Rotterdam Alexandrium: more than 200 stores, 7 days per week
The Alexandrium shopping mall is located in the northeast of Rotterdam, in the suburb ‘Prins Alexander’. Prins Alexander has an elevation of minus seven meters and in that respect it offers you 44.000 square meters (nearly 500.000 square feet!!!) of below sea level shopping! Consisting of approximately 210 stores it is one of biggest indoor (partially outdoor) shopping malls in the Netherlands. This mall has been completely refurbished in 2011. With a wide variety of shops, Alexandrium is a real Walhalla for 2.000.000 shopping addicts and is really worth a visit!

Alexandrium = Shopping Mall + Megastores + Home Decoration
Alexandrium basically consists of three separate malls, which have been connected. The classic shopping mall Alexandrium I, formerly called ‘Oosterhof’ focuses on fashion, gifts, shoes, jewelry and everything you may expect to find in a huge indoor shopping mall. The so called megastores are located in Alexandrium II, which is a strip with a couple of flagship stores. Alexandrium III focuses on home decoration and interior design.

Shop until you drop in the Alexandrium Mall
Virtually any kind of store can be found here - from kitchen megastores to a small high end hi-fi audio specialist (Multifoon HiFi). Don’t leave here before having seen ‘Rivièra Maison’ for all kinds of home gadgets and gifts. It is located in a replica of an Old-Dutch house within the home decoration mall. Some well-known retail chains are Media Markt (electronics), Xenos (Asia shopping at a bargain), Toys ‘R’ us (toys), Halfords (bikes and car accessories) and Albert Heijn (Holland’s leading supermarket). The home decoration mall was fully renovated in 2011 and it now contains a spectacular Apple retailer (iFactors), that seems to hover in the middle of the mall.

Have a bite in Alexandrium
Surely Alexandrium means shop until you drop, but if you are hungry there are several places to eat such as Burger King and La Place self-service restaurant. Have a Surinam snack at Chinny’s Zeppelin shaped lunchroom or at Brasserie Balans in the home decoration mall. You won’t find any straight walls here. They serve an excellent cup of Illy coffee. Another option is to have a stylish drink at Grand-Café Hip (Kleine Beer 12). Burger King is centrally located abeam the Megastores. La Place self-service restaurant has a huge outside wooden terrace that is often frequented by business people having their lunch break.

Clearance and parking at Alexandrium
Avoid visiting Alexandrium at Saturday and Sunday afternoon by car as it can be quite a problem to find a parking place! Season’s clearance tends to start a bit earlier in the Netherlands than in other European countries: Summer Sale from mid June and Winter Sale from mid December.