If you find yourself in Stuttgart, I highly recommend making a detour and visiting Metzingen Outlet City. These aren’t your usual size outlet stores, because most of the brands have their own huge multi-level building. But you don’t have to be a high end branded shopper to appreciate this place – though if you loved Burberry, Prada, Escada, Zegna, Jimmy Choo, DVF etc. I am sure you will be in heaven – because the architecture and space is beautiful. There is delicious local wine and food to be had too. It was my first time to encounter a Zegna outlet store too. Honestly many of the brands are too luxurious for me, but I still enjoyed wandering into stores and there are some more affordable brands like Fossil, Superdry, Coach, etc. See complete list of brands here.
Hugo Boss Outlet Shopping
The highlight is the original outlet store of Metzingen: Hugo Boss. Metzingen is the location of German brand, Hugo Boss and they were the very first outlet store here. Now it has expanded into an entire city. The Hugo Boss Outlet Store is huge.
But the best part for me was the sample size store in the back. Basically if you are a sample size (38 for women, but I am not sure for men) then you are in luck! The prices are unbelievably low. When we went it was sale season, which meant up to 70% off the outlet price. If you aren’t the sample size, you can still find scarves, bags, shoes, ties and other accessories. 
Just walking around Metzingen and enjoying the architecture and art is a pleasure. You can also sit in one of the benches or cafes to people watch.
Swabian Cuisine
For lunch, we found a really lovely restaurant with charming outdoor seating. In fact it was in the fabulous Hotel Schwanen in the heart of Metzingen. Naturally it served Swabish food which I was eager to try.
We enjoyed Flammküchen, also known as Tarte Flambée. This wood fire oven-baked Allsatian dish is made with bread dough, crème fraîche, onions and lardons or think strips of fatty cured pork. This dish which originated Allemanic France and Germany is similar to pizza, but never ever, call it a pizza when you are ordering it. Trust me! Flammküchen is a dish that we really enjoy.
We also had Käse Späzle. It’s sort of like a German version mac and cheese. But the ones we had were not made of macaroni style pasta. It was so cheesy and delicious. I am happy I was introduced to this Swabian specialty.
Spätzle is a small egg noodle (Käse is “cheese”)which is usually served alongside a meat dish, but can also be served alone
as pictured above. It dates back to at least the year 1725, but medieval drawings show that it has likely been around for much longer. – monkeysandmountains
Metzingen Wine
The wine that accompanied our meal was really good and we were told that it was a local Metzingen Wine and could be found nearby, behind some restored great houses here. How cool is that? It wasn’t as easy to find so we found ourselves walking in the outskirts of the outlet city where the locals lived and got some strange looks. We didn’t mind because we like going to the unexplored areas of a city and seeing how the locals lived and the quaint old structures. If I recall correctly we had the Schwarzriesling trocken (black riesling dry)
I forgot the name of the wine store but you can get their local wine here for about 5 Euros or so. 
We ended up capping off our trip with some Gelate at this Eis Cafe. 
For super high end luxury shopping, Metzingen is a great outlet city to visit, especially if you are going to combine it with a trip to Rastatt, Stuttgart or the Blackforest. All you need is a day really. If you stay in Rastatt, there are shopping shuttles for only 10 € return. There are also shopping shuttle hotels and packages in Rastatt. There are lockers available to rent to keep your stuff and lessen your load while shopping. If you bring a car there are also paid and kostenlos (free) parking areas.
Aside from the shopping shuttles Outlet City offers services to make your visit as convenient as possible: tourist information, childcare, free WIFI coverage throughout and Tax-free shopping for tourists. More information on these here.
Outlet City Metzingen
Mon-Fri 10.00-20.00 • Sat 09.00-20.00 • special opening hoursReutlinger Straße 63 D-72555 Metzgen map
tourist guide pdf • plan your journey • facebook
Didn’t know that there were outlet shopping centers in Europe 😀
And interest piqued on Swabish cuisine…hope you could write more about it. I am clueless of what it is and where its from. Maybe need to look into European geography?
Hi Didi, there are so many outlet stores in Europe and the best thing is they are all original (unlike in Asia) and when they go on sale it’s really super sale. Not fake sale. The best ones are in Italy if you love Italian brands. But there are so many here in Germany. There is even a huge outlet place in the outskirts of Berlin.
Swabish cuisine is new to me too. What I know about the Swabish is what I’ve heard from my friends… that the way they speak, even other Germans cannot understand them and they are super neat and organised (supposedly in their region each person living in an apartment building takes turns cleaning the common areas to keep it super clean). I find them intriguing and I hope to travel more to South Germany to learn more. =)
The food is so interesting! I have never had flammkuechen, kaese spaetzle or black Riesling. I would love to try them all!