Bandera - All The Used Clothes You Could Possibly Want

For some reason, I have never seen Bandera mentioned in any English language piece on Santiago. Well I’m about to expose it to the world. Bandera is a street lined with 25 to 30 used clothing stores where you can literally find anything you are looking for, dirt cheap. T-shirts of all kinds sell for 500-2000 pesos ($1-4 US), dress shirts a little more, they have pants, shoes, hats, jackets, you name it. A few stores even have legit used trench coats (the kind you would wear on a freezing day in New York City). I almost bought one that they were selling for 15,000 pesos ($30 US) that probably cost about $200 US new, if not more.

It gets better.

The location of this shopping mecca is only a block away from Plaza de Armas. To get from Plaza de Armas to Bandera, while facing the cathedral, exit Plaza de Armas on the right hand side, following the street named “Catedral”. Bandera will be the first major street that you hit, just turn right and the stores will begin. Metro stations U. de Chile, La Moneda, Plaza de Armas, and Puenta Cal y Canto all provide convenient access, as you can see on the map (you may have to zoom out a little to see the other metro stations). The used clothing stores pretty much line the street from the star north to Metro Puente Cal y Canto. Most stores open in the morning and close around 7 pm. Everything is closed on Sundays. Make sure to wash the clothes before wearing, just in case.

Update 11/14/07 - There's also an amazing pita/falafel place on Bandera, a few blocks south of "Cathedral" on the right hand side.