Frommer's Boston day by day

Contents

14 Favorite Moments

14 Favorite Moments

1 The Best Full-Day Tours

The Best in One Day

The Best in Two Days

The Best in Three Days

2 The Best Special-Interest Tours

Boston with Kids

Boston’s Freedom Trail

Architecture of Copley Square

Charlestown’s Naval Heritage

Romantic Boston

3 The Best Neighborhood Tours

Beacon Hill & Back Bay

The Seaport District

Jamaica Plain & the Zoo

Harvard Square

4 The Best Shopping

Shopping Best Bets

Shopping A to Z

5 The Best of the Outdoors

Boston Public Garden & Boston Common

The Esplanade & Charles River

Whale Watches, Cruises & Boston Harbor Islands

6 The Best Dining

Dining Best Bets

Dining A to Z

7 The Best Nightlife

Nightlife Best Bets

Nightlife A to Z

8 The Best Arts & Entertainment

Arts & Entertainment Best Bets

Arts & Entertainment A to Z

9 The Best Lodging

Lodging Best Bets

Lodging A to Z

10 The Best Day Trips & Excursions

Concord

Salem

Plymouth

The Savvy Traveler

Before You Go

Getting There

Getting Around

Fast Facts

Boston: A Brief History

Websites

Index

Published by:

FrommerMedia LLC

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ISBN: 978-1-628-87408-2 (paper); 978-1-628-87409-9 (ebk)

Editorial Director: Pauline Frommer

Editor: Lorraine Festa

Production Editor: Heather Wilcox

Photo Editor: Meghan Lamb

Cartographer: Roberta Stockwell

Indexer: Maro Riofrancos

Front cover photos, left to right: Boston skyline over the Boston Commons: © Sean Pavone; ice skaking in Frog Pond: © Kwanbenz/Shutterstock.com; Boston Public Garden with its famous duck family statues: © f11photo

Back cover photo: Back Bay Boston skyline: © Galiptynutz

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About This Guide

Organizing your time. That’s what this guide is all about.

Other guides give you long lists of things to see and do and then expect you to fit the pieces together. The Day by Day guides are different. These guides tell you the best of everything, and then they show you how to see it in the smartest, most time-efficient way. Our authors have designed detailed itineraries organized by time, neighborhood, or special interest. And each tour comes with a bulleted map that takes you from stop to stop.

Hoping to walk in the steps of the Founding Fathers? Or watch a baseball sail over the Green Monster? Or even walk into a bar where everybody knows your name? Whatever your interest or schedule, the Day by Days give you the smartest routes to follow. Not only do we take you to the top attractions, hotels, and restaurants, but we also help you access those special moments that locals get to experience—those finds that turn tourists into travelers.

The Day by Days are also your top choice if you’re looking for one complete guide for all your travel needs. The best hotels and restaurants for every budget, the greatest shopping values, the wildest nightlife—it’s all here.

Why should you trust our judgment? Because our authors personally visit each place they write about. They’re an independent lot who say what they think and would never include places they wouldn’t recommend to their best friends. They’re also open to suggestions from readers. If you’d like to contact them, please send your comments our way at feedback@frommers.com, and we’ll pass them on.

Enjoy your Day by Day guide—the most helpful travel companion you can buy. And have the trip of a lifetime.

About the Authors

Leslie Brokaw has worked on over a dozen Frommer’s books about Québec and New England. She is an editor for MIT Sloan Management Review and teaches at Emerson College. She and her family live just outside of Boston.

Erin Trahan is a regular contributor to WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, and is a faculty member at Emerson College. She and her family live on Boston’s north shore. 

An Additional Note

Please be advised that travel information is subject to change at any time—and this is especially true of prices. We therefore suggest that you write or call ahead for confirmation when making your travel plans. The authors, editors, and publisher cannot be held responsible for the experiences of readers while traveling. Your safety is important to us, however, so we encourage you to stay alert and be aware of your surroundings.

Star Ratings, Icons & Abbreviations

Every hotel, restaurant, and attraction listing in this guide has been ranked for quality, value, service, amenities, and special features using a star-rating system. Hotels, restaurants, attractions, shopping, and nightlife are rated on a scale of zero stars (recommended) to three stars (exceptional). In addition to the star-rating system, we also use a fast_fact.jpg icon to point out the best bets for families. Within each tour, we recommend cafes, bars, or restaurants where you can take a break. Each of these stops appears in a shaded box marked with a coffee-cup-shaped bullet 4496.jpg .

The following abbreviations are used for credit cards:

Frommers.com

Now that you have this guidebook to help you plan a great trip, visit our website at www.frommers.com for additional travel information on more than 3,600 destinations. We update features regularly to give you instant access to the most current trip-planning information available. At Frommers.com, you’ll find scoops on the best airfares, lodging rates, and car rental bargains. You can even book your travel online through our reliable travel booking partners. Other popular features include:

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An Invitation to the Reader

In researching this book, we discovered many wonderful places—hotels, restaurants, shops, and more. We’re sure you’ll find others. Please tell us about them, so we can share the information with your fellow travelers in upcoming editions. If you were disappointed with a recommendation, we’d love to know that, too. Please write to: Support@FrommerMedia.com.

The North End Parks on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

14 Favorite Moments

Boston has been a hub of the American experience since its colonial founding in 1630. For centuries it was an engine of U.S. finance and industry. Today it’s a fusion of modern life and history. Waves of students pour in each September to attend its colleges and universities, and many stay to work in the region’s world-renowned medical and high-tech industries. The result is a cosmopolitan city in a state of continual rejuvenation. Here are 14 favorite moments in this youthful, European-infused city.

Fans take in a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway atop the famed Green Monster left field wall.

❶ Savoring the 360-degree views from the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Before 2008, an elevated highway dominated the eastern edge of the city. Pedestrians had to pass underneath dark, loud corridors to travel between downtown and the restaurants and hotels along the harbor. When the highway got moved underground, the skies literally opened up. A walkway of connected parks—with food vendors, sculpture, and a carousel—has stitched together this popular part of the city. The change is breathtaking. See p 29.

❷ Taking those first steps into Fenway Park. Whether it’s your first game of the season or the first game of your life at the famed baseball stadium—built in 1912, and the oldest ballpark in major league baseball—emerging from the concrete hallways into the stadium and seeing the expansive sky and emerald green field could make your heart grow two sizes. See p 18.

❸ Walking the Freedom Trail. A red path—in some stretches brick, in other stretches paint—winds through the streets of old Boston past 16 historic sites of the city’s Colonial past. It’s a self-guided tour (although tour guides are available) that you can join in at any spot. We provide a map with highlights in this book. See p 34.

❹ Slurping down oysters. Boston is a seafood town, and good plates of oysters are ubiquitous. Try them at sit-down restaurants like Legal Sea Foods or Row 34 or modest food stalls inside Quincy Market. Wellfleet oysters from Cape Cod deliver a briny taste of the sea. See p 97.

❺ Slowing down with the Swan Boats in Boston Public Garden. Old-fashioned paddleboats meander the pond (called the lagoon) in the city’s jewel-box garden. Simply watching from the shore can be hypnotic. See p 90.

❻ Swinging under the stars at the Lawn on D Street. On an urban plot of land between the Seaport District and South Boston, this grassy park has lawn games, food concessions, and occasional live music. Glow-in-the-dark swings the size of truck tires are the big draw at this family-friendly spot. See p 65.

❼ Meeting the city’s artists and local farmers in SoWa. An acronym for South of Washington (street), SoWa is a pocket within the South End neighborhood that’s rich in art galleries, boutiques, and design showrooms. The seasonal weekend market is a vibrant artistic and local food scene. See p 80.

❽ Settling in for a night of theater. Exciting contemporary theater is presented at the Huntington Theatre, ArtsEmerson, and the A.R.T. in Cambridge and popular options include Blue Man Group and Shear Madness. In summer, it’s a special treat to pack a blanket and picnic dinner to watch the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company present free Shakespeare on the Boston Common. See p 121.

❾ Strolling under the twinkling white lights of Comm. Ave. in winter. Comm. Ave., the shorthand for Commonwealth Avenue, is the brownstone-lined grand boulevard in the central part of the city. In the cold months, the trees lining a broad pedestrian path in the center of the residential street glitter with thousands of white lights. For a full winter experience, also visit the outdoor ice-skating rink in nearby Boston Common. See p 17.

❿ Enjoying the Charles River. Boston’s major river has paths for walking and biking on both sides and can be viewed from the Red Line subway and from Duck Boat tours. It’s especially scenic when sailboats speckle the vista—and when water traffic starts pouring in for the July 4th fireworks celebrations, which take place here. See p 92.

Sailing on the Charles River.

The Boston Marathon, held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday in April, is the world’s oldest annual marathon.

⓫ Heading out to the tip of Castle Island to Sullivan’s clam shack. To picture this South Boston locale, make your left hand into the ok gesture. Your thumbnail is Castle Island, the oldest fortified military site in British North America and now part of the city park system. The space inside your hand is Pleasure Bay, and everything around your hand is ocean. Just adjacent to the park is the famed Sully’s clam shack. See p 26.

⓬ People-watching from a Newbury Street sidewalk cafe. From Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, the European-feeling Newbury Street, with beautifully maintained brownstones and bustling sidewalks, is a central destination for sophisticated shopping, strolling, and noshing. See p 18.

⓭ Stepping off the T into Harvard Yard. The city of Cambridge is just across the Charles River from Boston, and Harvard University, in Cambridge, is an easy subway ride from Boston’s downtown. The school’s bucolic central quad is known as Harvard Yard, and open to all visitors. See p 70.

⓮ Joining the crowds on Marathon Monday. The Boston Marathon takes place in April on an obscure Boston public holiday called Patriots’ Day. It’s a terrifically festive day. True locals start the morning with a coffee regulah (meaning with cream and sugar) at Dunkies, slang for locally based Dunkin’ Donuts. See p 158. •

Boston’s famed Faneuil Hall.

The Best in One Day

Center your first day in Boston around the contours of the harbor and waterfront, where old meets new. You’ll start at Faneuil Hall, a marketplace and a meeting hall for over 275 years, and you’ll follow part of the Freedom Trail, exploring some of the city’s rich political history. This tour winds through Boston’s Italian North End neighborhood, home to the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church, and south to the newly thriving Seaport District. START: T to Government Center, then walk down the wide staircase to Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

❶ ★ fast_fact.jpg Faneuil Hall. Many of the great orators of America’s colonial past inspired audiences to rebellion here, earning the building the nickname the cradle of liberty. One of the best-known speakers was the revolutionary firebrand Samuel Adams, whose statue stands at the entrance on the Congress Street side of the building. Originally erected in 1742, Faneuil Hall was a gift from prominent merchant Peter Faneuil (whose trade included enslaved people from Africa in addition to sugar, molasses, and timber). A $3.8 million renovation project in early 2018 provided needed upgrades to the building’s heating and accessibility. National Park Service rangers staff the first-floor visitor center and give brief talks in the second-floor Great Hall auditorium. N 10 min.; 30 min. for tour. Dock Square at Congress St. ☎ 617/242-5601. www.nps.gov/bost. Free admission. Daily 9am–5pm (visitor center until 6pm). T: Government Center or Haymarket.

2021.jpg With shops, restaurants (such as Durgin-Park, p 104), food stalls, jugglers, and musicians, the 5-building Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market complex is a good place to gravitate to for a meal or people-watching. The Quincy Market building holds a huge food court with vendors such as Boston Chowda Co., Steve’s Greek Cuisine, and North End Bakery (with savory arancini [stuff rice balls] in addition to sweet treats). Public restrooms are on the lower level. N 30 min. Bordered by State, Congress & North sts.