The World’s Best Toy Stores

Whether you’re traveling with little ones or fancy yourself a kid at heart, you should keep in mind where you can find some of the world’s best toy stores. The folks at SpotCoolStuff recently rounded up a few places where children and adults alike can enjoy a vacation within a vacation.

We’ll start with the obvious. FAO Schwarz in New York City is arguably the world’s most famous toy wonderland.  Other than the floor keyboard, it boasts a huge stuffed animal zoo, a doll adoption center and the FAO Schweetz candy shop.

With mega flagships in several locations around the world, LEGO Stores are a fun-for-all spot. They usually include hands-on play spaces, enormous LEGO structures and, best of all, always contain tons of those famous Danish building blocks in various shapes and configurations.

While there are several Hamleys toy stores around the world, the best of them is on Regent Street in London. The seven floors here are densely packed with nearly every toy imaginable. The staff often dress up in costumes, but the best part is the hands-on toy demonstrations.

Gashapon, though not the name of a Japanese toy store, is the word for a toy that comes from a vending machine. A gashapon store will contain at least one isle—and sometimes many isles—of vending machines each of which has a different toy for sale.

While the Toys ‘R’ Us chain isn’t the most exciting store there is, the Toys ‘R’ Us location in Times Square is super cool. After all, it is the largest toy store on the planet. The massive play land’s greatest feature is a working ferris wheel that’s 60 feet high.

Of course, the world’s biggest Barbie store is a little girls dream come true. The massive pink Shanghai store displays countless large doll busts throughout six floors traversed via a spiral staircase or an LED-lit escalator. The best part: the fourth floor cocktail lounge, where all of the drinks are of the fruity variety and are served in pink glasses. Fathers: beware.

For more toy store goodness, visit SpotCoolStuff for the entire list.