A weekend for two in Boston is mostly about good walking, a museum or two and a table booked in advance. Some well-known restaurants and attractions in the city have closed, so this plan sticks to places that are open and flags the details you should confirm. Book dinners and timed museum tickets early. Friday evening: Beacon Hill Start with a slow walk through Beacon Hill, a neighborhood of narrow brick streets and gas lamps.

Several of Boston’s best-known ticketed attractions sit within a few subway stops of each other. Use the quick facts below to decide which ones are worth the entry fee and to avoid arriving on a closed day. Closed on Tuesdays The two big art museums share a weekly closing day. Both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are shut on Tuesday, so schedule the rest of the week around them.

Walking is the quickest way to see Boston, and you can choose between paid guided walks and free routes you follow yourself. Wear sturdy shoes, bring water and check the hours of any house museum along the way. Guided: Walk Into History The Freedom Trail Foundation runs a 90 minute guided walk of about a mile that stops at 11 of the 16 official sites. It starts from the Boston Common Visitor Information Center at 139 Tremont St.

Sightseeing in Boston works best neighborhood by neighborhood, because the main historic sites cluster close together. The notes below follow the Freedom Trail from Boston Common north to Charlestown and add the other free or low-cost stops along the way. Hours shift with the seasons, so confirm them on the official pages. Boston Common and Beacon Hill The Freedom Trail starts at Boston Common, where the Visitor Information Center sits at 139 Tremont St.

For a trip of several days, the strongest plan is to stay in Boston and add one or two overnight stops by rail or ferry. The city side is easy to plan. Longer road-trip routes into New Hampshire or Maine have fewer confirmed details, so treat drive times and opening hours there as things to look up before you commit. Base yourself in the city Boston’s core is walkable and the subway reaches the rest.

Most of the towns around Boston are reached by Commuter Rail, with fares set by zone. Subway-style tap-to-pay is not accepted on commuter trains, so buy a ticket through the MBTA instead. Zone fares and ticket types are on the MBTA commuter rail page . Fares by destination Town Zone One way Salem 3 $8.00 Concord 5 $9.75 Gloucester 7 $11.00 Rockport 8 $12.25 Plymouth 8 $12.25 Salem Salem is the easy first choice, about 30 minutes by train from North Station.