<p>".... For one-of-a-kind finds Harvard Square, MA</p>
<p>Home of the world famous Harvard University, The Square is renowned for its eclectic collection of small boutiques offering everything from haute couture to the latest in street fashions. Best described as a cross between Greenwich Village New York and Piccadilly Circus in London, youll find a mix of rocker-types hanging by the newsstands, fashonistas wobbling in high heels, and crunchy types reading under the trees. Its lively well after midnight almost any day of the week, and offers over 100 different restaurants and sidewalk cafes that will tempt even the most adventurous palate. Music and entertainment are everywhere, and you can browse in the worlds largest concentration of bookstores (24 at last count!).
Street performers greet you at every corner offering songs, dramatic performances, juggling and magic. Local nightclubs offer live jazz and rock, you can experience virtual reality at the nations largest cyber cafe, or simply sit and watch the colorful crowds pass by. Why is Harvard Square such a great place to shop? Simple, its ozzing with creative people and specialty stores you cant find anywhere else in the world...."</p>
<p>ABC obviously hasn't traveled much. It's nice, but it's nowhere near that good. London has at least 5 better squares (gardens) and streets. It isn't anywhere near Piccadilly, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Regent St., Carnaby St. I might have to give it the Bookstore award though.</p>
<p>I mourn the passing of the old Harvard Square of the 60s and 70s. You could write your dissertation nursing a 5c cup of coffee in the old Waldorf's. You could celebrate passing your exams in the old Wursthaus. Besides the Harvard Bookstore, there was Wordsworth, another great bookstore.Shopping? The Square has more banks per square foot than any other place in the world. It has chain stores and chain restaurants.<br>
I can't believe ABC has actually been to the Square, let alone great shopping areas in the world.</p>
<p>Forget about Harvard Square... I'm not really understanding why Dubai ranks lower on the list than San Marcos, TX ...or really why anywhere in Texas made the list... ????? o_O?</p>
<p>When I brought some friends from Columbia to visit Harvard and walked out into the square, I got responses ranging from "you call this a city?" to "what a charming suburb; when are we going to see the real Boston/Cambridge?" When I told them Harvard Square was considered an "alternative" place for "artistic" people in the Boston area, they were utterly aghast and couldn't imagine what a "conservative" part of Boston might look like. </p>
<p>In retrospect, I don't know how, living in Boston, I ever considered Harvard Square, with its J. Press and such, anything near "artistic". A few corners do have some bohemian appeal; there are the bands in the pit and the Groiler Poetry Bookshop and the theatres, but it is pretty far from anything in downtown New York or some of the artsy neighborhoods I've seen in Berlin. The (current incarnation of) the Left Bank in Paris is a closer comparison. It might suffice as a miniature of Piccadilly. </p>
<p>For all that, Harvard Square feels much more like a British collegiate city (i.e. Oxford or Cambridge) than any other university setting in the United States. Harvard seems much more organically integrated into it in a way Yale is quite awkwardly not in New Haven. I like the fact that the entire neighborhood revolves around/glorifies Harvard; one doesn't get that sense in Morningside Heights at all.</p>
<p>Picadilly circus! I used to love that place when I was little, mainly for the name and the huge shopping complex I suppose. But its shopping and scene aren't as good as other parts, notably Camden Lock of days past. Still, I'll make sure to check it out in November to get a little shopping in while 'hating' Harvard. ;)</p>
<p>hahaha, i didn't mean to be nitpicky. but yeah, even though i've never been there, i find it strange that Cambridge, MA boasts the 2nd best place to shop in the WORLD.</p>