Outlet Malls

Sheryl, Wertheim Village is half way between Frankfurt and Würzburg. Another great one is Outletcity Metzingen in the greater Stuttgart area. Their unique selling point: Metzingen is the home town of Hugo Boss and they're the only ones with a genuine Boss outlet store. A great regular shopping find in the Frankfurt area just on the feet of the Taunus hills is the open air shopping mall Main-Taunus Center and - of course - in downtown Frankfurt the Zeil pedestrian zone, Germany's busiest shopping street.

I've been to Wertheim Village, and I was very disappointed. But they are still building, so it could be improving. It does look nice.

I have had better luck at the Birkenstock outlet in the old town in Marburg and at the Steiff outlet in Gingen. Marburg is maybe 90 minutes north of Frankfurt (has a lovely old town and a castle/museum, plus good shopping)and Gingen is about 90 minutes south of Wurzbur--I think it is right off autobahn3--there are plenty of signs; just follow the bears.

And if you love inexpensive and fashionable shoes, check out the Deichmann Shuh wherever you go!

There's a designer outlet mall just outside Vienna in Parndorf. It's just a 20 minute drive outside Vienna taking the A4 highway. My husband and I came across it by accident while driving to Bratislava and Budapest. It's an outdoor plaza so there'll be lots of walking to get from store to store. I'd set aside a few hours to do it justice. Also, get there early, you don't want to be stuck there just before it closes. There's only 1 exit -- during our first visit, we had no idea -- it took us 45 minutes to get out of the place.