Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Boston harbors a lively and youthful energy despite its Puritan roots and Brahmin heritage. When Bostonians are not sipping coffee in an inviting outdoor café along the famed Newbury Street or walking the picturesque pathways of the Esplanade along the scenic Charles River, they are browsing the art and architecture that lend Boston its distinct character. The renowned Museum of Fine Arts boasts some 450,000 works, while the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum showcases the stunning collection of its namesake socialite in a recreated 15th-century Venetian palazzo.