Attention, shoppers! The sun never sets on bargains

I used to turn up my nose at shopping on the road, which seemed like frittering away precious sightseeing time.

Then, one January several years ago, I was in Hong Kong while the annual Chinese New Year sale was going on. Seemingly every store, from junky Kowloon boutiques to swank Shanghai Tang, which features beautifully tailored East-West fusion fashion, had something I wanted -- at discount prices and with no sales tax. That trip turned me into the sort of person who would book a trip specifically to shop sales.

Nancy Evans, co-founder and editor in chief of iVillage.com, had a similar cathartic shopping experience last year during the August sales in Hong Kong. In the landmark Pedder Building, near the Hong Kong island terminus of the Star Ferry and the luxurious Mandarin Oriental hotel (offering the tonic of afternoon tea), she hit Shanghai Tang and even more upscale Blanc de Chine (where movie star Jackie Chan is said to buy his suits and where, according to a company spokesperson, there are never sales). After that, Evans made her biggest score at a shoe store in the Peninsula Hotel on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor. There, dramatically deep discounts prompted her to buy more pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes than she’s willing to reveal for fear of sounding like Imelda Marcos.

When you’re formulating an itinerary, it pays to know where and when the sales are on.

For those who love the colors and tailoring of fashion from the Orient, there’s almost no better fun than going to Hong Kong to shop in January or August. Companies like Pleasant Holidays and Pacific Delight Tours offer Chinese New Year and other Hong Kong packages that make trip planning easy. The August Mega Sale is partly sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which holds sweepstakes and issues cards to tourists that promise additional discounts.

South Korea holds a similar extravaganza, the Korea Grand Sale in July, featuring discounts in major shopping districts and duty-free stores. In June and early July there’s the Great Singapore Sale, an island-wide event that offers as much as 70% off apparel, electronics, watches and other items. And though the priciness of travel to Japan makes it an unpromising destination for bargain hunters, New Year’s Day sales there bring surprise bags, called fukubukuro, at stores everywhere. You don’t know what’s inside until you buy one, but sometimes they contain treasures worth far more than you paid.

Europe has sale times too, usually at the beginning of the year and in summer (set by the government in some countries).

As the dollar weakens against the euro, bargain hunters must keep a tight grip on their calculators. But as Clarine Porritt, co-founder of Shopper Stopper tours in Sebastopol, Calif., reminded me, cheap airfares and hotel rates in January and February make winter sales in European capitals attractive.

At winter sales in Spain this year John Peterman, the widely traveled founder of the J. Peterman catalog, saw big discounts everywhere. In Paris, women were trying on marked-down clothes in the aisles at boutiques, says Kathy Borrus, author of “The Fearless Shopper.”

Sales at two European stores bear special mention. Harrods, the 154-year-old department store in the Knightsbridge section of London, holds famous sales in January and July that create long lines of customers. Hermes, which has a store on the Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris, keeps the dates of its occasional sales a closely guarded secret (which means visitors should call the store when they reach the city to see if anything is scheduled). Maribeth Clemente, author of “The Riches of Paris: A Shopping and Touring Guide,” was once lucky enough to be there at the right time; her prize was a handful of gorgeous scarves, usually about $200 each, for half price.

In the U.S., June and late November are the best sale times, says Jill Fairchild, founder and editor of the “Where to Wear” guidebook series. Among her other bargain shopping tips: Unsold sale items from Saks department stores around the country are brought to the big Saks on Fifth Avenue in New York in July and January, where they’re marked down again, yielding discounts of up to 80%.

For sample sales at designer showrooms in New York and L.A., Fairchild relies on information posted at www.dailycandy.com, a Web site full of scoops on hot new merchandise.

And then there are the January and July sales at the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine, a New England village that now has more than 100 outlet stores. A traveler could make a fine outing hitting sales at L.L. Bean and staying at the graceful Harraseeket Inn nearby, which has a shopping package.

Happy shopping and traveling. They’re allied arts, after all.

Pacific Delight Tours, (800) 221- 7179, www.pacificdelighttours.com.

Pleasant Holidays, (800) 377- 1080, www.pleasantholidays.com.

Harrods, 87-135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London; 011-44-20-7730-1234, www.harrods.com.

Hermes, 24 Faubourg Saint- Honore, Paris; 011-33-1-40-17- 47-17, www.hermes.com.

Harraseeket Inn, 162 Main St., Freeport, Maine; (800) 342-6423, fax (207) 865-1684, www.harraseeketinn.com.