Eight blocks of Victorian brownstones converted into a shopping promenade, Newbury Street runs from the Public Garden west to Massachusetts Avenue through the heart of Back Bay. The east end, closer to the Garden, is luxury — Chanel, Burberry, art galleries, jewelry — and the prices and ambitions descend gradually as you walk west, ending in vintage clothes, college bookshops, and inexpensive Asian noodle joints around Berklee.
The buildings are part of the appeal: nearly every shop occupies the parlour floor of a former townhouse, with bay windows, wrought-iron stairs down to garden-level cafes, and roof decks above. The Boston Public Library is a block over on Boylston. Galleries cluster on the upper blocks — Newbury has been the city's commercial art quarter since the 1950s.
Sundays are pedestrianised in summer ("Open Newbury") and feel less like a shopping strip and more like a long terrace.