The world's best markets - Telegraph Central Market, Valencia Talk about a feast for the eyes. With 1,000 stalls piled high with the best seasonal produce, this is a dazzling reminder of what real food looks like. Built in the 1920s, this art nouveau market is one of the largest in Europe. Look up to see the stained glass and mosaics adorning the domes of the iron structure, and definitely have a freshly-squeezed orange juice at the tiled bar outside. Details: www.mercadocentralvalencia.es Valencia travel guide Grand Bazaar, Istanbul Half the fun of the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, is in getting lost. This is largely because it has such a multitude of stalls you never quite know what you are going to find. At one time, every square in this über-market was dedicated to a different profession and its wares. Today, some of this organisation still remains, although it is a little more of a jumble. If you don't fancy haggling, it is enough just to take a walk around. The bazaar is home to two mosques, four fountains and two hammams. Don't forget to look up - the vaulted ceilings are beautiful and alone worth the visit. Details: www.kapalicarsi.org.tr/g Istanbul travel guide Grand Bazaar (Fotolia/AP) Pike Place Market, Seattle At almost 100 years old, Pike Place Market has long been the anchor for the rest of the city of Seattle, and from its neon entry sign to the white wood panelling of its interior, it has a really appealing vintage feel. Built into a hillside overlooking Elliott Bay, the market is still the place most Seattle-ites buy their fresh goods, and visitors just "browsing" should be warned not to get in the way of real trade. There are a few touristy type stalls, but for wow factor the flowers can't be beaten. Row upon row of huge, colourful blooms decorate the top floor. Pike Place isn't huge in comparison to the great markets of the rest of the world, but there's a real rich offering on every leve, including vintage film memorabilia and Americana. There are also a few good seafood restaurants, and a plate of oysters caught from the Puget Sound is the best way to round off a visit. Details: www.pikeplacemarket.org Camden Market, London Walk north from Camden Town Underground station and you'll find a thriving collection of markets gathered between Regent's Canal and the Roundhouse theatre. Most popular with students and young tourists, there's something here for everyone - heavy metal T-shirts, bean bags, bicycles, jewellery, records, vintage coats. Hanging out is as much a part of it as the shopping, and there's a mouthwatering mass of stalls selling hot food from around the world. Details: www.camdenmarket.com London travel guide The Stables at Camden Market (Fotolia/AP) St Lawrence Market, Toronto Arguably the best food market in Canada, the St Lawrence Market is the place to find fresh food in Toronto. The South Market is home to 120 permanent food vendors housed in a warehouse building with beautiful industrial-age touches. There's plenty of "eat now" food on offer too, and the inventiveness of the stalls might leave you feeling as if your own culinary skills are lacking (if so there's also a Market Kitchen with cooking classes). The North Market dates back to 1803 and sells food on a Saturday, and antiques on a Sunday. The big cheese at the farmer's market is, well, the cheese. Hundreds of different delicious varieties are on offer. Details: www.stlawrencemarket.com Borough Market, London Serious foodies, ravenous workers, local shoppers, camera-snappy tourists - everyone loves the intense, under-the-arches atmosphere of this thriving market. It's busiest on Thursdays to Saturdays, when all the market stalls are open, but you can also buy gourmet treats - including fine coffees, artisan cheeses and Spanish delicacies - from the surrounding shops on other days. Details: www.boroughmarket.org.uk London travel guide Marché Place Monge, Paris Paris has over 80 outdoor food markets but this is a popular favourite, especially on Sunday when it's a busy local rendezvous. Several stalls where you can buy direct from producers remind that the Ile de France and nearby Picardy are still market gardening regions. Specialists sell organic (biologique) salads and vegetables, apples and potatoes, and there are also excellent cheese stalls and fresh fish from Boulogne and Dieppe. There's all you need for a picnic in the nearby Jardin des Arènes (the ruins of Paris's Roman arena), including roast chickens, Lebanese snacks and a charcuterie stall that does steaming choucroute. Details: www.equipement.paris.fr Paris travel guide Marche du Midi/Marche, Brussels The biggest market in Brussels is the Marché du Midi, held each Sunday (6am-1pm) outside the Gare du Midi, with a distinct North African flavour. More unusual is the flea market, the Marché aux Puces in the Marolles district, which takes place daily (7am-2pm) on the Place du Jeu de Balle, with more stalls at the weekend. Details: Gare Du Midi, 1060, +32 2 513 89 40 (Marche du Midi); www.marcheauxpuces.be Brussels travel guide Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Continuously operating since 1878, these markets are one of Melbourne's marvels - and a source of constant delight. Join a tour, have a coffee, chat to a grower or stall-holder. Free admission. Details: www.qvm.com.au Melbourne travel guide Queen Victoria Market (Fotolia/AP) Naschmarkt, Vienna Naschmarkt on Wienzeile, besides being a food market, and overcrowded at times, is renowned for its gourmet hot spots. There's a flea market on Saturdays, which is well worth a visit. Details: www.naschmarkt-vienna.com Vienna travel guide Feira da Praça XV, Rio de Janeiro You can easily switch off when it comes to Rio's myriad antique markets, but it is hard not to love the madness of Saturday's weekly jumble at historic Praça XV, and indeed those that sell it. Stalls brim with painstakingly restored toy cars and wilfully destroyed classic-cartoon dolls, old military paraphernalia and hard-to-fathom kitchen utensils, but more often than not it is the furniture that really stands out. Quickly snapped-up French mirrors, industrial lights and bygone posters make arriving early a good idea. Stalls also start to wrap things up from around 2pm but the dregs remain until nearer 4pm. Details: Quinze de Novembro, 21 - Centro, RJ, 20010-000 Brazil travel guide Portobello Road Market, London Portobello Road has dozens of antiques shops and galleries that are open all week, but it explodes into a street market every Saturday with hundreds of stalls selling antiques, bric-a-brac, clothes, shoes and food. Walk up from Notting Hill Gate tube for the full leafy West London experience - bijoux houses, pretty gardens, hidden cafés - but go north from Ladbroke Grove for the earthier, grungier vintage clothing and music stalls. Details: www.portobelloroad.co.uk London travel guide Spitalfields Market, London Once home to London's wholesale fruit and veg market, this airy hall is now a temple to hip shopping with lots of small, independent stalls inside and more established designer names outside. Sundays are liveliest, with more specialist traders attending on Thursdays (antiques and vintage) and Fridays (fashion and art). There is also a record fair held every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. Details: www.spitalfields.co.uk London travel guide Yashow Market and Silk Market, Beijing The two best spots in the city for tourists are the Silk Market (8 Xiushui East St, Chaoyang) and the giant Yashow Market next to Sanlitun. If you only have time for one, head to Yashow, which is slightly less modernised. In both you'll find several floors of clothes, electronics, toys, local knick-knacks and tailors who will offer to knock you up a suit for £50 or so. Haggle hard: the real price of whatever you are looking for is around 30 per cent of the initial quote. Details: www.yashowmarket.com; www.silkmarketbeijing.com Beijing travel guide China travel guide Silk Market (Getty Images) Stanley Market, Hong Kong The most popular market on Hong Kong island is probably Stanley Market, on the south side. There's no MTR station but you can take a taxi (about HK$120) or the 6, 6A, 6X or 260 bus from Exchange Square in Central (sit upstairs on the right for views across the sea). Clothing, paintings, local gifts, shoes - it's all here, plus plenty of cafes and restaurants and a Tin Hau temple containing the rather murky skin of a tiger, supposedly shot nearby in the 1940s. Hong Kong travel guide Central Market and Monastriki Flea Market, Athens Visit the 19th century, iron-and-glass Central Market (Sofokleous and Evripidou) near Omonia, where stallholders vie for shoppers" attention between mounds of silver-scaled fish, blood-splattered carcasses, and piles of rosy apples and dried figs. Equally chaotic is Monastriki Flea Market, a Sunday-morning venture with locals hawking old books, pirate videos and if you're lucky, some genuine antiques. Athens travel guide Testaccio market, Rome It's a wrench for a district when a long-running market is moved, but the airy new premises of this neighbourhood hub have won the approval of most habitués. Besides a choice of fruit, vegetable, meat and fish stalls, there are stands selling last season's shoes at knock-down prices, exquisite cakes (Dess'art, dessart.it), designer household objects (Lo Spaccio di Testaccio, 20MQ), some very good made-while-you-wait street food (Mordi e Vai, mordievai.it) and piles of cheap or vintage clothes that are well worth rifling through. Most of the proper shops inside the market are open from around 9am to 2pm. The food stalls generally open between 6am and 7.30am, and run through until 1.30pm-2.30pm. Rome travel guide Mercato di Rialto, Venice Mercato di Rialto is a vibrant commercial hub, and one still much used by locals, despite a recent proliferation of mini-supermarkets in the centro storico. To get there from the San Marco sestiere, head over the Rialto bridge and walk past the tourist stalls to little Campo San Giacomo, with its bars and restaurants. Cross this diagonally, and you'll immediately see the fruit and vegetable stalls in Campo della Erbaria. Beyond is the covered fish market, or Pescaria, where a huge variety of just-landed Adriatic seafood awaits buyers Tuesdays to Saturdays, who include many of the city's top chefs and restaurateurs. Come early - before 9am - for the best selection. Details: www.actv.it Venice travel guide Tsukiji fish market (Getty Images) Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo Rise with the lark if you want to see one of the best and most popular attractions Tokyo has to offer, its fish market. Public registration to enter the tuna auctions (one of the big lures) begins at 4.30am and by 9am everything is winding down. One in 10 fish caught in the world is eaten in Japan, and a visit here will illustrate just how important they are in Japanese food culture, as plenty of yen are thrown around in pursuit of the freshest catch. Even if you don't want to buy, the huge fish laid out on ice slabs, together with smaller but no less intriguing Pacific sea creatures dotted around the stalls, make for an interesting museum (salesmen frown upon taking photos, though). The hook for foreign visitors unlikely to have their own kitchen is the sushi. The bars here offer some of the best in the city. Details: tsukiji-market.or.jp Tokyo travel guide Medina, Marrakesh There is actually no central market area, rather a series of interconnected markets that specialize in different items. Marrakesh specialises in the unexpected. In the Medina, wander Rue Riad Zitoun el-Jedid for trendy African-print tunics; look for grandmothers peddling chic sequined baskets in Rahba Kedima, the old spice market; spot fuchsia felt bowler hats along Souk Sebbaghine (Dyer's Market); and witness tyres and sardine cans recycled into mirrors and jewellery boxes along Rue Riad Zitoun el-Kedim. Marrakesh travel guide Medina, Marrakesh (Getty Images) Waterlooplein Flea Market, Amsterdam Amsterdam's famous flea market sprawls around three sides of its ugly, brutalist city hall. Once the heart of the Jewish Quarter, this has been the site of market trading for centuries, and today sells everything from mildewy old overcoats and vintage designer classics, to Peruvian jumpers and odd bits of bicycles. Though becoming increasingly commercialized, the flea market is still a fun place to seek out clothing bargains, gifts with a difference, and handmade knick-knacks from around the world. Haggling is not generally the order of the day, but a subtle "and that's your best price?" may get you places. Details: www.waterloopleinmarkt.nl Amsterdam travel guide Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid Mercado de San Miguel is great for tapas and a glass of wine, but also for picking up Spanish gourmet foods. Details: www.mercadodesanmiguel.es Madrid travel guide Chatuchak Weekend Market, Bangkok A short train ride out of the centre of Bangkok, Chatuchak is a kind of city in itself. This huge market sells everything from knocked-off handbags to puppies (neither of which are wise purchases) and lots of much nicer things in between. Silks, suits, spices - everything you could ever want or need is here, on offer from Thai stallholders who brandish calculators ready to do fast deals with the buying public (they price high to haggle). The market might be large (covering 35 acres), but the walkways are narrow, and they really pack it in - there are an estimated 15,000 stalls. Helpfully Chatuchak is divided by type of ware, so if you know what you want you needn't traipse around the whole lot, a feat which is probably impossible in one day anyway. Details: www.chatuchak.org Bangkok travel guide Souqs in Dubai Shopping Dubai's souqs (markets) is superb fun. The souqs in Deira include the Spice Souq (which these days sadly sells few spices and specialises more in souvenirs and silly trinkets), the Gold Souq, Deira Covered Souq (which is not really covered at all) and the Perfume Souq (really just a cluster of perfume shops near the Gold Souq). In Bur Dubai, there is the atmospheric textile souq, and in the surrounding streets, plenty of electronics and camera shops, "one dirham shops" and Asian stores specialising in everything from Indian saris to Bollywood CDs and videos, reflecting the neighbourhood's resident population. While you can visit the souqs in the morning during the winter months (in summer, everything shuts at noon for lunch and it's much too hot to visit during the day), it's more fun to come in the evenings when the markets are at their busiest with local ladies haggling for bargains. Dubai travel guide The Deira Fish Market (Getty Images) This article was first published on August 28, 2014, and updated - with additional recommendations - on November 11, 2014.