Vacation Spots in Boston Mass
Vacation Places in Boston

Boston, the center of American history, is a city with skyscrapers and historic cobblestone streets. Here is where the American Revolution started. They call Boston the Athens of America and also Beantown. It is a university town, and an ethnic melting pot of immigrants who brought their culture to the new world.

The Freedom Trail is a Popular Vacation Spot in Boston

Celebrate American history. Take a walk on the Freedom Trail, a red-brick ribbon path to 16 important sites in the history of America. Millions of people make the 2.5 mile walk every year. 13 of the sites are free. Here's your itinerary.

• The Freedom Trail starts at Boston Common, goes to the State House, then the Park Street Church, the Granary Burying Ground where Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere are buried.
• Next you'll see King's Chapel built in 1754, the statue of Benjamin Franklin, the Old Corner Bookstore that published books by Hawthorne, Emerson and Longfellow.
• Then the Trail leads to the Old South Meeting House where the Boston Tea Party was planned.
• Next stop is the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall.
  
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  Paul Revere
  Patriot and Silversmith
  
  
  Next the red path leads you to the North End of Boston where you can tour Paul Revere's house. Paul Revere's home is Boston's oldest house, built before 1680, almost 100 years before Paul moved in. Paul made his living as a renowned silversmith. Listen to the bells ringing in the Old North Church, where Paul Revere placed lanterns in the steeple to to warn the people of Charlestown that the British were coming. "One if by land and two if by sea." There's also Copp's Hill Burying Ground.
  
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  Battle of Bunker Hill
  by Howard Pyle
  
  
  Then cross the river Charles via the Charlestown Bridge to see the USS Constitution, affectionately called "Old Ironsides." You can climb to the top of Bunker Hill Monument and visit the new Battle of Bunker Hill Museum. "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."
• When you've completed the Freedom Trail, the MBTA water shuttle will take you back downtown. It's a great way to renew your patriotic pride and to teach youngsters American history.

Where to Eat in Boston

Have lunch in Quincy Market. Quincy Market is a shopping and urban centerpiece with three huge buildings. There are spots for dining, vendors with souvenirs and clothes, chain stores and specialty boutiques. The flower market, outdoor cafes, street performers and strolling musicians are very popular with tourists. This is where you'll find your souvenirs of Boston, too.

The Union Oyster House is popular with tourists both for fresh seafood, and for its famous patron John Kennedy, who has his favorite booth dedicated to him.

The famous foods of Boston are lobster, clams and chowder. They call Boston "Beantown" for its molasses baked beans. Another local favorite, Boston Cream Pie, isn't pie at all, but a rich yellow layer cake with custard filling and chocolate icing. As you would expect in a large cosmopolitan city, Boston offers the gamut of ethnic foods. It's the home of Samuel Adams beer, the successful craft beer named after one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Vacation Spots on Beacon Hill in Boston

A walk around historic Beacon Hill reveals the ambiance of old Boston, its gas lamps, brick sidewalks and old brownstones.

• On Beacon Hill is located the Massachusetts State House.
• You'll be able to take a tour of the Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest libraries in the country, modeled after an Italian palazzo.
• Granary Burying Ground is a picturesque cemetery with interesting tombstones. It has the graves of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and the parents of Benjamin Franklin.
• On Charles Street you'll find hip boutiques, shops and trendy restaurants.
• Famous people lived on Mt. Vernon Street, including Henry James, Julia Ward Howe and Robert Frost. Poets John Berryman and Robert Lowell both lived on Beacon Hill. The Nichols House is the only house on Mt. Vernon Street open to the public. On Louisburg Square you can see the homes of its famous residents William Dean Howells, Louisa May Alcott, Jenny Lind, and John Kerry.
• Acorn Street is a narrow street that shows Old Colonial Boston at its best. This historical jewel is the most photographed street in Boston.
• Nearby is the Boston Common which is America's oldest public park. It dates from 1634 when freemen grazed cattle there.
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  Swan Boats
  Public Garden, Boston
  
  
  The Public Garden, America's oldest botanical garden, is well known for its lake and Swan Boats.
• The Central Burying Ground is a cemetery dating from 1756 where Revolutionary soldiers are buried. Gilbert Stuart, who painted the famous portrait George Washington, also rests here. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument honors Civil War troops.
• The Boston Massacre Memorial commemorates the 1770 conflict between British and colonists.

The Black Heritage Trail Is an Important Vacation Spot in Boston

Boston was important in Black history, the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad. The Park Service offers a guided tour of the Black Heritage Trail, 14 sites within the space of a mile and a half, on the north side Beacon Hill.

• The Museum of Afro American History celebrates black history in Boston.
• The African Meeting House, established in 1805, is the oldest black church building still standing in the US.
• A bronze statue by sculptor Saint-Gaudens honors the first Civil War unit made up of free blacks, the Robert Gould Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial.

Vacation Spots in the Back Bay, Boston

Go to the Back Bay area for more of Boston's attractions. This reclaimed marsh is now a chic center for skyscrapers and shopping. Take in the views from Prudential Center's Skywalk Observatory. Study the architecture of the neoclassical Public Library and the Romanesque Trinity Church. Shoppers will enjoy the ritzy stores on Newbury Street and the Copley Place mall.

The Museum of Fine Arts in the Back Bay area, one of the best museums in the United States, has a collection of 350,000 objects from 3,000 years. The American painters, Homer, Sargent, Lane and Hopper, are well represented. Native American work, American decorative arts and furniture, and the silverwork of Paul Revere are entensive. But European painters, the Impressionists, Japanese art, Chinese porcelains, Egyptian artifacts, Greek and Roman treasures are also well represented. The Museum of Fine Arts owns 38 Monets, which gives you an idea of the extensive collection.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum houses the marvelous art collection of one woman who spent a lifetime building it. Her acquisitions include the paintings of Raphael, Titian, Giotto, Piero della Francesco, and John Singer Sargent. She brought entire rooms from European houses for her museum.

The Museum of Science, located on the Charles River Dam in the Old West End, is a children's hands-on place with 550 exhibits about astronomy, astrophysics, medicine, computers, and discoveries. The dinosaur model and lightning bolts are popular with children. The Mugar Omni Theater has a huge projection screen five stories high. The Charles Hayden Planetarium, part of the Museum of Science, is famous for its laser light shows.

Vacation Spots for Sports Fans in Boston

Boston is Red Sox nation. Sports fans will head to Fenway Park for a Red Sox baseball game. If you can't get a ticket, you can still watch the Sox on the screens at Game On!, a two-story sports bar attached to Fenway Park.

The Boston Celtics play basketball. And the Boston Bruins play hockey well enough to win theStanley Cup in 2011.

The Sports Museum of New England, in TD Banknorth Garden, has memorabilia and photographs, life size statues of Carl Yastrzemski and Larry Bird, and tours of the sports facility.

The Boston Marathon, begun in 1897, is the world's oldest continuously-run marathon and the only marathon where runners have to qualify. On the third Monday in April, more than 20,000 runners leave Hopkinton and head for the finish line at Copley Square, Boston.

Vacation Spots in Downtown Boston

The new Institute of Contemporary Art on Fan Pier has a bold cantilever design out over the water.

The Children's Museum in Downtown Boston is a fun place for children to find out about science and society. The bubble blowing, climbing maze and playspace are popular with youngsters.

The New England Aquarium on the waterfront has the Giant Ocean Tank, hands-on tidal pools, more than 2,000 species of sea creatures, a sea lion show and lovable penguins. There is also a Discovery Center and an IMAX theater. Whale watching tours leave from the Aquarium.

Get out on the water. Take a harbor cruise, go out whale-watching in the Atlantic Ocean, or take a ferry ride to the Boston Harbor Islands.

Vacation Spots Outside of Boston

Outside of Boston is Cambridge, a city well worth a trip in its own right, with Harvard Square at its center. Take a free student-led campus tour of Harvard University. Walk Brattle Street's Tory Row to see where George Washington and William Wadsworth Longfellow lived.

35 miles southeast of Boston is the town of Plymouth. Plymouth Rock is there. Plimouth(sic) Plantation is an open-air museum that recreates Pilgrim life and the Mayflower II.

Lexington to the north of Boston has the National heritage Museum and Minute Man National Historic Park for a lesson in history. On Battle Green the shot heard round the world was fired.

Then go to Concord to tour the homes of literary figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Walk around Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau wrote his famous essays. The Concord Colonial Inn was the home of the Thoreau family before it became a public inn in 1889.

Two other interesting vacation spots outside Boston are Salem and Gloucester on the North Shore. Salem has a Maritime National Historic Site with vintage warves and warehouses, and, of course, its witchcraft haunts. Gloucester is America's oldest seaport, famous from the movie The Perfect Storm.

Relax on the beaches outside Boston. Crane Beach in Ipswich is an hour north of Boston, with a 1200-acre wildlife refuge and 4 miles of sand. Or, take the MBTA's Harbor Express ferry south to Nastasket Beach in Hull. Or take the commuter train north to Manchester-by-the-Sea. Here Singing Beach has so much silica that when you walk on it, the sand squeeks.

How to Get Around in Boston

The MBTA Link-Pass is $15 for a week of unlimited travel on subways, local buses and some ferries and some commuter trains.

About an hour before curtain time, unused tickets go on sale at the Symphony Hall.

For sightseeing, you can buy the "Go Boston" Pass or the CityPass, which cover various vacation spots, tours and excursions for one fixed price. For a more leisurely trip, the Boston Duck Tours are popular amphibious vehicles with guides during an 80-minute city tour.

I hope you have an exciting trip.
I wish you a very happy day.

Travel Guide Jeff, Travel Welcome

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