Things to Do in Boston, United States: Walking Guide

Boston is a city where Revolutionary history, major museums, historic neighborhoods, and maritime landmarks come together within a compact urban area. The best things to do in Boston include following the story of the American Revolution, exploring the North End and Charlestown Navy Yard, and discovering the art and architecture around Back Bay. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Boston with 87 narrated places, so you can explore while the story plays as you arrive.

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, and its historic sites make it one of the most rewarding cities in the United States to explore on foot.

What to See in Boston

Old State House and the heart of the Freedom Trail

The Old State House is Boston’s oldest surviving public building. Completed in 1713, it served as a seat of colonial government, housing the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the Massachusetts provincial and state governments during the 18th century. Its colonial-era facade is topped by a gable decorated with a gilded lion and a silver unicorn, symbols of British imperial power.

The building stands on the Freedom Trail, a route that also connects places such as Faneuil Hall, Old South Meeting Place, the Massachusetts State House, and Boston’s historic burying grounds. Nearby, a statue of Samuel Adams by Anne Whitney stands in front of Faneuil Hall Plaza.

Old North Church and the North End

Old North Church, officially Christ Church in the City of Boston, is the oldest standing church in Boston. Built between 1723 and 1726, it became famous during the American Revolution on April 18, 1775, when two lanterns were illuminated in its steeple to alert Patriots about British military movements.

The Episcopal church has Georgian architecture, a 191-foot steeple, and eight change-ringing bells cast in 1744. Its crypt contains an estimated 1,100 burials. The surrounding North End adds another layer to the visit, with historic streets, Italian bakeries, cafés, espresso bars, pizzerias, and family-run restaurants.

A short walk away, the Paul Revere House at 19 North Square is downtown Boston’s oldest surviving residential address. The three-story house was built no later than 1680 and was Paul Revere’s residence from 1770 to 1800. It opened as a museum in 1908.

Bunker Hill Monument

Across the Charles River in Charlestown, the Bunker Hill Monument commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

The monument is a 221-foot granite obelisk at the center of Monument Square Park. Designed by Solomon Willard and built between 1825 and 1843, it stands alongside a statue of William Prescott by William Wetmore Story. The site’s memorial history began earlier, with a monument dedicated in 1794 to Joseph Warren, the American soldier killed in the battle.

USS Constitution and the Charlestown Navy Yard

The USS Constitution, known as “Old Ironsides,” is a three-masted, wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Launched in 1797, it was one of six original frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794 and was built at Edmund Hartt’s shipyard in Boston’s North End.

The ship served during the Quasi-War with France and the First Barbary War, but it is most closely associated with the War of 1812. During that conflict, it captured numerous British merchantmen and five warships. It is the oldest naval vessel still afloat and the second oldest naval vessel still in commission.

The nearby USS Constitution Museum occupies a restored shipyard building at the foot of Pier 2. Its collections and interactive exhibits tell the story of the ship and the people who designed, built, and sailed it. The museum also houses the Samuel Eliot Morison Memorial Library and an archival repository connected with the ship’s history.

The USS Cassin Young offers a later chapter in American naval history. This Fletcher-class destroyer was launched in 1943, served in World War II and the Korean War, and is now preserved as a memorial ship in Boston Navy Yard. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner to keep her personal art collection on public display. The museum opened in 1903 and remains shaped by her will, which required the building and collection to remain as she left them.

Designed as a Venetian-style palace, the museum is organized around a central courtyard with arcades, balconies, greenery, statues, and a Roman mosaic floor. A glass roof brings natural light into the Italian-style interior, while the flower displays change with the seasons. The experience is as much about the setting and arrangement of the collection as the individual works themselves.

Museum of Fine Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts, often called the MFA, has a collection of around 450,000 objects, ranging from contemporary art to Egyptian, Asian, American, and European works. Its holdings include more than 70 works by John Singleton Copley, as well as important pieces by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Fitz Henry Lane, and Edward Hopper.

The museum’s American art collection covers New England folk art, Colonial portraiture, and New York abstract expressionism from the 1950s and 1960s. Its contemporary wing occupies a striking building designed by I. M. Pei, while the Art of the Americas wing includes a glass-enclosed courtyard with the New American Café.

Back Bay, Copley Square, and the Boston Marathon

Back Bay combines grand avenues with some of Boston’s most distinctive cultural landmarks. Around Copley Square, visitors can see Trinity Church, the Boston Public Library, Old South Church, and the Copley Society of Art.

The Copley Society of Art is the oldest non-profit art association in the United States. Founded in 1879 by the first graduating class of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, it hosts between 15 and 20 exhibitions each year, including solo shows, thematic group exhibitions, juried competitions, and fundraising events.

The Boston Marathon is another defining feature of the area. First held in 1897 after the success of the marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics, it is the world’s oldest annual marathon. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Boylston Street near Copley Square.

Other historic and cultural stops

Boston’s range of museums and memorials extends beyond its best-known landmarks. American Ancestors, also known as the New England Historic Genealogical Society, was founded in 1845 and is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States.

The James Blake House, dating to 1661, is known as the oldest surviving house in Boston. The Sports Museum, located at TD Garden above North Station, adds a different perspective on the city’s sporting culture. Boston also includes memorials, public spaces, Chinatown, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, and waterfront parks.

Explore Boston with a self-guided audio guide

A Boston self-guided walking tour lets you follow the city’s history without joining a group or keeping to a fixed timetable. Neywo has six walking tours and one bike route in Boston, covering 87 narrated places in total:

• Beacon Hill, the Public Garden and Bunker Hill: 3.63 km, 104 minutes, 6 stops
• Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution: 0.52 km, 51 minutes, 5 stops
• Back Bay: Trinity Church and Copley Square: 1.91 km, 88 minutes, 10 stops
• Downtown: the Old State House and the burying grounds: 2 km, 94 minutes, 12 stops
• The North End: Old North Church and Paul Revere: 0.96 km, 51 minutes, 6 stops
• The Ultimate Boston: Copley Square to Bunker Hill: 5.95 km, 213 minutes, 14 stops
• Emerald Necklace Ride: Back Bay to Jamaica Plain: a 7.3 km bike route lasting 36 minutes, with 10 stops

Download Neywo and explore Boston at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages, making it a practical way to experience a free walking tour of Boston while choosing your own route and rhythm. When planning a wider trip through the state, you can also compare Boston with Salem, Massachusetts, Rockport, Provincetown, or Worcester.