Streets & Avenues

Certain streets transcend their function as thoroughfares and become destinations in their own right. Times Square in New York bathes pedestrians in a canyon of LED billboards, the Promenade des Anglais in Nice traces the Baie des Anges with a sweep of Belle Époque elegance, and Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo orchestrates the world's most famous pedestrian scramble every ninety seconds. Walking a celebrated street offers a compressed survey of a city's architecture, commerce, and social life—you pass from Art Deco facades to modernist glass, from luxury boutiques to hole-in-the-wall eateries, in the space of a few blocks. In Venice, the Grand Canal serves as the city's main street, navigated by vaporetto rather than on foot, while the Royal Mile in Edinburgh climbs from a royal palace to a medieval castle along a single volcanic ridge. The best time to walk these routes varies: some glow at night, others are most photogenic at dawn when the crowds thin and the light softens.