Hi all, thanks in advance for your help. I am looking for a functional and pretty shopping district, downtown and vacation subhoods. I've tried doing it myself, even with downloading lots from here but they always just look like a mish mash of... downloaded lots, lol. I can find lots of main hoods but not many subhoods. I would like them without any sims. Thanks!

Try looking over here on the Wiki. There are listings for what you're looking for further down the page. It lists all of the known neighborhoods and subhoods. However, it doesn't list off hand which ones are populated or not, but you can always go to this page, where they are broken down by EP requirements, though they may not list if it is a subhood or not. Also, follow the links listed on the wiki, but in the creator should have stated if any Sims/NPC's/Townie's are included.. In addition, there are marka93's "Beginning" Hoods converted into shopping districts that are empty of Sims. Old Town is a separate download on that page, and it is the only one that includes Sims.

Those "beginning hoods" have lots of sims but no lots, exactly the opposite of what's wanted.

Another alternative is to change existing neighborhoods to subhoods using this tutorial:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=502306

Note that you can only change the hood type if the hood has no subhoods attached.

Thanks to you both. I found a vacation subhood I like with those links and I'm definitely going to try using that tutorial.