Pressure-driven flows through an axisymmetric expansion-contraction geometry is addressed in this work. Three fluids have been considered: a Newtonian, Boger and a shear-thinning polymer solution flowing through a flow apparatus specifically designed for various contraction-ratios (2:1:2, 4:1:4, 6:1:6, 8:1:8, 10:1:10). Measurements of the pressure drop and kinematic fields are investigated. The three fluids have the same viscosity at low shear-rates. The Boger fluid (polyacrylamide in a syrup-water solution) possesses a constant viscosity over a wide range of shear-rates. The shear-thinning fluid also has a wide range of first Newtonian plateau before the onset of shear-thinning. The Boger fluid results show a decreasing pressure-drop below the Newtonian reference line followed by values larger than one as the contraction-ratio increases. This can be explained on the basis of the extensional viscosity behaviour in the contraction section of the geometry. The shear-thinning polymer solution (HASE-type associative polymer) shows a reduction in pressure drop below the Newtonian curve for small contraction-ratios (due to shear-thinning) but the extensional flow behaviour dominates the shear-thinning effects as the contraction-ratio becomes more severe. Kinematic fields obtained by flow visualization reveal several different sizes of the corner-vortex, which are related to the relative contributions from the first normal stress difference (N1) and extensional stress throughout the geometry.