Elegant Newbury Street, Boston’s main shopping drag, offers everything from national chains such as Banana Republic and Gap to exclusive boutiques and funky record stores. Highlights include Louis Boston (234 Berkeley Street, MA 02116, +16172626100, www.louisboston.com), a boutique department store in the former Museum of Natural History building, quirky designer clothes shop Alan Bilzerian (34 Newbury Street, MA 02116, +16175361001) and Fresh (121 Newbury Street, +16174211212), the Boston-born natural beauty company.

Downtown, Filene’s Basement (426 Washington Street, MA 02108, +16175422011) (see Top 5), beneath Filene’s department store, will get bargain hunters’ pulses racing with stock from stores all over the US; the longer an item languishes on the rails, the cheaper it gets.

Because of its student population, Harvard Square (see Top 5) has lots of bookshops to browse, such as the Grolier Poetry Book Shop (6 Plympton Street, MA 02138, +16175474648, www.grolierpoetrybookshop.com) and discount WordsWorth (30 Brattle Street, MA 02138, +16173545201).

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