There’s something very homely, familiar andengaging about Boston. But it’s much morethan a feeling. For an American city it has adistinctly European air about it, thanks toarchitecture which owes much to the MotherCountry.

OK, so the colonists threw some chests of tea offseveral British ships into Boston Harbour as a protestagainst taxes a few years back, helping to precipitate theAmerican Revolution. Not that you would think there had ever been any

discord between our nations. After all, what’s a few tealeaves between friends? Indeed, as you walk aroundBoston, what strikes you most of all is how friendlyand helpful the people of this fair city are. On mylast visit, while holding a map towork out where I needed to go,I lost count of how manytimes people stopped to ask

if I needed help. Try that in London.People are friendly because they are not cocooned in

their cars on gridlocked streets. In Boston, everyonewalks. Everywhere. It is so compact and easy to getaround on foot it is known as “America’s Walking City”– one reason why it is so different to other US cities. For the last three years, visitors have been able to step

out even more in the city, thanks to the completion of theRose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway(www.rosekennedygreenway.org), known simply asthe Greenway. It is a mile-and-a-half corridor of parks

and green public spaces through theheart of Boston, created when thecrumbling, elevated Interstate 93

Summer 2011 tlm � the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk 15

New England’s unofficial capital, Boston, is cosmopolitan, friendly and full of history but, best of all,it is compact and easy to explore. Peter Ellegard takes it all in his stride

escape to � boston

More than afeeling

Greater Boston Convention &Visitors Bureau

� The Boston skyline

USS Constitution – the oldest commissioned warshipafloat and known as “Old Ironsides” – plus severalhistoric churches and burial grounds.

boston tea partyAll are free except for the Old South Meeting House,where a meeting of over 5,000 colonists led to theBoston Tea Party of 1773, the Old State House and PaulRevere House, from where Revere famously rode out toLexington in April, 1775, to warn that the British werecoming. Allow half a day to walk the entire trail, but even if

you don’t want to do that, you will certainly walk some

of it anyway as you explore the city. It is easy to follow,too, with a line of red bricks set into the sidewalk (that’spavement to us Brits). You can pick up self-guided walk-ing maps from the information booth on BostonCommon, take a guided tour or, if you prefer to sit backand relax, join a trolley tour.There are many other places to lose yourself in, either

walkable from downtown or via its subway network. Oneof my favourites is the delightful Public Garden, whereyou can chill out, pedal a Swan Boat on the lake or listento buskers on the bridge. Just across busy Beacon Streetfrom the gardens is the Boston Cheers bar(www.cheersboston.com) – formerly the Bull & Finch

Summer 2011 tlm � the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk 1716 tlm � the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk Summer 2011

freeway was torn down and built underground in thecontroversial 15-year Big Dig – America’s most expen-sive highway project, costing $22 billion. The Greenwaynow lies above it, a tranquil escape from the city hubbub.It also reunited the downtown with Boston’s historic

waterfront. So you can enjoy a leisurely amble from thepiers, docks and waterside attractions to downtownsights without having to negotiate a cacophonous,concrete and steel barrier, while pausing to relax insteadon benches set in peaceful, green oases.

italian-flavouredOn one such walk, my friend and I sauntered throughBoston’s Italian-flavoured North End, savouring theneighbourhood’s characterful appeal and stopping forlunch at Bella Vista – a traditional little eaterie wherethe owner, Tony, engaged in friendly chat with his thickItalian-American accent as we ate our pasta surroundedby ceramic handbags and other curios he had broughtback from his homeland. Another day, we stopped for a Guinness at a cosy little

Irish pub, Durty Nelly’s, next to a street market just offthe Greenway, where the barman cheerfully rustled upburgers even though we had missed last orders for meals.Boston and food go together like, well, fish and

chips. Indeed, seafood is part of the Boston experience.Try New England lobsters or chowder at many places,including Legal Sea Foods (www.legalseafoods.com),a Boston institution (it actually started in neighbouringCambridge) with several restaurants around the city. Wecelebrated my birthday at its popular Long Wharf restau-rant, close to the Waterfront Park and New EnglandAquarium. Book ahead to guarantee a table.You’ll want to walk off your meal, of course, and the

best way to do so, and acquaint yourself with Boston, isto stroll along the Freedom Trail (www.thefreedom-trail.org). Created in 1958 when demolition threatenedseveral landmark buildings, it stretches for 2.5 miles past16 nationally-significant historic sites connected withthe American Revolution. The trail is like a vast outdoor and indoor museum. It

starts at Boston Common, America’s oldest public park,and meanders north through the city, ending at theBunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Along the way it passes iconic sites including the

grand State House, Old South Meeting House, OldState House, Faneuil Hall, with its tourist honeypotFaneuil Hall Marketplace, and Paul Revere House,which was the home of the leading revolutionary andis downtown Boston’s oldest building, as well as the

splash outWater has played a huge part in Boston’s history and is integral to it today. Hitcha ride on one of the ubiquitous amphibious “Duck” vehicles of Boston DuckTours (www.bostonducktours.com) for sightseeing on both land and on theCharles River.Take a harbour cruise (www.bostonharborcruises.com) to see the city

from the sea, watch the sunset and go whale watching, or sail on one of Boston’shistoric tall ships (www.libertyfleet.com). You can also get a fast ferry to CapeCod’s Provincetown or enjoy a leisurely transfer from and to LoganInternational Airport from the waterfront.Meanwhile, June 2012 will see the reopening of the totally revamped Boston

Tea Party Ships & Museum (www.bostonteapartyship.com), which have beenundergoing reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2007.

beyond bostonNeighbouring Cambridge is home toHarvard University, America’s oldest, whereyou can visit the Harvard Art Museums(www.harvardartmuseums.org) and theHarvard Museum of Natural History(www.hmnh.harvard.edu). Browseits many bookshops and relax in a coffee

shop. I enjoyed a gospel brunch at theoriginal House of Blues in Harvard Squarebefore it closed in 2003 for a bigger venuenear Boston’s Fenway Park, but there’s lotsof music on the streets of Cambridge. An hour south of Boston is Plymouth,

where Plymouth Rock marks where thePilgrims landed and where replica shipMayflower II is now anchored, and livinghistory museum Plimoth Plantation

(www.plimoth.org). Further south liesCape Cod, with its pretty clapboard homesand unspoilt beaches.Historic Salem, to the north, retains its

old-world charm with sites including thefascinating Salem Witch Museum(www.salemwitchmuseum.com). And tothe west are the towns of Lexington andConcord plus Old Sturbridge Village, re-creating 19th century New England.

escape to � bostonescape to � boston

“In Boston,everyonewalks.Everywhere.”

Pete

r El

lega

rd

Pete

r El

lega

rd

Pete

r El

lega

rd

Gre

ater

Bos

ton

Conv

entio

n &

Visi

tors

Bur

eau

Gre

ater

Bos

ton

Conv

entio

n &

Visi

tors

Bur

eau

Pete

r El

lega

rd

� See Boston on a Boston Duck Tour� Swan Boat in Boston Public Garden

� Fenway Park

� Little Italy

� The Greenway

� Boston skyline from the harbour

� Harbourfest Redcoats

Pete

r El

lega

rd

pub, and the setting for the CheersTV series. Althoughthe series ended in 1993, the bar still attracts fans fromaround the world and I couldn’t resist popping in for apint myself.The Harbour Walk is another of Boston’s walking

trails, winding 38 miles in all along its waterfront fromChelsea Creek to Dorchester. Then there’s the IrishHeritage Trail (www.irishheritagetrail.com), whichstretches three miles through downtown Boston andBack Bay, recounting three centuries of immigrationincluding the Potato Famine exodus. Boston has been a magnet for immigrants from

around the world over the years. Its 21 neighbourhoodsare a melting pot of cultures and history, and it is fasci-nating to explore them. They include America’sthird-largest Chinatown, Mattapan for its Haitiancommunity and Little Italy in the North End.

cultureAmong neighbourhoods, discover the narrow brick andcobbled streets of 19th century-era Beacon Hill, theeclectic art studios and boutiques of South End andFenway/Kenmore Square, with its cultural institutionssuch as the Museum of Fine Arts (www.mfa.org),Symphony Hall (www.bostonsymphonyhall.org) andIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum (www.gardnermu-seum.org), where a $118 million RenzoPiano-designed extension opens next year, not forget-ting legendary Fenway Park – home of Boston’s RedSox baseball team (www.redsox.com). I once paid aliterally flying visit there while in transit to the Midwestwith a travel industry group. A stretched limo picked usup from the airport, took us to Fenway to watch a RedSox game with beer and hot dogs – and a couple ofhome runs for the victorious home team – then stoppedoff at an Irish bar before dropping us back in time tocatch our onward flight.Culture vultures can also visit institutions such as the

John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum(www.jfklibrary.org), the Commonwealth Museum(www.sec.state.ma.us/mus/museum) and Institute ofContemporary Art (www.icaboston.org) before takingin a show in the Theatre District.And don’t forget shopping. Take the subway to Copley

for Copley Place mall (www.simon.com) and the Shopsat Prudential Centre (www.prudentialcenter.com),

where a high-speed elevatorwhisks you to the top of the 50-storey Prudential Tower for abird’s eye view of Boston fromthe Skywalk Observatory. Mybest Boston bargains have alwayscome from Filene’s Basement (www.filenesbasement.com),now in Boylston Street in Back Bay.That reminds me; I need

another shopping fix. Guess Ishould dust down my walkingboots and plan a return trip toBoston.

18 tlm � the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk Summer 2011

escape to � boston

We have three pairs of Boston CityPASS ticketbooklets to give away, worth $46 each booklet. Theygive a saving of almost 50% on the combined admissionprices to: the New England Aquarium, Museum of FineArts, Science Museum, Skywalk Observatory and the

Harvard Museum of Natural History or John F Kennedy Presidential Library andMuseum. Go to www.tlm-magazine.co.uk and click on Competitions. Terms andconditions apply. Closing date August 15, 2011.� WIN a Boston and Cape Cod holiday worth over £2,000. See page 59.

boston facts

WIN Boston CityPASS tickets

when to goBoston has harsh winters but is perfectto visit from spring through to autumn.

getting thereBritish Airways (www.ba.com),Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com), American Airlines(www.aa.com) and Delta(www.delta.com) fly direct fromLondon to Boston. Icelandair(www.icelandair.co.uk) and Iceland Express(www.icelandexpress.com) fly from London via Reykjavik.

accommodationTake your pick from hotels including the Fairmont Copley – 100 yearsold in 2012 – and recently-opened sibling Fairmont Battery Wharf (bothwww.fairmont.com), the Boston Harbour Hotel (www.bhh.com),Boston W Hotel (www.whotels.com/boston) or boutique AmesHotel (www.ameshotel.com) downtown.

tour operatorsCity breaks are offered by operators including America As You Like It(www.americaasyoulikeit.com), North America Travel Service(www.northamericatravelservice.co.uk), Virgin Holidays(www.virginholidays.co.uk), Titan (www.titanhitours.co.uk) andTrailfinders (www.trailfinders.com).

getting aroundWalking is the best way to see Boston.But it also has an excellent subwaysystem called the “T” plus local busesand railways. The most flexible andcheapest option is to buy aCharlieCard (www.mbta.com). TheBoston CityPASS (www.citypass.com)

costs $46 for adults and $29 for childrenand covers five top attractions in the city.

tourist informationGreater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau: www.bostonusa.comMassachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism: www.massvacation.com

Pete

r El

lega

rd

Pete

r El

lega

rd

Pete

r El

lega

rd

� Paul Revere Statue