Have you ever had someone tell you that the best way truly experience and learn about a new place is to walk everywhere you go? I remember when we were planning our trip to Italy and many people told us that if we wanted to see the Italian culture for what it really is, we needed to wander and “get lost” in the little streets and piazzas of the cities and towns.
It has been said that Boston is a walking city. In fact, one of Boston’s nicknames, along with “Beantown”, “The Hub”, and the “Cradle of Modern America” is “The Walking City” because of its small, safe neighborhoods and the convenience of getting where you are going on foot.
Knowing that some of the best places are found by walking, Jim and I decided to wander through the streets and neighborhoods of Boston. We began our walking tour on the Freedom Trail, which came highly recommended. We followed the red brick line and walked this 2.5-mile route that took us past more than sixteen historically significant sites. The Freedom Trail begins in the Boston Common, takes you through the Quincy Market and the North End, and winds around in the quaint neighborhood of Georgetown. You see sites such as Paul Revere’s home, the Old North Church, Old Ironsides, Bunker Hill, and much more!
We absolutely loved the Georgetown neighborhood that we followed the Freedom Trail through. I remember feeling like I had stepped back into our Colonial era as we walked along the brick sidewalks and admired the old American architecture of the homes and buildings. Georgetown has cute, little parks and families out and about with their kids and pets. After buying a cup of lemonade from a girl selling to all of the people who had followed the Freedom Trail to Bunker Hill (genius kid, by the way), Jim and I spent quite a bit of time sitting in a small park in Georgetown, watching people come and go and talking about how cool it would be to live there. We could have sat there all day.
Cambridge, the home of Harvard, is also a great place to walk around. Harvard it located in a cute, Boston-style, college town full of trendy shops and restaurants as well as quaint buildings and homes. Jim and I enjoyed walking around the Harvard campus, imagining what it must be like to begin school here in the fall when the lush, tall trees change colors. Several tours are given at Harvard and Jim and I tagged along with one for a little while, learning some history about the campus grounds and buildings and about those who attended this Ivy League school.
Another of our favorite walks took us through the neighborhood of Beacon Hill. This neighborhood is located directly north of the Boston Common and is characterized by rows of red brick houses, cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks, gas lamps, tall trees and beautiful landscape, and cute doorways and walkways. Beacon Hill is also a great place to grab a coffee or a bite to eat, wander in and out of its unique shops, and spend some time on a park bench watching people go by.
If you are planning a trip to Boston, I would definitely say you should walk around the city and “get lost” in its neighborhoods. Wander through the Boston Common and The North End (Boston’s Italian district). Follow the Freedom Trail and spend time in Georgetown, Beacon Hill, and Cambridge. Enjoy Boston, “The Walking City,” to its fullest on foot.
If you have been to Boston and spent time walking and seeing the neighborhoods, I would love to hear what you think and where some of your favorite places to walk might be.
Travel Tips and Info:
- Boston is a town of heavy traffic and hard to find parking spaces. Walking or riding the T, Boston’s great public transportation system, can often be the fastest way to get where you are going. Get a map of the T routes.
- Start a lemonade stand on a hot day along the Freedom Trail and you will turn a tidy profit.
- Get a map of the Freedom Trail.
