Things to Do in Massachusetts

*For the top yearly events of Massachusetts, click here.

Boston

Boston is a city of history! Follow the Freedom Trail through downtown Boston to see 16 historical points of interest, mostly of the Revolutionary War, like Paul Revere's house, or the site of the Boston Massacre, or the Battle of Bunker Hill Monument, or the USS Constitution, or The Boston Tea Party, or Faneuil Hall, and so on and so on! The trail is marked for walkers with the symbol below.

A lot of cities have the "Duck Tours" where you tour the city in an amphibian vehicle on both roads and waterways, but Boston, to me, has been the best place to do this. The tours follow the Freedom trail and jump in and out of the Charles river to give you views of MIT and the Charlestown Bridge. During these tours, you'll hear all about each historical point of interest.

Duck Tour Companies in Boston: Boston Duck Tours, Super Duck Tours

Faneuil Hall has been a marketplace and meeting hall in Boston since 1742. Paul Revere's house and the USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") can be toured. You can also tour the Old North Church (also on the Freedom Trail stops) in which the famous signal "one if by land, and two if by sea" was sent during the Revolutionary War. The Old State House can be toured as well, has a Revolutionary War Museum, is the oldest surviving building in Boston, and is the site of the Boston Massacre court case. Ever heard of a little thing called the Boston Tea Party in which people took on government taxes...and won? Go see the museum.

Boston Tea Party Museum

Old Ironsides (USS Constitution)

Faneuil Hall

Old State House

Bunker Hill Memorial

Paul Revere's House

Old North Church

Boston Common Paul Revere Statue

Tired of Revolutionary War history? Well, Boston's not done with you! There's also The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, famous colleges like Harvard and MIT (actually in Cambridge), and the home of the Boston Red Sox at the oldest ball park in existence, Fenway Park (home of the Big Green Monster, if you know baseball, you know what this is)! Besides all the history, there's plenty of great eateries and pubs, other famous sports teams like the New England Patriots, as well as beautiful parks, like the oldest park in America, Boston Common. Boston Common is also the beginning point for the Freedom Trail.

Speaking good eateries...anybody remember the show, "Cheers"? Well, that was of course based in Boston and you too can go to the place where everybody knows your name. Just, you know, don't expect them to know your name because they're always packed! Also, the inside won't look like what you're familiar with from the show as that was a set in Paramount Studios in LA. However, you will find the external shots that they showed every episode.

Concord

"Walden's Pond" by Henry David Thoreau was written at, coincidentally enough, Walden's Pond here in Concord. Thoreau chose it as a peaceful, bucolic spot to leave the world behind. Visiting here, you can see why. It's beautiful. There's also a replica of Thoreau's cabin.

Nearby, the Concord Museum has Thoreau artifacts, like his bed, chair, and the desk where he wrote his famous book. Also in the town, you'll find the Minute Man National Historic Park, in which the first battle of the Revolutionary War began.

Concord is a hotbed of author action beyond Thoreau. Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson also lived here. The Orchard House, is where Louisa May Alcott lived and is the setting of "Little Women". Ralph Waldo Emerson has two historic, tourable homes here, the Ralph Waldo Emerson House and the Old Manse. He lived in the first and wrote the first draft of "Nature" in the latter, which made it the birthplace of the American Transcendentalism movement. All of these famous authors, Thoreau, Alcott, Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne are all buried in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Not to be confused with Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow, which is in New York).

Louisa May Alcott's House, the Orchard House

Nathaniel Hawthorne's House, the Wayside

Walden's Pond

Henry David Thoreau's Cabin

Ralph Waldo Emerson's House

The Wayside: Nathaniel Hawthorne's House

The Orchard House: Louisa May Alcott's House

Martha's Vineyard

Summer homes of the very affluent fill this island, but us regular folk can go there to sightsee! There's swimming and sunsets at South Beach and Menemsha, majestic and multi-colored rocky cliffs at Gay Head cliffs, the Edgartown Lighthouse, and a carousel that's been here since 1876, the Flying Horses Carousel.

Plymouth

Home of Plymouth Rock! Wait...don't get OVERLY excited...it's MUCH smaller than you'd expect. The site also has a full size replica of the Mayflower as part of Plimouth Plantation, a living history museum that shows the life of people in the original Plymouth Colony in the 17th century.

Salem

Home of witches, witch trials, and pirates, this is America's "most haunted city!" This place has an eccentric past, and that eccentricity shows today. It's a kooky, free-spirited, and interesting town filled with variety. The Witch House, the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, is the only building still standing with direct ties to the 1692 witch trials. Salem's most visited museum is the Salem Witch Museum. At the museum, you learn the history of witches and the Salem Witch Trials. Speaking of the famous trials, you can see re-enactments at The Witches Dungeon Museum (this one is followed by a tour of a dungeon where the witches would have been imprisoned), The Witch History Museum (followed by a walk through multiple life size sets of the "witches" in Salem) or Cry Innocent, the longest running play north of Boston. If you want to see the superstition side of witches, go to Gallows Hill, where you can see mythological creatures, sorcery, and green faced witches.

For a good museum on Pirates, see The New England Pirate Museum, "the most fun-filled place in Salem" yet filled with interesting history as well!

Naturally, with all this history, especially history leaning to the creepy side...there's haunted walking tours of Salem! Here's some to look for: Hocus Pocus Tours, Salem Witch Walk (led by real witches), 13 Ghosts Walking Tour, or Bewitched After Dark, among others. Salem also has some spectacular Halloween celebrations and events, see the goings on with Haunted Happenings in Salem.

Besides the witch and pirate history, Salem also offers a famous old colonial home called "The House of the Seven Gables", made famous by author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The house and it's museum can be toured. Don't get confused, though, Nathaniel Hawthorne's birthplace house is in Salem too and can also be toured.