greece and Turkey the evil eye jewelry is very common. Colourful beads, bracelets and necklaces. This popular symbol is common to see it on almost anything, from babies to walls! The evil eye is a folklore belief that the envy elicited by the good luck of fortunate people may result in their misfortune! They believe that some people can bestow a curse on victims by the malevolent gaze of their magical eye. The most common form, however, attributes the cause to envy, with the envious person casting the evil eye doing so unintentionally. Believe it or not it’s nice to buy one for souvenir. That’s what I did! :)

Theme: Local Craft

taste lokums!

The famous turkish delight is Lokum. You will find lokums in many different sizes and tastes. Try as much as you can! What's more, it is a great gift too because there are many places where you buy it in a box. Lokum is made from sugar, water and starch. Simple but nice! Some cafes serve a lokum with the Turkish coffee.

Theme: Food and Drink

SAZEM: nice gifts

A nice little shops with interesting souvenirs, not so cheap but very beautiful for decoration. It also has some typical souvenirs like magnets etc in case you just want something to bring back to a friend.

Address: 906 sokak no.:17

Directions: in the Kizlaragasi Hani

Theme: Other

the big bazaar(Kemeralti)

In fact the big bazaar is not so big as the one in Istanbul but it is situated in an old building with many interesting shops for carpets with nice carvings, silver things (I found some great glasses), dried fruits, evil eyes (thousands of them!), antiques, leathers, gold accessories, handmade ceramics, and of course many souvenir shops.

What I liked most was that in many parts the locals were there to shop and not only tourists. Go also inside Kislaragasi Han, the covered old market of 1744 that hold many souvenir shops. Don’t forget to have a cafe or tea in the small traditional cafes next to bazaar.

Directions: the bazzar situated in the city center and starts near Konak going up to the hill. Everyone knows about it so dont worry

Theme: Other