1. Stay at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. A sister hotel to The Plaza in New York, the 96-year-old Fairmont Copley Plaza is one of the grandest of American hotels. The mirrored and gold-gilded lobby is pure old-world opulence, as are the rooms (the Copley has a total of 383 guest rooms and suites). Stay on the Fairmont Gold floor to experience a "hotel within the hotel," offering private check-in and guest lounge for breakfast and late-night nibbles. For dinner, spend a night at The Oak Room, the hotel’s renowned steakhouse (it was voted as the city's best by Boston Magazine) and revel in its glorious antique setting. Another hotel must: a meeting with Catie Copley, the in-house canine ambassador who even has her own book! Get a copy and have Catie “pawtograph” it for you.
2. Visit the Boston Public Library. This is certainly one of the city’s most historic and beautiful buildings. Founded in 1848, the library was America’s first metropolitan library for the public and it continues to function as just that for city residents today (you can visit at any given time of day and the reading halls will be packed!). The building itself is the library’s second home (it outgrew the first), built between 1887 and 1895. The architecture of the building is incredible as are the decorative details found inside, most notably the ceiling murals found on the third floor gallery depicting Judaism and Christianity, painted by John Singer Sargent.
3. Catch a game at Fenway Park. Home to the Boston Red Sox since 1912, Fenway occupies a legendary space in American sports history. Bostonians are some of the most fervent baseball fans around, so getting a ticket to see a Bo Sox game might be a tall order (the Red Sox draw over 2.5 million fans to Fenway annually), but it’s worth a try. Even if you don’t get tickets, you can still tour the stadium and get up close and personal with the famed “Green Monster.”
4. Explore the MFA. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is an art lover’s dream. The MFA’s in-house collection of art totals a staggering 450,000 pieces, making it the fifth largest art museum in America. There truly is something for everyone at the MFA, from Egyptian mummies to Asian, Classical and American art. A particularly notable collection at the MFA is its Impressionist paintings—it has the largest collection of Impressionist art outside of Europe. Reserve a whole day for your trip to the MFA, you will definitely need it and likely still won’t see all the treasures it has to offer.
5. Discover Beacon Hill. Boston is a city of neighbourhoods and one of the oldest and most prestigious is Beacon Hill. When you think of Boston, the architecture and landscape of the Beacon Hill neighbourhood is probably what comes to mind—old cobblestone streets and grand brownstone homes. The area came to prominence beginning in the 1790s through to the 1870s, during which time most of the homes and buildings in the neighbourhood were constructed. Today, this community is home to some of the city's best eateries, unique boutiques and most famous residents—John Kerry is just one of the renowned residents of Beacon Hill.
6. Visit the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. Isabella Stewart Gardener was an eccentric and wealthy Boston-based art connoisseur who in her lifetime collected over 2,500 priceless works from the likes of everyone from Botticelli to Titian, Rembrandt and Matisse. To house her collection, she built a museum fashioned after a Venetian palazzo, complete with a dramatic courtyard in the centre, featuring a gorgeous garden, which blooms year-round. Isabella’s collection is stunning, but as you tour through, you will notice there are a few empty frames about to mark the spots where 13 priceless pieces used to hang, ones that were stolen in a dramatic heist in 1990 and have yet to be recovered.
7. Go to Harvard. Just across the Charles River in Cambridge lies one of the world’s most famous Ivy League institutions, Harvard. No trip to Boston is complete without a visit to the historic campus, founded in 1636. Sign up for a student tour to learn about the history of the campus and the buildings found inside the confines of Harvard Yard. While there, also take time to visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History and Fogg Art Museum, two of the best ones in the Boston area.
8. Shop Newbury Street. Boston is a shopping mecca and one of the best places to do retail detail is along Newbury Street located in the city’s Back Bay area. This expansive shopping stretch features a mix of designer shops, mainstream retailers and indie boutiques. Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs, Niketown, H&M, Valentino and Chanel are just a few of the hits you’ll find here. Added shopping bonus: there is no sales tax in the state of Massachusetts on clothing (save a five percent luxury tax on items priced over $175) so most times the price you see on the tag is the price you pay!
9. See Trinity Church. Located in Copley Square, this church was built in 1877 and is routinely voted one of America’s 10 finest buildings. The Romanesque-style structure is made from granite and sandstone and features some of the most beautiful interior elements you will ever see inside a church. A few things to take special note of at Trinity: the pulpit area, the chancel and the stunning stained glass windows—the three above the choir area depicting the story of Christmas are particularly enchanting.
10. Take a road trip. Want to check out other parts of beautiful New England? Boston is the perfect home base for day trips to a host of places including Cape Cod (a 45-minute drive), Rockport (a 40- minute drive), Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard (both accessible by ferry departing from Boston Harbor) and even surrounding states like New Hampshire.
For more information about planning your honeymoon trip to Boston, visit bostonusa.com.
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