New York City also offers a multitude of opportunities for flea-market bargain hunting. Annex/Hell's Kitchen Flea Market has brought two popular venues together. Go to West Thirty-ninth Street, between Ninth and Tenth avenues. A ton of vendors and happy browsers show up every weekend from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. While you're here, you can grab a shuttle ($1 per person) to The Garage and the West Twenty-fifth Street Market. The Garage, at 112 West Twenty-fifth Street (between Sixth and Seventh avenues) is a fantasy for browsers — two floors of eclectic goodies from furniture to handbags to art. Open weekends 6:30 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Then walk over to West Twenty-fifth Street Market at 29 West Twenty-fifth Street (between Fifth and Sixth avenues) for yet more flea market wanderings. Open weekends dawn to dusk. Information at 212-243-5343; www.hellskitchenfleamarket.com.

The Green Flea Market is a wonderfully quirky New York flea market, with clothing, jewelry, trash and treasures, and even fresh fruits and homemade food. It's held on Saturdays, 11 A.M. to 7 P.M., in the West Village at Greenwich Avenue and Charles Street (between West Tenth and West Eleventh streets); West Fourteenth Street station (1, 2, or 3 train).

On Sundays, the flea market moves to the Upper West Side's Intermediate School 44 at Columbus Avenue (between West Seventy-sixth and West Seventy-seventh streets); West Seventy-ninth Street station (1 train) or Eighty-first Street-Museum of Natural History station (B or C train). It's open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., April through October, and closes a half hour earlier November to March. For further information, contact 212-239-3025; www.greenfleamarkets.com.