The pleasant river esplanade fronts the modern CBD and is easily explored on foot. You can chose to follow the river upstream through pleasant parks, or wander through the city to the Theater district, Southside and Chinatown.

North of the river is suburban Boston and the famous college town of Cambridge. With a history as auspicious as Boston itself, Cambridge's centrepiece is Harvard University, one of America's finest. The double whammy of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would make any burg's head swell. Cambridge is a mix of ivy covered antiquity and nose-ringed youth. Ground zero is Harvard Square (actually a triangle) and the surrounding blocks, crammed with all the book stores, cafes, restaurants and shops you'd expect to find in a town that caters to 30,000 university students. Among the school's several museums is the Museum of Natural History, where over 800 life-like handblown glass flowers and plants are on display. Twenty kilometres northwest of Boston the historic neighborhood of Charlestown is a living museum of Boston's shipbuilding past. At the river's edge is the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy, the USS Constitution. Nearby are the Bunker Hill Monument and Monument Square. Lexington green is site of the first battle of the revolutionary war against England. This leafy, placid town has a number of historic houses and taverns, such as the 1695 Munroe Tavern and the 1689 Hancock-Clarke House. Concord has a similar history and makes a pleasant daytrip, its centrepiece being David Thoreau's cabin on the shore of nearby Walden Pond.

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