Worth Avenue before lunch

Palm BeachJuly 30, 2026

Across the bridge

Singer Island keeps you barefoot, and the finer streets sit about twenty minutes south, across the Intracoastal on the island of Palm Beach. Worth Avenue is the reason people say Palm Beach in the same breath as the great shopping streets, and the trick is to take it in the morning, before lunch, while the courtyards are cool and the sidewalks are quiet.

You come off Singer Island, drop south along the water, and cross a short bridge onto the island. A car is the simplest way to do it, and the residence has valet parking to leave from and come home to. On the avenue itself, parking is metered street spaces and a few lots, so arrive early, mind the posted limits, and plan to park once and walk the rest.

Here is what a morning holds, in the order it tends to go:

• The length of Worth Avenue, from the clock tower at the ocean end west toward the Intracoastal.
• The vias, the courtyard alleys tucked behind the storefronts.
• The gardens at the Society of the Four Arts, a short way off the avenue.
• A courtyard lunch to close it out.

Worth Avenue from the clock tower

Worth Avenue runs a little under a quarter-mile across the island of Palm Beach, from the Atlantic at its east end to the Intracoastal at its west. The look of it was set in the 1920s by the architect Addison Mizner, whose Mediterranean Revival style still governs the street: stucco walls, red barrel-tile roofs, wrought iron and arched loggias. It reads less like a shopping center than like a small Spanish town that happens to sell handbags.

Start at the landmark clock tower at the ocean end, an easy place to get your bearings, and walk west. The names come one after another. Saks Fifth Avenue anchors the street as its department store, and the European fashion houses line the blocks, Louis Vuitton and Gucci among the most familiar, alongside jewelers, watch houses, shoe salons and art dealers. The windows are dressed properly, and no one minds if you only look.

How to walk it

• Drift west from the clock tower; the blocks nearest the ocean are the most concentrated.
• Look up. Much of Mizner's detail sits above eye level, in the tilework, the balconies and the little towers.
• Dress resort-smart. A collared shirt or a sundress fits the street better than a beach cover-up.

In late July the avenue is at its calmest, shaded and slow under the awnings, which suits a morning walk.

Into the vias

The best of Worth Avenue is not on the avenue. Threaded behind the storefronts is a network of narrow courtyard alleys called the vias, the Italian word for streets, and stepping into one is like finding a door in a wall. Fountains run, bougainvillea spills over the balconies, and small shops, galleries and cafes ring quiet plazas that most people on the main street walk right past.

The vias are Addison Mizner's doing. In the 1920s he began building these courtyard passages beside his own quarters on the avenue, and the idea spread until the block became a small maze of connected courts. The original and best known is Via Mizner, named for the architect. There is no single grand entrance; look for the archways set into the storefronts on both sides of the street and step through, and one via usually leads to the next.

What you find in the vias

• Small boutiques and specialty shops, the more personal side of Palm Beach retail.
• Art galleries and antique dealers in ground-floor rooms, often with the owner at the desk.
• Courtyard cafes where you can sit with a coffee in the shade and watch the fountain.

Morning is the time for them, before the sun is full on the courtyards. The paving is old and uneven in places, so wear easy shoes. Getting a little turned around is part of it, and you are never more than a minute from the main street.

The Society of the Four Arts gardens

A short way off the avenue, still on the island of Palm Beach, is the Society of the Four Arts. It was founded in the 1930s and takes its name from the four arts it was created to serve: art, music, drama and literature. Through the winter it runs a full program of lectures, concerts and exhibitions, covered in our arts and culture guide, but the reason to stop on a summer morning is the gardens.

The gardens are laid out as a series of connected garden rooms, each planted with what grows well in South Florida, and they are shaded and cooled by fountains. There is a sculpture garden too, so the walk doubles as an easy outdoor gallery. Access is generally open and casual, which makes it a quiet counterweight to the shops: hedges, birdsong, a bit of statuary, and the sense of stepping off a busy street into somewhere older.

How to fit it in

• Treat the gardens as a drop-in; walk the garden rooms and see whatever exhibition is hanging.
• It sits within easy reach of Worth Avenue, so it pairs with the morning's browsing.
• If a summer lecture or concert fits your day, take it as a bonus rather than the point.

Half an hour here resets the morning before you sit down to eat.

A courtyard lunch to finish

The lunch worth having is down in the vias. Some of the loveliest tables in the county sit along these passages: a shaded courtyard, a long midday table, a glass of something cold, and no one hurrying you. The avenue leans toward the classic end, polished service and a menu that knows exactly what it is, and it is the deliberate opposite of a beach-shack lunch.

Booking and dress

• Reserve on weekends and in the winter season, roughly November through April, when the courtyard tables are limited and fill early.
• Dress resort-casual, a notch up from the beach, and leave the wet swimsuit on the island.
• Go before one o'clock or after two to slip past the midday rush.

A late-July lunch has its own reward. In the deep summer the town quiets as the season crowd heads north, and a courtyard table can feel like you have the place half to yourself. Our Palm Beach dining guide covers how to eat well across the bridge, and the shopping guide walks the avenue and the vias in full.

When lunch is done, it is a short drive home, back over the bridge and up the island before the afternoon heat settles, to the balcony and the rest of a slow day.