Hurrah! The mighty pound is worth pretty much two dollars, and I’m off to the US to spend the children’s inheritance. But where to go for a weekend of extreme retail? Not New York – who needs the schlep from the airport, all that attitude and being stung by more than 8 per cent sales tax on everything you buy?

No, I’m going to Boston – shorter flight, a ten-minute journey from the airport downtown thanks to the new Big Dig tunnel, no sales tax on clothes costing less than $175 and, best of all, my secret weapon – my friend Anne Blumberg, who has lived in the city for years and knows all the best discount stores. So we’re not just talking cheap, we’re talking so cheap it would be rude not to.

My hotel, Nine Zero, has been selected by Anne as the ideal base. It’s a funky boutique property on Tremont Street, opposite some of Boston’s most famous sights, including the gold-domed State House and the Old Granary Burying Ground, where giants of American Revolutionary history such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams are interred. But, more important, it’s a minute’s walk from Downtown Crossing, where several discount stores are clustered, and, as an added bonus for a shopaholic, it’s the only hotel in Boston where you can buy all the furnishings, from the fabulously comfortable beds to the on-trend bathroom sink and the cocktail cabinet in the lobby.

To set us up for a hard day’s shopping, we have a bargain breakfast at the Paramount on Charles Street, where a stack of fluffy buttermilk blueberry pancakes, bacon, coffee and juice cost a mere £5 ($10) a head. Then, to give me some idea of what full retail prices should be, we take a quick stroll down the Bond Street of Boston, Newbury Street, full of designer names and jewellers. Just for the hell of it I try on a pair of $22,000 diamond clips in Dorfman. Surely a snip at £11,000? Sadly, my husband doesn’t take the bait. Cheapskate.

Our first stop is Filene’s Basement back at Downtown Crossing. A Boston institution since 1908, its “off-price” (aka discount) clothes, shoes and accessories, many of them designer names, are famously subject to the Automatic Markdown Plan whereby goods get cheaper the longer they stay on the racks. It can get enormously crowded – and the biannual Bridal Run days, when thousands of brides to be and their mothers stampede through the store to compete for cheap wedding dresses, are to be completely avoided – but today it’s not too bad, although it has all the glamour of a jumble sale in a Scouts’ hut.

If you can see past the vile green Dolce & Gabbana trousers and the magnificently bling Donald J Trump cufflinks there are some real finds for the determined. We unearth Brooks Brothers silk ties for £10, cute Ben Sherman cufflinks for £10, a dogtooth-check Yves Saint Laurent blouse for £65 and a lovely stripy Ralph Lauren summer dress for our daughter for £15. Anne triumphs with a pair of Marc Jacobs sunglasses which she has seen in his Newbury Street store for £125 but here cost £35.

We head across the road to the Designer Shoe Warehouse, whose vast selection is far more orderly than Filene’s. There are plenty of cheap and nasties but my husband quickly spies a pair of classic Timberland deck shoes for £30 (£85 in the UK) and Ecco loafers for £40 (£70 in the UK). Unfortunately, I lose the oxygen to my brain for a crucial ten minutes and buy a pair of purple and blue flowery trainers.

After a quick foray in Marshalls, another off-price store, for half-price Hello Kitty and Spider-Man toys for the kids, it’s off to Wrentham Village, an outlet complex 45 minutes from Boston, past the cranberry bogs on the South Shore. The choice is overwhelming – there are more than 100 outlet stores and most of the big names in US retail, from Ferragamo to Banana Republic.

The high point is Ralph Lauren, which is packed with shoppers seeking the Wasp preppy look and where classic white sheet sets for single beds are £10 and men’s chinos are £15. A 15 per cent discount if you buy four items makes them even cheaper. It’s hard to resist Gap jeans, too, when they’re £17.50 here and £39.50 in the UK. The Gap Kids store is discounting summer stuff, so we load up with T-shirts and sandals, and I’m even tempted by a Le Creuset saucepan in Williams-Sonoma, which is £35 instead of £68 in the UK – but life’s too short to lug cast iron across the Atlantic and there’s the airline luggage weight penalty to think of, too.

The only disappointment is the lack of toy shops. It seems that Target, a slightly smarter version of Asda, has wiped out the toy store competition in the area, so it’s off to the branch in South Bay, where, glory be, I manage to find a Ben 10 watch for my small boy that has been sold out in the UK for months, and, at £7, is half the UK price. I had considered buying an iPod, but interestingly, the half-price rule doesn’t apply here. They’re a standard £100 across the US, compared with £129 in the UK and not worth busting my £145 duty-free allowance for.

Exhausted, we head back to Boston and slump into Legal Sea Foods for a lobster supper. It’s plump and juicy and, at £18, half the price of one in a London restaurant, but I’m too tired to crack a claw. If I really want to, I can buy one and have it shipped home (by no means a bargain, but proof that in Boston, the shopping never stops).

We think we’ve done well, especially on big US brand clothes, shoes and linen. Boston’s a friendly and easy place to shop and it’s possible to save the cost of the air fare without too much effort – but Anne says that, had we come over on a bank holiday weekend such as Memorial Day, the deals would have been even better. Now she tells me.

Bag a bargain

Brooks Brothers silk tie, £10 in Boston, £40 in the UK. Marc Jacobs sunglasses, £35 in Boston, £125 in the UK. Gap Long and Lean Jeans, £17.50 in Boston, £39.50 in the UK. Timberland men’s deck shoes, £30 in Boston, £85 in the UK. Ralph Lauren twin sheet set, £10 in Boston, £70.50 in the UK.

The duty-free allowance of £145 is set to double next year to £290 for air passengers returning to the EU.

Need to know

Julia Brookes travelled with British Airways Holidays (0870 2433406, www.ba.com). Three nights at Nine Zero (001 617 772 5800, www.ninezero.com) start at £969pp, leaving in June. This includes return flights from Heathrow to Boston (from £533pp) and hotel only (from £436pp), based on two sharing. Day trips to Wrentham Village cost £18.

Details: www.premiumoutlets.com. The Paramount, 44 Charles Street (001 617 720 1152, www.paramountbostoncom). Legal Sea Foods, 26 Park Plaza (426 4444, www.legalseafoods.com).

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