How many days do you need in Boston?
Three days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Boston.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Boston · 3 days United States
Best time: September to October for clear air and autumn colour.
The Freedom TrailDay 1
🖼️9:30 AMBoston Common and the State House
The oldest public park in the country, with the gold-domed State House on the rise above it.
🚶 ~17 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🍽️12:00 PMFaneuil Hall and Quincy Market
The eighteenth-century meeting hall where revolution was argued, with the market colonnade beside it.
🚶 ~12 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.4 mi
⛪3:00 PMNorth End and Old North Church
The Italian quarter of narrow streets, and the 1723 church where the lanterns were hung.
Cambridge and the riverDay 2
📍9:30 AMHarvard Yard
The oldest university in the country, its 1636 core open to walk, with Harvard Square outside the gates.
🚶 ~41 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.5 mi
📍1:00 PMMIT campus
Downriver, a campus of serious modern architecture including a Saarinen chapel and a Gehry building.
🚶 ~30 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
⛴️4:30 PMCharles River Esplanade
The park along the Boston bank, with sailing dinghies on the water and the skyline behind.
Fenway and the museumsDay 3
🖼️10:00 AMMuseum of Fine Arts
One of the largest collections in the United States, particularly strong on American and Japanese art.
🚶 ~8 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.3 mi
🖼️2:00 PMIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum
A Venetian-style palazzo around a courtyard, hung exactly as its founder left it, with the empty frames of the 1990 theft still on the walls.
🚶 ~16 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🌳5:00 PMFenway Park
The oldest ballpark in the major leagues, opened 1912, with tours when the Red Sox are away.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
This is one of 126 free itineraries. Open it, change anything you want, and it becomes your trip.