NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com Logo   Boston, Massachusetts Travel Guide
Boston is the "capital" of New England, with a deep history, excellent museums, musical performances, bautiful parks, great restaurants (lobster dinners!), fine hotels and plenty of shopping.

Panorama of Boston, Massachusetts

 







 

Bostonians consider Boston , the Hub of New England, and indeed history and nature have granted Boston lots to see and do for both adults and kids. It's a great city for restaurants, especially for seafood (and particularly lobsters), and it has a full range of hotels.

Why Come to Boston?

Called "the Athens of America" during the 19th century, greater Boston is the capital of the Commonwealth (state) of Massachusetts and a major university area, with Boston University, Brandeis, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Tufts, Wellesley, and over 60 others. Tens of thousands of college students in Boston, Cambridge and neighboring cities keep Boston's spirit young.

Emphasis on learning also gives Boston world-class fine art museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Gardner Museum, and Institute of Contemporary Art, as well as other learning centers such as the Museum of Science, and the John F Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, not to mention the great museums in Cambridge.

Boston's Freedom Trail

One easy way to see Boston's top sights is to follow the Freedom Trail, which takes you to many colonial and Revolutionary War-era sights such as Boston Common, Beacon Hill, Faneuil Hall, Bunker Hill, Old North Church, Paul Revere's house, and Old Ironsides. More...

Boston is the home of the Boston Celtics (basketball), the Boston Bruins (ice hockey), the Boston Red Sox (baseball), the New England Patriots (football) as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops.

It's also a major medical, biotech and financial center, high-tech mecca, and transportation center.

Finding Your Way in Boston

Finding your way around Boston and neighboring Cambridge is not particularly easy, what with rivers, bays, hills and centuries-old colonial street patterns, so here's how to do it.

Where to Stay

I've arranged Boston's best hotels by area so you can choose the one that will put you within walking distance of what you want to see and do. More...

Boston Transportation

Public transportation (subway, bus, Commuter Rail, trains, airplanes and ferryboats) can help as well. More...

The Real Boston

Although Greater Boston today is home for over half of the six million people of Massachusetts, the city of Boston itself is a fairly small area with a population of about 675,000. But if one adds in the populations of the neighboring cities such as Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville and so on, the total comes to over 4.7 million.

And yet Boston is one of the most livable and manageable cities in the world, with the big-city economic and cultural resources, but small-city spirit and pace of life.

Start your explorations of the city here: Where to Stay in Boston or Finding Your Way Around Boston.

Around Boston

It's easy to take day-trip excursions from Boston north to Salem, Gloucester and Cape Ann; west to Lexington and Concord; south to Plymouth, Quincy and Cape Cod. More...

—by Tom Brosnahan


Finding Your Way in Boston

All Boston Hotels

Boston Restaurants

What to See & Do

Boston With Kids

About Cambridge

Boston Shopping

Boston Transportation

Excursions from Boston

North of Boston

West of Boston

South of Boston

Tourist Information

  Paris Girls Secret Society, the new novel by Tom Brosnahan

 


Boston & Charles River EsplanadeCharles River Esplanade with Back Bay behind.






Acorn Street, Beacon Hill, Boston MA

Acorn Street on Beacon Hill
in the center of Boston.

     
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