Travel To Boston – MA
Getting Around Boston
Nearby Airports
- Boston Logan International Airport-BOS
Things to Do and See in New York City
Other Popular places to see in Boston
Best Boston Neighborhoods for Travelers
Government Center – MA
No politics at the dinner table is a rule made to be broken in Boston. Fanueil Hall has been a destination of shops and restaurants since 1742, while the upstairs meeting room made American history. This is where Sons of British liberty complained of “taxation without representation”, the 19th-century abolitionists made their case against slavery, and the young Bostonian John Fitzgerald Kennedy made a pitch for the powerful presidency. Bostonians have talked politics over drinks at the nearby Bell in Hand Tavern since 1795 and argued constitutional amendments on Durgin Park pot roasts and baked beans since 1827. Disagreements are always forgivable, as long as the root of the NHL Bruins and NBA Celtics at nearby TD gardens. Power politicking moved within the brutalist concrete fortress of Boston’s Government Center in the 1960s, but friendly discussions still add flavor to the food at the colonial Quincy Market. Get your appetite up for more along the three-mile trails at Charles River Esplanade, and relax in the splendor of the renovated warehouse glory of Harborside Inn.
South Boston – MA
Star attractions steal the thunder from the coastline of the Atlantic along Boston’s southern waterfront. The New England Aquarium allows visitors to explore four stories of enormous sea turtles and bloodthirsty sharks without even getting wet. During April-October whale watching season, aquarium cruises head to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary to spot migrating humpback. Energetic and smart children will feel at home in the bubble room of the Boston Children’s Museum, Recycle Shop, and Science Playground. Wonders of art and shy daters prefer the Institute of Contemporary Art for their performances conversation starter and cantilevered wall of windows that overlook Boston Harbor. Fishermen drag their catch directly to the seaport docks, where hungry visitors at Boston Convention and Exhibition expect their legal Seafood Test Kitchen, No Name, and Barking Crab. For an honest beer between real Bostonians, head into South Boston, known locally as Southie. This working-class neighborhood deserves its own Oscar for her starring role in Good Will Hunting, with scenes filmed in divey L Street Tavern by then-unknown Boston writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. However, for an undisputed star, nothing can compare to the I.M. Pei’s traditional black-and-white JFK Library and Museum.
Fenway-Kenmore – MA
Hello to sports lovers and art fans: you’ve come to the right place. The Red Sox have played at Fenway Park since 1912, with mixed results. Faithful followers saw the Sox through a dry spell of 86 years to his 2004 victory, commemorated in baseball rom-com Love Farrelly brothers at stake. Between games, Sox fans flirted in the courtyard Cask n ‘Flagon and Game On! trivia nights. World-class attractions neighborhood “cultchah” show that there is more to Boston than baseball and beer, at least the World Series between. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a splendid Italianate mansion courtyard full of art treasures of incalculable value-with 13 notable exceptions stolen in a robbery in 1990. Until the $50 million value of Vermeer, Degas and Rembrandt’s paintings recovered, empty frames mark their places on the walls of the gallery of the gardener. The Museum of Fine Arts is touting a new art of the American wing, with 53 galleries full of jade Olmecs masks, Eames chairs, and Georgia O’Keefe’s sexy flowers. If you are not in the mood for Grammy-winning symphony, Berklee Performance Center showcases virtuosos from banjo sensation Bela Fleck to punk pioneer Henry Rollins. For serious beats, hit hip hop Mondays at Church or the House of Blues’ gay-friendly Epic Saturdays with DJs in drag.
Chestnut Hill – MA
This suburban enclave is about seven miles, some of the tax brackets, and a hundred SAT points removed from downtown Boston. Newton is an independent city composed of 13 people, including Chestnut Hill linked smart and several towns that share the name confusingly Newtown (Newtown Center, -Corner, -Highlands, -Superior Falls, -Reduced Falls). Unsurprisingly, Newton tends to confuse newcomers. A wrong turn on the highway off Massachusetts could send you to the lanes with 17th century stone fences, manicured lawns, boarding schools, and expanding single-family homesteads. Newtonians neighborhood could point to local landmarks, including Bulloughs ice skating pond, the aptly named Newton Commonwealth Golf Course, and Jackson Homestead, a historic stop on the Underground Railroad. After making his name with Central Park in Manhattan, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead lavished attention on Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Runners hit the reservoir’s waterfront trails, training to take on Newtown’s Heartbreak Hill during the Boston Marathon. Newtonian teens get their exercise trolling The Mall at Chestnut Hill and collegiate staples J. Crew and Brooks Brothers to Apple and Tiffany.
East Boston – MA
Landfill seems an unstable base for runways of Logan Airport, let alone a family neighborhood. However, generations of immigrants have called “Eastie” home, including the first family of Boston. Eastie has evolved since the Kennedy children toured Meridian Street, and JFK fresh face posed for pictures of the 1954 campaign Santarpio’s pizza. Today Eastie remains working class, with more Latino families than Irish or Italian. Some things never change: Santarpio still serves thin-crust pie and Meridian market makes a big deal in the chicken parm and trippa (tripe). Instead of leaving lunch at Logan Airport concessions, detour from the Massachusetts Turnpike after Ted Williams Tunnel for a proper “Eastie dinnah”. Walking off in the waterfront park by the historical Piers Cottage Street, where the Albert Einstein Institute reports presidents and activists silence in the dismantling dictatorships through nonviolent social change.
North End – MA
Gorging pasta is positively patriotic in the North End of Boston. Paul Revere left North End home late at night on April 18, 1775, to warn the colonial militia in the cities of Concord and Lexington that “the British are coming!” In the tower of Old North Church, lanterns were hung to warn the patriots across the Charles River from the British invasion: “One if by land, two if by sea.” Today University history major routes leading summer tour to the Old North crypt and the tower, and MIT students create compositions for Old North bells. Even if you came to the North End for the history, you’ll stay for the food. Generations of Italian settlement have earned the nickname “Little Italy” and pack its one-third mile area with an old country flavor. With nearly 100 eateries clustered around Hanover Street, dinner is a serious dilemma: Ristorante Giacomo for ravioli, linguine shrimp at Pomodoro, or homemade fusilli with vodka sauce at the Dente? Bostonians were also sharply split loyalties among the three bakeries in the North End: Mike’s for traditional ricotta cannoli, pastry Maria’s “lobster tail” cream fillings pastry, and Modern Bakery for chocolate cream cannoli. Dessert debates can get heated, but the north end has outlived its share of controversy, the funeral procession for anarchists and accused bank robbers Sacco and Vanzetti was held here.
Jamaica Plain – MA
On the other side of Franklin Park, Jamaica Plain is an English indie success. South Street galleries like the Hallway are magnets for fresh talents from the Museum School, Mass Art, and the Northeastern. Skip dubious wine at First Friday openings, but don’t forget the JP’s historical craft beer. Pioneering 1871 Haffenreffer Brewery now is the new home of Sam Adams HQ. Legendary pub crawls on Washington Street start with pints at Doyle’s taproom, and finish at Midway Café for raucous folk-rock and gay karaoke. If it’s too much to walk to a different block for a change of happy hour scenery, Sam Adams Trolley Tours departs from Doyle five days a week. As can be seen from the menus, JJP is mostly white and Latino, 20 percent African American, 6 percent Asian, and 100 percent new-New England. For a taste of authentic JP’s pan-Atlantic, try Cuban roast pork sandwiches at El Oriental de Cuba and genuine Scottish eggs at The Haven. The latest success of JP’s gourmet is Ten Tables Bistro, beginning with wicked craft cocktails and ending with Thai basil ice cream. Pack picnics from City Feed & Supply’s deli for some boating at Jamaica Pond.
Downtown – MA
In downtown Boston is a cow pasture that made history U.S. Early settlers used Boston Common for grazing cattle until 1640 when he became the first public green space in the United States. Puritans cast a long shadow over the Common, raising a public gallows for hanging accused witches and hapless Quakers. Today, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and the Lyric Opera perform tragic deaths in the Common strictly for entertainment. Children play epic games of tag through 50 acres of common history, from the Puritans’ creepy Central Burying Ground to the lawn where Dr. Martin Luther King led 1960 protests for civil rights. Bostonians have skated through frozen Frog pond every winter for centuries, and couples on first dates have sweated out the pedals of the Swan Boats in the Public Garden Lagoon since 1877. Tricorn-hatted docents from the Common Visitors Center lead tourists along the Freedom Trail, in the footsteps of the revolutionaries who plotted the Boston Tea Party at the Old South Meeting House and were buried in Granary Burying Grounds. Sleek downtown buildings are next to the with landmarks of colonial brick on School Street, where the mosaic marks the site of the first school in the United States around 1635. Charles Dickens was a regular at the historic Omni Parker House, but probably he would have enjoyed a drink in the Clink, the new Liberty Hotel bar in the former Charles Street Jail.
Theater District – MA
The most action-packed neighborhood in Boston that slices, dices, twists, and treads with delicate. Once clothing and leather factories moved to the area in the 19th century, many immigrants left the noisy transportation and entertainment center. But with anti-Asian sentiment ordered in the 1882 U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese Bostonians were left with few alternatives. Today, Chinatown remains a key entry point for newcomers, and about 70 percent of its current residents claim Asian heritage. Chinatown provides a cushion between the PG-rated theater district and XXX Combat Zone until the 1990s when redevelopment and online pornography overthrew the sex trade downtown. Chinatown diners still stay open late to serve crowds from the Boston Ballet at the Wang Theater, Stomps in the historic Culter Majestic Theater, and comedy shows in the small Wilbur Theater. Chinatown has become a dining destination in its own right, from traditional fresh-from-the-aquarium seafood to the New Jumbo Aquarium feast, and skillet pan-Asian creative dumplings at Myers+Chang. Look at the late-night rap battles that develop at Good Life, and greet the new day with dumplings at Winsor Dum Sum Cafe.
South End – MA
When you are done with the starchy old Boston, South End begins. South of Back Bay brownstone houses is surging from rows of red brick Victorian, with generous Bay windows and gregarious stoops. New England neighborhoods may seem distant, but the southern end embraces its multiracial and historical openly gay communities. Newcomers have stayed at guesthouses at the South End and mixed in cafes and clubs since 1880. Gays, lesbians, and Latinos moved into homes vacated by the middle class Irish, Jewish, and African-Americans families after World War II, and today the South End neighborhood hosts parties for the pride of Boston (mid-June) and Hispanic Heritage Month (October). South End nights are full of surprises: Mother’s Ruin (gin and pickle juice) at Gallows, real Venezuelan arepas (cornbread pockets) at Orinoco, burning jazz in the historic Wally’s Cafe and cool DJ sets at GLBT-central Club Café.
Brookline – MA
If Boston cramps your style, slip into something more comfortable – for example, Brookline. This suburb rebelled against urban development plans and split from Boston in 1873 to preserve its rural village character. Brookline received first-class professional help from Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, who moved his landscaping practice to Brookline in 1883. Today Olmsted’s office is a national park and Brookline remains a pleasant seven-mile patchwork of tree-shaded city squares, thriving neighborhood parks, and cozy pedestrian zones. On the south side, the 250-year-old Allandale farm still sells organic tomatoes from the Brookline nursery, while on the north side, Zaftig pastrami’s delicatessens stack on pumpernickel. The 1933 Art Deco Coolidge Corner Theatre shows art-house films every night and the Café Fixe in Washington Square keeps Boston University’s faculty decaf-free. Although known as the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, today’s Brookline is not an Irish Catholic enclave. A third of Brookline’s residents are Jewish and a sixth Asian, and almost a third of Brookline’s schoolchildren speak English as a second language.
Beacon Hill – MA
Boston’s charming brick-paved gaslight district is built around a slippery fish. As Massachusetts outgrew its old colonial assembly house, a new statehouse was built in John Hancock’s garden along Beacon Street. Luckily, a replica of the carved lobsters that had disappeared from the old state house during the Revolutionary War was installed in the new gold-plated statehouse. The neighborhood that grew up around the sacred cod earned its name as a beacon of freedom during the Civil War when Frederick Douglass recruited an African-American regiment to join the Union’s anti-slavery struggle at the African Assembly House. The historic event is captured in the film Glory, and the Museum of African American History at Joy St. Today, Beacon Hill is known for its atmospheric lighting in such cozy bistros as Grotto, 75 Chestnut, Figs and The Paramount. A whiteboard may sound very familiar: Beacon Hill’s former pub, the Bull & Finch, served as a model for the Sam’s Bar on the TV show Cheers. Here, fish and chips are on the menu, but sacred cod is taboo for the State House. After the Harvard Lampoon Jokers “pirated” it in 1933, the police dredged the Charles River, searched the airport, and chased the cod trappers to Roxbury to retrieve Beacon Hill’s favorite fish.
Back Bay – MA
Swampland on the Charles River was the best investment in Boston. Native Americans fished Back Bay mudflats for 5,000 years before 19th-century builders lined them with garbage dumps and carved tree-lined avenues to compete with Paris. Two hundred years later, the imposing brownstones of Back Bay are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the Boston Brahmins who populate them have cultivated a special accent (“Hahvahd Yahd”). On Copley Square, the 1852 Boston Public Library houses John Adams’ private library, the mural-fringed John Singer Sargent Gallery, and the elegant Map Room Café. To see what the world looked like around 1935, enter the sparkling glass sphere of the Mapparium in the nearby Christian Science Library. Boring modern skyscrapers now overlook the oxidized copper roofs of Back Bay, but the Hynes Convention Center houses the annual Anime Boston and Prudential Center; the piano bar Top of the Hub offers panoramic views of the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Boston Duck Tours depart from near the Prudential Center on World War II amphibious boats. Newbury Street is lined with tempting shops, including indie music from Newbury Comics and jeans from Massachusetts Madewell. Sonsie is a must for happy hour with a fashionable side of Newbury Street, while dinner is a toss between The Salty Pig delicatessen and classic Boston “chowdah” at the Atlantic Fish Company.
Charlestown – MA
Colonial townhouses make Charlestown look like the long-lost twin of Beacon Hill, across the Charles River, but this neighborhood has survived epic hardships. The 221-foot-high granite obelisk on Bunker Hill is reminiscent of the long ordeals faced by the ragged revolutionaries in 1775 when they fought 4,000 British soldiers with meager ammunition. Concerned about the lack of gunpowder, American Colonel William Prescott gave the legendary order: “Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes”. Another local war hero is anchored at the Charlestown Shipyard: the USS Constitution, the 1797 ship that survived the cannon fire to earn the nickname “Old Ironsides”. Today, the warship is open to visitors, while children disguise themselves as sailors in the port museum. Survivors of the Irish Famine of the 1840s found refuge in Charlestown, and the neighborhood’s predominantly Irish population still visits the local St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the Emmons Horrigan O’Neil Memorial Rink and the End of the World Tavern. This seemingly innocent neighborhood has earned quite a criminal record for its bank robberies and inspired Ben Affleck’s film, The Town