|
Great New England travel destinations
Boston,
MA: A Virtual Guided Tour, from a Local's Perspective
By Marc
Hurwitz
Boston, MA
is one of the great cities in America. And while there are a number of
decent tours people can choose from while visiting Boston, most of them
don't go much beyond Quincy Market and the Freedom Trail. In this
feature written by the founder of Boston's Hidden Restaurants and
Travel Guide of America, you will learn about the entire city of
Boston, from Fenway Park to Hyde Park.
Boston, at its heart,
is a city of neighborhoods. And many of these sections of Boston have a
lot to offer the visitor. While the virtual tour of Boston is going to
begin in familiar surroundings, you will soon learn about these great
neighborhoods that are often overlooked by tourists.
Let's start downtown,
where you have the historic Boston Common, Quincy Market, Fanueil Hall,
and much more. This bustling area is where most visitors come. If you
go northeast a few blocks, you end up in the North End,
an old Italian neighborhood with narrow streets and great restaurants.
From here, you can take the tunnel to East Boston,
a close-knit working-class neighborhood that also has a strong Italian
influence, though it also has a large Brazilian population now, too.
From East
Boston, cut back through the tunnel and head north to Charlestown,
a charming old neighborhood with quaint row houses lining steep hills.
From Charlestown, go back through downtown, heading west through Beacon
Hill, a tree-shaded old-money neighborhood, and both the South
End and Back Bay, two exciting, trendy
parts of Boston, and go past The Fens, where Fenway
Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, is located. You soon arrive in Allston
and Brighton, two parts of Boston populated by
college students. These funky areas are filled with restaurants, bars,
and shops.
From
Allston, head south, eventually ending up in Jamaica Plain,
one of the funkiest Boston neighborhoods. Jamaica Plain is filled with
ma-and-pa shops and has some of the most beautiful architecture in
Boston. From here, move southwest into Roslindale
and West Roxbury, two mostly middle-class sections
of Boston that are mostly residential, though Roslindale is becoming
known for its terrific restaurants, too. East of here is Hyde
Park, a quiet part of Boston that hasn't changed much over
the years and feels more like a suburban town.
If you
continue east from Hyde Park, you reach Roxbury and
Mattapan, sprawling neighborhoods that are
undergoing a lot of renovation and beautification. This close-knit part
of Boston has some great parks and wonderful old Victorian houses.
Continuing
further east, you arrive in Dorchester, a huge
neighborhood that is mostly working class. Black, Irish, and Vietnamese
neighborhoods make up most of Dorchester, but young professionals are
also discovering its beautiful homes and old-time charm. From
Dorchester, continue northeast into South Boston,
where Boston's Irish families have lived for more than a century.
Southie has great beaches, steep hills, and amazing views of downtown.
And it is a neighborhood that takes pride in its independence and
uniqueness.
From South
Boston, it is an easy drive back into downtown Boston, stopping by
bustling Chinatown and the charming, quiet Bay
Village along the way. There is much more to Boston than was
covered in this brief article, but you will have to explore the rest of
this great city on your own!
Copyright
2005, Boston's Hidden Restaurants. All Rights Reserved.
Marc is a Boston-based writer who has helped create two major Web
sites: Boston's
Hidden Restaurants, a restaurant guide that features top
little-known dining spots in Boston and New England, and Travel Guide of
America, a US travel guide that focuses on interesting
cities, towns, and villages that are vacation destinations.
Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Hurwitz
|
|
|