Go to Harvard Yard, the Harvard museums. Have cake and coffee at The High Rise Cafe on Brattle St. Go to the MIT Museum. Watch an independent film at the Kenmore Square Cinema. Go to the Central Sq nightspots - River Gods, Zuzu's, The Middle East.

Boston, apart from the Back Bay, the Common, and the Aquarium, is a bit boring and touristy. If you're from England, the historic sites won't seem very historic.

Central Sq - Harvard Sq on the subway red line

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1797-built wooden sailing ship famous for its defeat of HMS Guerriere in War of 1812 naval battle, and subject of the 1830 Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem that saved it from demolition -
"Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,..."

Charlestown, Boston
www.ussconstitution.navy.mil

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Art, anthropology, archaeology, natural history, science - Harvard's museums have it all: Greek pottery at the Fogg, Asian art at the Sackler, Native American at the Peabody, Near Eastern at the Semitic, fabulous mineral display at the Natural History.

Harvard University Information Center in Holyoke Building, Harvard Square, Cambridge;
or www.harvard.edu/museums/

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Salem, MA is a fun day trip out of Boston, and easily accessible by commuter rail. Attractions range from the kitchsy (the many witch museums that give an, er, revisionist spin to the famous witch trials of 1692) to the sublime (the Asian-export collection at the Peabody Essex Museum (Moshe Safdie designed the new addition). Great collection of 17th and 18th century architecture, and you will be close to the sea.

If travelling by car, head up the coast and see the rest of Cape Ann! A fun few hours, good for kids - but should bypass if only in Boston for a few days.

www.salem.org/index.asp

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This museum has great stuff for scientists (robots etc), but also stunning high speed photography and fascinating kinetic sculptures. Great fun.

web.mit.edu/museum/

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You won't believe your eyes - they really are glass. The Glass Flowers collection at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University is a famous collection of highly realistic glass botanical models, made between 1887 and 1936 by a German father-son team. The museum also houses a stunning collection of mineral rocks.

Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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This is wonderful ... they have plays at the top of the museum in which your child can join in. You couldn't keep my son off the stage!

www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/index.html

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A gem of a museum in a city that has several. (The Museum of Fine Arts just around the corner and the Fogg on the Harvard campus are also worth visiting). The excellent collection of Old Master paintings is set in a mock Venetian Palazzo. Hanging out in the central courtyard with its seasonal flower displays is restful but the real draw is the paintings. It's a pity some were stolen in America's biggest ever art theft, but because of the terms of Ms Gardener's will, the layout of the paintings can't be changed and empty canvases remind the visitor of what's missing.

www.gardnermuseum.org/
280 The Fenway, Boston MA 02115
Nearest subway stop: Museum on the Green line

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