Stretching for 2.5 miles through the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, the Freedom Trail connects sixteen historic sites linked to the American Revolution, offering visitors a fascinating, walkable journey through colonial streets, iconic landmarks and pivotal moments in American history.
Massachussets: 10 Great Things to do in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts: A Bit of Old England Gone Slightly Wrong
Right, let’s get something straight before we go any further. Boston is the one American city where you can wander about feeling smugly at home, right up until someone offers you a “regular coffee” and hands you something the size of a fire bucket, loaded with enough sugar to put a horse into a diabetic coma. The streets are narrow, twisty, and clearly laid out by a drunk man on a horse in 1630, which, as it happens, is more or less exactly what happened. There’s no grid system to speak of. You will get lost. Embrace it. The Bostonians certainly have, since most of them seem to navigate by memory, bad temper, and a profound unwillingness to let tourists merge into traffic.
What strikes you first, though, is how the place wears its history the way a comfortable Englishman wears a cardigan — without making a fuss about it, but you know it’s terribly important to him. This is, after all, where the colonists got thoroughly fed up with us, dumped a load of perfectly good tea into the harbour, and started a war that, in fairness, we probably deserved to lose given how badly we’d been carrying on. The Americans have never quite let it go, bless them, and have built an entire tourist industry around reminding visitors precisely how badly we behaved. As a Brit wandering round, you get a curious sensation of being simultaneously the villain of the story and minor royalty for having shown up at all.
And yet, for all the revolutionary chest-beating, Boston is a genuinely handsome, walkable, slightly bonkers city, with proper old buildings, a baseball team nobody outside New England understands the appeal of, and a level of civic pride that makes Yorkshiremen look positively diffident by comparison. It’s compact enough to do on foot, assuming your knees are up to the cobblestones, and stuffed with enough history, culture and bloody-minded local character to fill a week, never mind a weekend. Here, then, are ten things worth doing while you’re there, written up honestly, with the requisite amount of grumbling.
Contents
Things to do
1. Walk the Freedom Trail
2. Get lost in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
3. Ride a Boston Duck Tour
4. Chuck some tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
5. Tour Fenway Park
6. Lose yourself in the Museum of Fine Arts
7. Knock back a sample at the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour
8. Explore Cambridge, MA
9. Pay your respects at the JFK Presidential Library & Museum
10. Catch the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Useful information:
11. Getting to and around Boston
12. Best time to visit
13. Vegan dining in Boston
14. Where to stay in Boston
Things to do in Boston
1. Walk the Freedom Trail
This is the big one, the one everybody does, and the one that will leave you with blisters and a working knowledge of the American Revolution you never asked for. It’s a two-and-a-half-mile red-brick line, dreamed up in 1951 by a local journalist fed up with watching tourists wander Boston looking lost. It links sixteen sites of genuine historical weight — Boston Common, the gold-domed Massachusetts State House, the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, the Paul Revere House, and on up to Bunker Hill — and the whole thing is free to walk, though several buildings along the way charge you to actually go inside. You can do it yourself with a map, or pay for a guide dressed as an eighteenth-century patriot, who will pretend not to notice you photographing him on your phone. It’s a genuinely good way to understand how the whole sorry business with the colonies got started.
- 📍 Begins at Boston Common Visitor Information Center, 139 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108
- 🌐 thefreedomtrail.org
- ☎️ +1 617-357-8300
- 📧 info@thefreedomtrail.org
- 🕒 Trail itself accessible daily; Visitor Center open daily 8.30am–4.45pm; most individual sites 9am–5pm
- 💷 Free to walk the trail; individual sites such as the Paul Revere House and Old State House charge roughly $10–15; guided walking tours from around $18
2. Get lost in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
This one is rather a different prospect to your standard museum, and all the better for it. Isabella Stewart Gardner, a wealthy and famously eccentric Boston socialite, built herself a Venetian palace in the Fenway in 1903, filled it with art she’d personally hauled back from her travels, and decreed in her will that nothing should ever be moved — a stipulation taken so seriously that when thirteen works were notoriously stolen in 1990, the empty frames are still hanging there today, presumably out of spite as much as principle. The result is three floors of paintings, tapestries and sculpture arranged round a glorious indoor courtyard garden, with absolutely no explanatory labels cluttering the walls, so you’re rather thrown back on your own judgement, which can be either liberating or mildly terrifying depending on how confident you feel about art. It’s intimate, slightly batty, and a world away from the marble-corridor formality of most museums.
- 📍 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115
- 🌐 gardnermuseum.org
- ☎️ +1 617-566-1401
- 📧 Via website contact form
- 🕒 Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11am–5pm; Thursday 11am–9pm; closed Tuesdays
- 💷 Adults around $20; discounts for seniors, students and EBT/WIC cardholders; free on the first Thursday evening of each month
3. Ride a Boston Duck Tour
I went into this expecting to feel thoroughly silly, riding round Boston in a converted WWII amphibious landing craft painted like a duck, and came out having thoroughly enjoyed feeling thoroughly silly, which is rather the point. The “ConDUCKtors,” as they insist on calling themselves, drive you past an hour’s worth of the city’s greatest hits — Beacon Hill, the State House, the Public Garden, the old West End — narrating the lot with a relentless stream of duck-related puns that would make even the most committed punster wince. Then, with no warning whatsoever beyond a faint sense of dread, the vehicle simply drives straight into the Charles River and carries on as a boat, giving you a proper view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines from the water. It’s touristy in the most shameless possible way, and an excellent way to get your bearings if you’ve just arrived and haven’t a clue where anything is yet.
- 📍 Departs from Museum of Science, Prudential Center, or New England Aquarium
- 🌐 bostonducktours.com
- ☎️ +1 617-450-0068
- 📧 info@bostonducktours.com
- 🕒 Daily, roughly 9am until an hour before sunset, late March to late November
- 💷 Adults around $50; children (3–11) around $35; seniors around $44
4. Chuck some tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
This sounds faintly ridiculous on paper and turns out to be rather good fun in practice. Set on Griffin’s Wharf, where the original protest took place in 1773, the museum puts you through a guided, hour-long theatrical experience, complete with an indignant Samuel Adams, before marching you aboard a replica ship to hurl a crate of tea into the harbour yourself. Inside sits one of only two surviving tea chests from the actual event, a genuinely remarkable relic once you stop laughing at the man in the tricorn hat. Unashamedly theatrical rather than scholarly, but it tells you exactly why the colonists were so cross with us.
- 📍 306 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
- 🌐 bostonteapartyship.com
- ☎️ +1 617-338-1773
- 📧 Via website contact form
- 🕒 Daily, 10am–5pm in season (last entry one hour before closing); reduced hours off-season; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day
- 💷 Adults around $33; children (5–12) around $24; under-5s free
5. Tour Fenway Park
I have never understood baseball, and a visit to Fenway didn’t change that, but it did explain why an entire nation gets so worked up about it. Built in 1912, it’s the oldest ballpark still in use in America, with the creaking, lopsided charm of somewhere fussed over for a century rather than rebuilt in concrete. The hour-long tour takes you past the legendary Green Monster, into the press box, and onto the warning track, with guides reciting Red Sox lore with the devotion most of us reserve for cathedrals or a decent pub. Something rather moving about standing in a stadium that’s hosted a century of hopes, heartbreaks, and eventually a curse-breaking World Series win.
- 📍 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA 02215
- 🌐 mlb.com/redsox/ballpark/tours
- ☎️ +1 617-226-6666
- 📧 tours@redsox.com
- 🕒 Daily, tours on the hour, roughly 9am–5pm (10am start in winter); last tour three hours before game time on match days
- 💷 Around $25–30 for adults; $17–18 for children
6. Lose yourself in the Museum of Fine Arts
I went in expecting the usual British art-gallery shuffle — fifteen minutes, a cup of tea, swift exit — and stayed the whole afternoon. Opened in 1870, the MFA holds nearly half a million objects, more Monets than anywhere outside Paris, and a Japanese art collection that would make the V&A blush. The building sprawls in the way only a properly serious museum can, with an Egyptian collection, a whole wing of American art, and enough European masters to satisfy even the most determined snob. The sort of place that makes you feel cultured simply by walking through the door.
- 📍 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
- 🌐 mfa.org
- ☎️ +1 617-267-9300
- 📧 access@mfa.org (general access enquiries)
- 🕒 Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday 10am–5pm; Thursday and Friday 10am–10pm; closed Tuesdays
- 💷 Adults $27; seniors/students $10; under-7s free
7. Knock back a sample at the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour
Named, cheekily, after the same Samuel Adams who plotted revolution against us, this is the original Boston Beer Company brewery in Jamaica Plain, unbothered by its own modest, industrial appearance. The “Back to the Brewhouse” tour walks you through the brewing process with rather more genuine enthusiasm than the average factory tour usually manages, before depositing you, sensibly, in front of a flight of beer. A proper working brewery rather than a polished visitor-centre version of one, with an agreeably unglamorous, hands-dirty feel. Book ahead, as slots vanish quickly.
- 📍 30 Germania Street, Boston, MA 02130
- 🌐 samadamsbostonbrewery.com
- ☎️ +1 617-368-5080
- 📧 Via website contact form
- 🕒 Taproom and beer garden daily 11am–9pm; guided tour times vary by day (typically afternoons Thursday–Sunday), book in advance
- 💷 Tours typically $10–25 depending on experience; taproom drinks separate
8. Explore Cambridge
Hop across the Charles River and you’re in Cambridge, Boston’s more cerebral, slightly smug younger sibling, largely on the strength of having Harvard and MIT within spitting distance of each other. Harvard Square is a proper warren of bookshops and buskers, while Harvard Yard, free to wander, gives you red-brick colonial buildings, the imposing Widener Library, and the John Harvard statue, whose shoe is rubbed shiny for luck despite depicting neither the right man nor the actual founding site. MIT’s stranger architectural experiments are worth a look too, if only to confirm what engineers will build given enough funding. An easy half-day out, a short hop on the T.
- 📍 Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA 02138
- 🌐 harvard.edu/visit
- ☎️ +1 617-495-1573 (Harvard Visitor Center)
- 📧 Via website contact form
- 🕒 Harvard Yard accessible during daylight hours; free guided tours typically run several times daily, registration required in advance
- 💷 Free (guided tours); self-guided map around $3
9. Pay your respects at the JFK Presidential Library & Museum
Out on Columbia Point, the JFK Library is an I.M. Pei-designed glass-and-concrete love letter to the 1960s. You start with an introductory film, all grainy footage and JFK’s own voice, before a chronological account of his life and presidency, complete with replica Oval Office and a genuinely moving section on the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s a memorial rather than a warts-and-all biography — don’t expect much critical examination of the man’s rather more colourful habits — but with the Freedom 7 space capsule on display, it’s hard not to be quietly affected. The views over Boston Harbor from the atrium alone are worth the trip.
- 📍 Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
- 🌐 jfklibrary.org
- ☎️ +1 617-514-1600
- 📧 Via website contact form
- 🕒 Daily 10am–5pm (last entry 4.15pm); early closure 2pm on some dates; closed New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day
- 💷 Adults around $24; seniors around $12
10. Catch the Boston Symphony Orchestra
If you fancy a break from cobblestones and colonial reenactors, Symphony Hall is where Boston puts on its black tie and behaves itself. Opened in 1900, it was one of the first concert halls built to scientifically derived acoustic principles, and it shows — even the cheaper seats sound remarkably clear. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1881, performs here from autumn through spring, handing over to the rather more relaxed Boston Pops for summer, when you can expect anything from film scores to a full Fourth of July singalong. A properly civilised counterpoint to a day spent throwing tea into the harbour.
- 📍 Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
- 🌐 bso.org
- ☎️ +1 617-266-1200
- 📧 customerservice@bso.org
- 🕒 Box office Monday–Saturday 10am–6pm; performances typically Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday evenings and Friday afternoons, September–May
- 💷 Tickets vary widely by performance and seating, roughly $30–150
Getting to and Around Boston
🛫 Logan Airport into the City
Logan (BOS) is just a few miles from downtown, with several ways in. The Silver Line (SL1) is free to South Station — take the free shuttle from your terminal, then board. The Blue Line subway is best if you’re near downtown/waterfront ($2.40, via free shuttle to Airport station). For something scenic, a water taxi/ferry crosses the harbour to Long Wharf in 10–15 minutes (shuttle bus 66 to the dock). The Logan Express coach runs free into Back Bay, Braintree, Framingham, Peabody and Woburn. Taxis and Uber/Lyft take 15–25 minutes downtown (around $35–65; rideshares pick up from a dedicated zone, not the kerb).
🔗 massport.com/logan-airport/getting-to-logan
🚆 Arriving by Train
Amtrak serves three stations — South Station, Back Bay, and North Station — all near the subway. The Acela is the high-speed option to New York/Washington DC; the Northeast Regional is cheaper with more stops; the Downeaster connects to Maine and New Hampshire via North Station.
🎫 The CharlieCard
Boston’s travel card. Pick one up free at T station vending machines, public libraries, or the CharlieCard Store at Downtown Crossing. Or skip the card entirely and tap a contactless debit/credit card or phone at the gates.
Fares: Subway $2.40, local bus $1.70. A 7-Day LinkPass gives unlimited subway and bus travel — best value for most visitors. A 1-Day LinkPass and Monthly LinkPass ($90) are also available. Kids 11 and under ride free. For Commuter Rail or ferry, you’ll need a CharlieTicket or the mTicket app instead.
🔗 mbta.com/guides/boston-visitor-guide · mbta.com/fares
🚇 The T (Subway)
Five lines: Red (Cambridge/Harvard, downtown, Quincy), Orange (Jamaica Plain, Back Bay, downtown), Green (Common, Fenway, Brookline), Blue (airport, waterfront), Silver (bus rapid transit to the Seaport and airport). Runs roughly 5am–1am. Most stations on Red, Orange, Blue and Silver are step-free.
🔗 mbta.com
🚌 Buses
177 routes fill the gaps the subway doesn’t reach. Same CharlieCard/fares as the T, with free transfers between bus and subway.
🚲 Bluebikes
Boston’s bike share, with around 600 stations across the city and neighbouring Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville. Day Pass: $11.99 for 24 hours of unlimited 2-hour rides. Single ride: $3 for 30 minutes, then $0.33/minute. Unlock via the app, a key fob, or the station kiosk.
⛴️ Ferries and Water Taxis
MBTA ferries link Charlestown, East Boston and the South Shore to downtown. Seasonal Harbor Islands ferries run from Long Wharf — good for a half-day out to Georges or Spectacle Island.
🔗 mbta.com
🚕 Taxis and Rideshares
Uber and Lyft are widely available (a $5.50 surcharge applies on airport trips). Metered taxis can be hailed at ranks near hotels and major attractions.
🚗 Driving and Parking
Best avoided in the centre — confusing streets, pricey and scarce parking, and most sights are walkable or a short T ride apart. Rent a car at Logan only if you’re heading further afield.
🚶 Walking
Central Boston is compact. The Freedom Trail, Beacon Hill, the North End and the Public Garden are all within easy walking distance — save the T for Cambridge, Fenway or the airport.
The Best Time to Visit Massachusetts
🌸 Spring (March to May)
Spring is changeable, starting cold and slushy in March and warming into blossom by May. It’s quiet and cheaper, but weather can be unpredictable, making it best suited to flexible travellers.
What to pack: layers, a warm jacket, waterproofs, sturdy waterproof shoes, a few light tops, and a jumper.
☀️ Summer (June to August)
Summer is warm to hot, with humidity rising in July and August. Long days are perfect for beaches and trails, but this is peak season, so expect crowds and higher prices.
What to pack: breathable clothing, swimwear, sun cream, a hat, trainers, a light rain jacket, and sunglasses.
🍂 Autumn (September to November)
Autumn is widely considered the best season, with mild temperatures and spectacular foliage across the Berkshires. Crowds thin after summer, though leaf-peeping season draws its own visitors.
What to pack: a jumper or fleece, a medium jacket, layers, walking boots, a scarf, and a light hat.
❄️ Winter (December to February)
Winter brings cold, snow, and a festive atmosphere, especially in Boston. It’s the quietest and cheapest season, and good for skiing, though travel can be disrupted by snowstorms.
What to pack: an insulated coat, thermal layers, a woolly hat, gloves, waterproof boots, and a scarf.
Overall Best Time to Visit
Autumn is the overall best time to visit, combining mild weather, stunning foliage, and fewer crowds than summer. Summer suits beach lovers, winter suits festive and ski enthusiasts, and spring works for budget travellers happy to brave variable weather.
Vegan Dining in Boston
🍜 My Thai Vegan Cafe
A family-run, fully vegan Thai restaurant tucked away on the second floor of a building in Boston’s Chinatown. Established in 1991, it has been serving plant-based versions of classic Thai dishes for over three decades, with an extensive menu ranging from pad Thai to curries and mock “fish” specialities. The dining room is decorated with plants and offers lovely city views, though the staircase entrance can be a little worn.
- Location: 3 Beach Street (2nd Floor), Boston, MA 02111 (Chinatown)
- Website: mythaivegancafe.com
- Contact phone: (617) 451-2395
- Opening hours: Monday–Thursday & Sunday 11am–10pm; Friday–Saturday 11am–11pm
🥗 Lulu Green
An award-winning, 100% plant-based neighbourhood café, restaurant and cocktail bar in South Boston, named Boston Magazine’s Best Vegan Restaurant in both 2024 and 2025. Lulu Green serves globally-inspired, made-from-scratch dishes using local and organic ingredients wherever possible, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, alongside cold-pressed juices and creative cocktails.
- Location: 246 W Broadway, Boston, MA 02127 (South Boston) — a five-minute walk from Broadway T-station
- Website: lulugreen.com
- Contact phone: (617) 420-4070
- Opening hours: Monday–Friday 11am–9pm; Saturday 10am–9pm; Sunday 10am–4pm
🥞 Veggie Galaxy
A retro American diner in Cambridge’s Central Square, fully vegetarian with nearly every dish available vegan, including baked goods from its own in-house vegan bakery. Known for hearty comfort classics such as pancakes, vegan mac and cheese, and chick’n and waffles, it has earned a loyal following amongst vegans and omnivores alike, and was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
- Location: 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (Central Square)
- Website: veggiegalaxy.com
- Contact phone: (617) 497-1513
- Opening hours: Monday–Thursday 9am–9pm; Friday–Saturday 9am–10pm; Sunday 9am–9pm
🌮 Rhythm ‘n Wraps
A Black-owned, fully vegan eatery that began life as a beloved food truck before opening a permanent brick-and-mortar spot in Allston-Brighton. Known affectionately as “Boston’s go-to destination for soulful vegan food”, it serves comfort dishes with Caribbean and Southern influences, including jackfruit tacos, “chick’n” sandwiches, loaded fries and vegan mac and cheese, alongside ongoing catering and food-truck appearances around the city.
- Location: 1096 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston (Allston-Brighton), MA 02134
- Website: rhythmnwraps.com
- Contact phone: (617) 566-4144
- Opening hours: Closed Monday; Tuesday–Thursday 11am–8pm; Friday–Saturday 11am–9pm; Sunday 11am–7pm
Where to Stay in Boston
🌳 Back Bay
Boston’s most elegant district, known for Victorian brownstones, leafy streets and upscale Newbury Street shopping. Walkable to Copley Square, the Public Library and Public Garden — ideal for first-timers wanting charm with convenience.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street – the city’s luxury benchmark. Booking.com
- ⭐⭐⭐ Hotel AKA Back Bay – stylish rooms, top guest scores. Booking.com
- 🛏️ Newbury Guest House – cosy and affordable on Newbury Street. Booking.com
🏛️ Downtown / Faneuil Hall
Boston’s historic, central core, packed with Freedom Trail sights like Faneuil Hall and the Old State House. The best base for walking everywhere, with excellent transport links.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Langham, Boston – grand former Federal Reserve building. Booking.com
- ⭐⭐⭐ Hyatt Regency Boston – modern comfort near Boston Common. Booking.com
- 🛏️ HI Boston Hostel – popular, well-rated budget pick. Booking.com
🍝 North End
Boston’s “Little Italy” — cobbled streets, Italian trattorias and Revolutionary history along the waterfront. Charming and great for food lovers and families.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Battery Wharf Hotel – luxury harbourside, private airport water taxi. Booking.com
- ⭐⭐⭐ The Bostonian Boston – boutique character near Quincy Market. Booking.com
🏮 Beacon Hill
Quintessential old Boston — gas-lit cobblestones, red-brick townhouses and famous Acorn Street, right beside Boston Common. Quieter, residential, yet close to everything.
- ⭐⭐⭐ The Whitney Hotel Boston – characterful converted hospital building. Booking.com
⚓ Seaport District
A modern waterfront area with the ICA museum, convention centre and a growing dining scene along the HarborWalk. Best for contemporary design and harbour views.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport – sleek, top-rated waterfront stay. Booking.com
- ⭐⭐⭐ Residence Inn Boston Downtown Seaport – spacious, apartment-style rooms. Booking.com
🎓 Cambridge (Harvard Square)
Across the Charles River — home to Harvard and MIT, with bookshops, cafés and a relaxed academic vibe. Well connected by the Red Line.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Charles Hotel – Harvard Square’s classic luxury choice. Booking.com
- ⭐⭐⭐ Kimpton Marlowe Hotel – stylish riverside boutique. Booking.com
- 🛏️ Harvard Square Hotel – simple rooms right in the square. Booking.com
More to Explore
