Great Destinations

Boston, Massachusetts

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DESTINATIONS
Newport, RI
Providence, RI
Cape Cod, MA
White Mountains, NH
Champlain Valley, VT
Mount Desert Island, ME
Mystic, CT

Boston is a blend of the old and new, history and modernity. Skyscrapers dominate the skyline, Colonial architecture rules at ground level. Brahmin fortitude rubs shoulders with liberal academia. The older immigrant groups of the past -- Irish and Italians -- mix with some of the city's more recent arrivals, Vietnamese and Haitians. Boston is Beantown. It's the North End. It's Chinatown. And it's home to the Big Dig, the largest -- and most expensive -- public-works project in the country's history.

Small and compact, Boston is ideal for those who want to see the sights on foot -- and nightmarish for those who choose to do so by car. Follow the city's meandering streets and in a single day you can gawk at the mansions on Beacon Hill, stroll through Boston Common -- the nation's oldest public park -- and consume a cannoli in the North End. Explore Copley Square, with its swirl of farmers' markets, lunchtime concerts, and folk dancing, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which offers a fine collection of art's Old Masters and Italian Renaissance pieces. For the shopper in you, it's worth a day just going up and down Newbury Street, home to the city's chic boutiques and shops. Hungry? Go for a bowl of baked beans or, better yet, the city special, "chowdah."

What Boston offers within its borders is matched only by what it means to everything beyond them. Boston is the gateway to the rest of New England. It's within a few hours, sometimes less, of the region's other major destinations -- Bar Harbor and the White Mountains, Newport and Providence. It's the perfect starting point for seeing this great region.