Pentagon City Mall

Introduction

Pentagon City is a shopping district located in Arlington, Virginia, and is one of the best options when it comes to going shopping for residents of both Arlington and Washington D. C..

In previous posts, I have talked to you about Columbia Heights, Tysons Corner and Ballstom Mall, and today in this post, I am going to finish off this route through the area of the best places to go shopping.

Tysons Corner is the largest shopping centre with the greatest number of stores, cinemas and restaurants, but Pentagon City was the one that won me over because it has almost all of the stores that I need. Besides, it has other stores that are more like outlets, where you can make large-scale purchases at much lower prices. It is essentially a mix between Columbia Heights and Ballstom Mall, and I recommend it on every level, except for going to the cinema... there isn't one.

To one side, there is The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, and to the other, the Pentagon Centre.

The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City

The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City is a huge shopping mall that is home to stores that sell clothes and accessories, stationery, and shoes, as well as restaurants and fast food chains. It is spread across four different floors, and I am going to give you a quick summary of what you can find on each one.

Ground floor

This is where the vast majority of the centre's restaurants and fast food chains can be found, as well as the clothing store, Forever 21. I recommend trying the pizza from Villa Pizza - an Italian pizza and pasta place - which is very reasonably priced (I always go there to eat). However, if that doesn't tickle your fancy, there is also McDonalds, Subway, Chinese and Mexican food, and Johnny Rockets, a 50s style burger joint.

First floor

This floor is personally my favourite, and it's here where we can find stores like Godiva, GUESS, Victoria's Secret (the best store that I have seen up to now, as it's the largest), Accessorize, and Bath & Body Works.

Second floor

On this floor, the standout stores are MAC Cosmetics, Teavana (a tea shop where you can try two different teas every single day), and Michael Kors.

Third floor

Here, you will find stores like Perfumania (they offer good discounts if you buy two perfumes), Claire's, The Body Shop, Footlocker, etc.

The building itself is predominantly made of glass, so it is very bright and the layout of the centre within it is very easy to follow.

Besides, on each floor of the mall (except the lower ground level), there is a car park, Macy*s and Nordstrom, as well as ATMs, toilets, vending machines, lifts and escalators spread throughout the entire centre. For those of you who don't know, Macy*s and Nordstorm are two very popular department stores in the United States that sell pretty much anything and everything, but specialise in men's and women's clothing, shoes, and accessories.

Pentagon Centre

With regards to the complex's other shopping mall, the Pentagon Centre, it is situated just in front of the Fashion Centre. I wouldn't at all see it as a "competitor", as it has just 5 stores (which are admittedly huge) that are dedicated to bulk sales at lower or outlet prices.

The Pentagon Centre is home to the following stores:

• CV's

  This a very popular chain of convenience stores located in both Washington D. C. and the state of Virginia, which also stocks medicinal products.

• Costco

  Costco is a huge, typical American supermarket. Here, you can find food, like at any other store, but sold in large, wholesale quantities, which, thanks to its size, allows you to save money. It's simply incredible to see the sheer size of the boxes with the food in - it looks like a Makro store, but even bigger and better.



• Marshalls

  This is a kind of outlet store that sells clothes, accessories, shoes, jewellery and home goods by famous designers (Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, etc. ) at lower prices, as the items are sold out of season. This is one of my favourite stores here at the Pentagon Centre.

• Best Buy

  A chain of stores that mainly sells electrical goods.

Irrespective of which mall you choose to go to, the best thing that you could do is go on a weekday because you can browse and shop stress-free, given that it's typically much quieter, with the products all in the right places within the stores. Besides, you can often find offers and discounts that are not typically available during the weekends.

How do you get there?

To get to the Pentagon City Mall, the best thing would be to take the metro (the Washington D. C. metro, that is) and alight at the stop, "Pentagon City", which is a very quick and easy journey to make, given that it falls within the network and Arlington is just across the river. This stop is served by both the yellow and the blue lines. Just after you exit the metro station, you have the option of going to the left if you want to visit the Fashion Centre (which is accessed by an underground subway), or to the right for the outlet area with Costco and CV's.