If you’re yearning for an exciting vacation filled with amazing sights, great foods, and world-class shopping, look no further than New York, Miami, and San Francisco. These three enchanting coastal cities offer some of the most fascinating sights and thrilling shopping in the world.
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NYC
New York city is renowned as a premier shopping destination. Retail hub Union Square offers everything from upscale retailers to the biggest farmers’ market in the city. Sax Fifth Avenue lends timeless elegance to your shopping experience, and antiques, gourmet food markets, and bookstores crowd the West Village.
For discount shopping heaven, head over to Sixth Avenue, home of off-price stores like Filene’s Basement. After your retail explorations, so much more Manhattan fun beckons: the theatres of Broadway, the thrilling views from the Empire State Building, and the winding paths of Central Park.
Lodging choices for the weary shopper abound, from the newer boutique hotels to elegant luxury accommodations.
Miami
After you’ve enjoyed strolling on the miles of white sand beaches surrounding Miami, Florida, take a shopping break and combine sunny sightseeing with some amazing boutique browsing. In Key Biscayne, swim with the dolphins at the Marine Seaquarium; then enjoy streets packed with intriguing antique shops and arty boutiques.
For a taste of old time Miami, take a stroll down Calle Ocho in Little Havana and enjoy the vibrant street life and eclectic shops. Trendy South Beach is known for its sizzling night life, hip cafes, and chic boutiques. South Beach is part of Miami’s famed Art Deco District, composed of roughly eight hundred beautifully restored buildings.
Book a stay in one of the spectacular historic hotels for a glamorous taste of Miami in days gone by.
San Francisco
Hilly San Francisco, California, presents an eclectic mix of shopping break opportunities, from Chinese herb stands to designer knockoff boutiques and funky bohemian shops. Union Square is the hotel, theatre, and shopping hub of the city. Here a shoppers’ paradise of designer boutiques, art galleries, and department stores blooms amid flower stands and elegant hotels.
San Francisco boasts the biggest Chinatown outside of Asia, and, if you slip down its side streets, you can find tiny shops offering Chinese herbs, art and jewellery. Haight Street, centre of sixties hippie culture, offers everything from incense to antique clothing.
The city also presents an abundance of fascinating sights, from Lombard Street, the self-proclaimed “crookedest street in the world”, to the hustle and bustle of Fisherman’s Wharf and the stunning views from Coit Tower, high atop Telegraph Hill.
From coast to coast, the United States offers holidays to suit any taste or budget. New York, Miami, and San Francisco offer fascinating sights, great hotels, fine dining, and some of the best shopping in the world.
Nowadays, planning a shopping break in the USA is very easy as there plenty of good deals with Virgin flights and cheap British Airways flights if booked well in advance, so make sure you plan your shopping break well ahead of intended departure.
Sebastian Lorez, the author of the “Shopping breaks in the USA” is a writer and a travel blogger from New York.