Walking the freedom trail is worth it. Stop at all the historic stuff. Duck into the north end for lunch. Definitely touristy. Definitely worth it.

I have never waited longer than 20 minutes in line at Mike's Pastry, and even that might have only been on like the 4th of July or something.

Don't let the throng of tourists scare you. The people behind the counter are unbelievably efficient, and the cannolis are more than worth it.

Also, the Public Gardens are prettier and cleaner than the Common, which draws a lot of crowds. Go anyway. Take your time. Do the swan boats. Sit on the Good Will Hunting bench. It really is a singularly beautiful spot.

Went to the Mapparium for the first time this past weekend and it was much cooler than I expected.

Harvard’s Museams, worth it for the glass flowers alone but there is a lot of cool stuff in the “hallowed halls”

Duck boats! I loved it!

Barking crab is fun on a summer day I don’t care what anyone says. Food is good too if you stick with New England classics like lobsters and fried clams

About 15 years ago, I became a regular at the Top of the Hub for a period of time. My friends would laugh at me for going up there because it was a tourist trap with overpriced drinks, but I eventually got to know a couple of the bartenders, and I never got anything watered down. They had great jazz bands up there, and obviously the view was incredible. I thought it was the best kept secret in town.

Eventually the Pru started charging money just to take the elevator up, and I just stopped going. It closed a few years ago, but I heard they're bringing in a new bar restaurant up there to replace it.

The Boston Public Library is so lovely! The courtyard is a great place to enjoy a lunch or catch up with a friend. And you can find quiet areas in both the old and newer parts of the library if that’s more your thing. I’ve taken several locals there and am always surprised when it’s their first time.

Mike's Pasty is not any lesser than Modern or Bovas. It just gets a bad rep because of the crowds. But the past 3 times I've gone to Bovas the line was even longer than Mike's. And Mike's has other locations which aren't anywhere as busy as the North End location.

I really enjoy going to the USS Constitution. One of my friends commissioned on there as an Ensign and I routinely do the tour and always learn something new.

The Boston Aquarium whale watch.

Duck Boats.

we went to cheers in december and it was definitely overpriced but pretty decent. bartender told us the best time to go if you are local is december to march since thats usually their slowest time

Duck boat tours. Duck boat tours are awesome.

Ice skating on the frog pond.

I had a florentine cannoli from Mikes Pastry recently and it was actually amazing. I had never been to Mikes because I assumed it was too touristy.

The new Sam Adams tap room next to faneuil hall is honestly not bad. Ive always been able to get a seat at the bar upstairs, the space itself is pretty nice, beer is not expensive, and they have about 10 exclusive beers on tap there which are all very well made. Also a great place to practice a completely made up backstory for yourself since the bartenders will always assume you are from out of town.

Yeah I had a great time at the Boston tea party museum. Hilarious, and great fun.

If you want to try Mike’s but dont like crowds just go to the one in Assembly

A boat tour of the Boston harbor. I have done it multiple times (albeit with out of state friends) but learned something new each time.

Taking the ferry to any of the harbor islands in the summer is so fun! They have a bartender on board so after walking around the island and exploring you can have a refreshing cocktail for your boat ride back

I like all our touristy things, except the Tea Party Ship and Quincy Market (the indoor part with the food stalls and knicknacks).

My mom and I loved whale watching at the aquarium this summer!

I was a docent dame at the state house and it’s the best free tour you can get

It’s expensive, but Codzilla was legitimately a lot of fun. Likewise the Liberty Fleet of tall ships next to the Aquarium. They’re great to just hang out and lazily cruise around the harbor for a couple hours.

I always go to a city's art museum(s) when traveling and shamefully admit I have never been to ICA (? is that the name of museum in seaport?). I also lived in Seattle for 2 years and never went in the space needle.

Mike’s Pastry, IMO. I don’t get why people get so upset over it. Half of the time, there’s not even a line, just a bunch of people taking up space.

The aquarium! If you go early on a weekday before field trips arrive and not during school vacation weeks, you have it mostly to yourself for a bit

Lived in back bay about 13 years ago. Cheers on the flat of beacon (originally bull and finch) was the biggest tourist destination for many years. And was avoided like the plague by locals. But when I was there cheers (the show) had been done since early nineties. Used to go there all the time at night! No crowds, a few locals, ok food!

The North End of Boston is touristy but I wouldn’t call it a tourist trap.

SF's version of this was Alcatraz. It was actually really cool and rewarding.

Duck boat tours are great. I go with friends and family when they come visit.

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The clipper ship tours of Boston Harbor are great! So cool when hoist the sails and turn off the engine. Always a hit with visitors

Union Oyster House is actually awesome.

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Dunks, Market Basket and Faneuil Hall come to mind.

Given its geographical location, Boston quickly came to rely on its port for commerce and sustenance. Trade was paramount and it was the emergence of Boston’s maritime merchants – trading goods like tea, sugar, fish, and tobacco – which ultimately led to a collision course with the British Empire. As the China Trade grew, along with Boston’s reliance on tea as an import and an export, and as Britain’s East India Company depreciated, a fraught situation developed; Britain, facing debt and discord, transferred war debts and trading deficits to its colonies. Boston was in a state of defiance and non-compliance from the outset. As the British Parliament passed a succession of acts aimed at taxing the colonists and restricting their political power, leading figures such as Sam Adams, John Hancock, John Adams and Paul Revere initiated a movement which transcended class lines and drove the people of Boston into open rebellion. Catalytic events such as the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party drove events inexorably towards revolution. By the time Paul Revere road into the countryside on April 18, 1775, the city of Boston was ready to fight. The Battle of Bunker Hill occurred two months later and by early 1776 General George Washington was in Boston to take control of the Continental Army. Following American Independence, Boston’s economy entered a new era of Clipper Ships, textile manufacturing and global trade. In terms of social and political developments, abolitionist fervor took the town by storm, led by Charles Sumner and William Lloyd Garrison and supported by a vociferous contingent of female abolitionists. Boston was home to a vibrant and active African-American community which populated Beacon Hill during this era; the first African-American Church, Meeting House, and School were all founded on Beacon Hill. Also during this era, America’s nascent literary culture began to find its voice as esteemed Boston writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and James Russell Lowell ushered in a prolific era of American writing. In the mid to late 19th century Boston underwent dramatic change to its landscape and population. The arrival of immigrants from Ireland during the Potato Famine, and then from Italy, Germany, and Poland later in the century, fundamentally changed Boston’s human makeup and political leanings. Boston’s older caste, the Republican Yankee establishment, was slowly pushed to the margins of Boston’s political life. While the Yankees maintained control of Boston’s economic and educational institutions, Irish and Italian immigrants took over the city’s political apparatus. The immigrants brought to Boston a bevy of skilled and unskilled labor that was critical to Boston’s physical development beyond its downtown and port peninsula. Boston had outgrown its physical size by the 1840s and needed to create new land With the help of Irish labor, the city developed the South End and then the Back Bay, relocating the Yankees during the 1860s and 1870s to the Victorian brownstones and town houses so associated with Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Soon enough, iconic landmarks such as Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library existed in the Back Bay as well. Not bad for an area that had been part of the Charles River Basin for millennia untold. Always innovative, Boston spearheaded a number of firsts throughout the mid-19th century and early 20th century; ether was used as the first anesthetic at MGH, the nation’s first subway system went into operation, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, and the first mutual fund went public courtesy of MA Financial Services. The city contracted with Frederick Law Olmstead to beautify Boston with a network of urban parks stretching from the Boston Common to Jamaica Plain. The Emerald Necklace was born and the project included the creation of the Back Bay Fens which, in turn, facilitated the development of Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball. In the 20th century Boston continued its emergence as an innovation hub and world-class city. MIT moved across the river to Cambridge and transformed from a college to a world-class institute of engineering and technology. Bizarre and controversial events such as the North End Molasses Flood, Boston Police Strike, Brinks Robbery, Boston Strangler crimes, busing crisis, and destruction of the West End caused a fair share of intrigue and discordance while political figures such as James Michael Curley, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Tip O’Neill, Kevin White, and Michael Dukakis became household names. As the nation celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, Boston used funds generated from the anniversary to transform and revitalize Faneuil Hall Marketplace and create the Boston National Historical Park. In the 1980s and 1990s, monumental tasks were undertaken to make Boston a cleaner, more aesthetically-pleasing city. The cleanup of Boston Harbor and creation of the Big Dig were the most prominent examples. Boston Harbor is now one of the cleanest urban harbors in the world. And while the Big Dig vastly exceeded its allotted budget and timeframe, it was a transformative project of unprecedented size that made Boston more efficient for travelers and more beautiful for tourists. The sprawling Rose Kennedy Greenway atop I-93 is a lush urban space affording visitors and residents alike relaxation and recreation within the city center, not to mention eclectic artisan markets, food trucks, public art installations, outdoor movies and interactive festivals. As Boston looks ahead to 2017 and beyond, the development of One Seaport Square and the Innovation District in South Boston will hum along and continue to bring new industries of life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and consumer technology to the bustling district. General Electric will relocate its headquarters to Bostons Seaport District at some point in the next year. Alongside the Seaport District, Kendall Square in Cambridge makes Greater Boston one of the worlds foremost innovation clusters, and a hotbed of biotech engineering and life sciences research and development. Boston will continue to embrace its past while formulating next steps to encourage the multiculturalism, inclusivity, and youthful character which collectively make the city a great cosmopolitan hub.

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