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Boston Directory     About Boston Arrival Getting Around Must See places City Tours Eating Nightlife And Entertainment Kids Best Of Freedom Trail Sports Information Explore Boston Water Front The 6 States of New England Hotels in Boston BOOK A FLIGHT CAR RENTALS   Boston: A Photographic Tour USA Airports Codes and Links of America's airports. Also See:  Restaurant Guides Long List of Restaurant and Dining info. Customer reviews, make Dining reservations etc. US Themepark Directory America's Amusement parks, water parks and zoos listed by State.   Frommer's Boston 2005     Read it Here Although the metropolitan area of BOSTON has long since expanded to fill the shoreline of Massachusetts Bay , and stretches for miles inland as well, the seventeenth-century port at its heart is still discernible. Forget the neat grids of modern urban America; the twisting streets clustered around Boston Common are a reminder of how the nation started out, and the city is enjoyably human in scale. Boston was, until 1755, the biggest city in America; as the one most directly affected by the latest whims of the British Crown, it was the natural birthplace for the opposition that culminated in the Revolutionary War . Numerous evocative sites from that era are preserved along the Freedom Trail through downtown. Since then, however, Boston has in effect turned its back on the sea. As the third busiest port in the British Empire (after London and Bristol), it stood on a narrow peninsula. What is now Washington Street provided the only access by land, and when the British set off to Lexington in 1775 they embarked in ships from the Common itself. During the nineteenth century, the Charles River marshlands were filled in to create the posh Back Bay residential area. Central Boston is now slightly set back from the water, separated by the hideous John Fitzgerald Expressway that carries I-93 across downtown. The city has been working on routing the traffic underground and disposing of this eyesore (a project a decade in the making known as "the Big Dig"), though the monumental task won't likely be completed before 2004, much to the frustration of locals. There is a certain truth in the charge leveled by other Americans that Boston likes to live in the past; echoes of the "Brahmins" of a century ago can be heard in the upper-class drawl of the posher districts. But this is by no means just a city of WASPs: the Irish who began to arrive in large numbers after the Great Famine had produced their first mayor as early as 1885, and the president of the whole country within a hundred years. The liberal tradition that spawned the Kennedys remains alive, fed in part by the presence in the city of more than one hundred universities and colleges, the most famous of which - Harvard University - actually stands in the city of Cambridge, just across the Charles River, and is fully integrated into the tourist experience thanks to the area's excellent subway system. The slump of the Depression seemed to linger in Boston for years - even in the 1950s, the population was actually dwindling - but these days the place definitely has a rejuvenated feel to it. Quincy Market has served as a blueprint for urban development worldwide, and with its busy street life, imaginative museums and galleries, fine architecture and palpable history, Boston is the one destination in New England there's no excuse for missing. The City         Boston has grown up around Boston Common , which was set aside as public land in 1634. The obvious first stop on any tour of the city, it is also one of the gems in the string of nine parks (six of which were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America's foremost landscape architect) known as Boston's Emerald Necklace . Another gem is the lovely Public Garden , across Charles Street, where the two-ton swan boats ($1.50), which paddle across the main pond, are a less-than-natural, though whimsical, focal point. The visitor center - the start of the Freedom Trail - is near the tapering north end of the Common. As you stand here, facing up Tremont Street with the State House away to your left, the main shopping district, Quincy Market , and the waterfront are slightly ahead and down to the right. The modern concrete wasteland of Government Center is straight up Tremont Street, with the North End beyond - first Irish, then Jewish, and now very definitely Italian. A short way behind you on the left rises Beacon Hill , every bit as elegant as when Henry James called Mount Vernon Street "the most prestigious address in America" (and far removed from its eighteenth-century nickname of "Mount Whoredom"). Heading away from the center down Tremont Street brings you to Chinatown and the Theater District , while grand boulevards such as Commonwealth Avenue lead west from the Public Garden into the Back Bay , where Harvard Bridge runs across the Charles River into Cambridge. Search All -  Boston Hotels Sheraton Boston 39 DALTON ST - Boston Pictures / Map / Book this Hotel Boston Harbor Hotel Pictures / Map Book this Hotel   John F. Kennedy Library and Museum John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is dedicated to the memory of our nation's thirty-fifth President and to all those who through the art of politics seek a new and better world.    Helpful Links Boston National Historic Park Boston Islands Massachusetts National Parks Boston Museums Boston Harbor Ferry schedule Flight Departure/Arrival info Historic New England Boston Duck Tours Questions? Call: 617-267-DUCK You've never toured Boston in anything that comes close to Boston Duck tours www.bostonducktours.com   Eyewitness Top !0 Travel Guides: Boston      Boston Restaurants                      back to top Where to Eat: Boston/Cape Cod Opentable.com  Your credit card number is used to secure reservations, but it is not billed. Four no-shows and you are banned; earn discounts with bookings. Appetite Network Worldwide dining and drinking guide categorized by region. Includes a district guide, historical background and restaurant selections for each city. ChefMoz Dining Guide A restaurant directory run by volunteer editors; part of the Open Directory Project. Solicits public submissions of restaurant entries and reviews.             This list contains some of Bostons most favored restaurants: The Blue Diner 150 Kneeland St tel 617-695-0087. Classic restored Fifties diner with lively jukebox, slowly inching its way upmarket but with excellent traditional and unpretentious American food. Open till 4am on weekends. Buzzy's 327 Cambridge St tel 617-242-7722 and 647 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge tel 617-864-2333. Locally famous for fabulous roast beef sandwiches, hand-cut french fries, and the fact that they never close. Daily Catch 323 Hanover St tel 617-523-8567 and 261 Northern Ave tel 617-338-3093. Sicilian-style seafood restaurant, noted for its many styles of calamari. Expect to pay from $10 to $40 for an entree. Division Sixteen 955 Boylston St tel 617-353-0870. While the food is good and the wine list inspired, the real draw is the atmosphere, a converted police stable with a decidedly 1920s feel, in which locals sip martinis and any number of frozen concoctions. Durgin Park 340 N Market St, Faneuil Hall tel 617-227-2038. Crowded, hurried and proud of its surly service, but a Boston institution for its chunky prime ribs and seafood specialties - not to mention the baked beans. Tables are shared, and no reservations are taken. Entrees start from $7. Gabriele's 1 1st Ave, Charlestown Navy Yard tel 617-242-4040. Excellent upscale Italian restaurant, with a terrace for outdoor dining. Giacomo's 355 Hanover St tel 617-523-9026. Fresh, flavorful food, with an emphasis on seafood and pasta specialties - the pumpkin tortellini in a sage butter sauce is a North End classic. Note the restaurant doesn't take reservations or credit cards. Golden Palace 14-20 Tyler St tel 617-423-4565. Chinese restaurant open until 11.30pm, with excellent and reasonably priced dim sum daily until 3pm. Entrees $7 and upwards. Kingfish Hall 188 S Market Bldg tel 617-523-8862. Well-regarded, stylish seafood house worth the splurge ($20 to $30 an entree). Legal Sea Foods at the Park Plaza Hotel , 50 Park Plaza tel 617-426-4444. Citywide chain deservedly renowned for its top-quality seafood, especially their excellent oysters. Mamma Maria 3 North Square tel 617-523-0077. Widely acknowledged as the best of the North End's traditional Italian restaurants, noted for seafood dishes and fresh breads. Expensive and also popular for special occasions. Pad Thai Café 1116 Boylston St tel 617-247-3399. Fresh Thai soups, salads and curries, with highly recommended house specials, all in the $5-10 range. Popular with students, the place gets crowded fast. Open daily for lunch and dinner, pad thai also delivers after 5:30pm. Panificio Bakery 144 Charles St tel 617-227-4340. Consistently rated the best bakery in Boston; try to make time for their brunch, served weekends from 10am-4:30pm. Rabia's 73 Salem St tel 617-227-6637. The best thing about this small restaurant is its Express Lunch special from noon to 2pm, when you can pay under $7 for a heaping plate of Italian leftovers. Steve's Greek-American Cuisine 316 Newbury St tel 617-267-1817. One of Boston's classic cheap eats, with heavenly Greek food and divine grilled chicken sandwiches. Trattoria Il Panino 11 Parmenter St tel 617-720-1336. An old North End standby popular with locals. The great Amalfi-coast chicken and pasta dishes are complemented by a good wine list and friendly service. Tremont 647 647 Tremont St tel 617-266-4600. Part of the burgeoning South End dining scene, with big portions of New American food, much of it grilled, as well as superb desserts and a good selection of wines.  Boston Night Life                                     Back to top Avalon 15 Lansdowne St tel 617-262-2424. An anchor on the Lansdowne St club scene, Avalon is a local favorite for late-night dancing with different themes on different nights (Saturday is techno night) and a live concert venue. Dress tends to be casual. The Black Rose 160 State St tel 617/742-2286. Large Irish pub beside Faneuil Hall, with traditional music every night and Guinness galore. Bull and Finch Pub 84 Beacon St, Beacon Hill tel 617/227-9605. Its status as the original setting of TV's Cheers makes this place totally touristy, but at least it's central and lively. Chaps 100 Warrenton St, off Stuart St tel 617/266-7778. Glitzy gay club filled with lots of decked-out young men. Commonwealth Brewery Company 138 Portland St tel 617-523-8383. Brewpub right by the Fleet Center near North Station, serving good pub food and its own ales. J J Foley's 21 Kingston St tel 617-338-7713. A blue-collar Irish bar in the heart of downtown, with decent food, sports on TV and a great jukebox. Around since 1909. Other Side Cosmic Café 407 Newbury St tel 617-536-9477. Popular and trendy café with great salads, sandwiches, beer, wine, coffee and tea. Across from Tower Records and the Mass Turnpike, and open late. Sevens Ale House 77 Charles St, Beacon Hill tel 617-523-9074. It may not look like much, but that's the point at this centrally located neighborhood watering hole.