A trip to nearby sights of Boston can be done by land or water, although visitors should note that what may be done in half a day by land may take a full day by water. Many of the bus and boat tour companies mentioned in the Tours of the City section offer a range of excursions as well.

For a Half Day

Concord: New England is very much about small towns with history, culture, white churches and colourful autumn leaves. Concord, only 35km (22 miles) northwest of Boston, is the stereotype. It can be combined with a stop at Lexington to make a full day's excursion. This is the place where the advancing colonial British troops (the ‘Redcoats' is a better term because the settlers here still regarded themselves as British anyway) first encountered the speedy defence capabilities of the ‘Minutemen', so-called because they were ready for battle in only 60 seconds. The first American victory, of what was to become the American War of Independence, was here at North Bridge starting with the ‘shot that was heard round the world'. An idea of what they were firing at each other is to be found at Bullet Hole House, pierced by a Redcoat musket ball.

Literary culture also abounds in Concord. Ralph Waldo Emerson's house is now a public museum, not far from the town's central Monument Square. Nearby are the Orchard House and the Wayside of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Just south of the square is Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond. All three are buried in Author's Ridge at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Concord is about 50 minutes from Boston by car, along State Route 2, and about 40 minutes on the commuter train between Boston and Fitchberg. There is also a commuter bus to and from Boston run by A Yankee Line (tel: (617) 268 8890 or 1 800 942 8890; website: www.yankeeline.us). Sources of information include the Concord Museum, 200 Lexington Road (tel: (978) 369 9763; website: www.concordmuseum.org), Concord Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, 58 Main Street, open March to October (tel: (978) 369 3120; website: www.concordchamberofcommerce.org) and two other websites (www.concordma.com and www.concordnet.org).

For a Whole Day

Cape Cod: Although Cape Cod feels like an island, it is actually a 105km- (65-mile-) long peninsula with 15 small towns, numerous villages and around 960km (600 miles) of distinctive, beautiful sandy coastline. The gateway town, Sandwich, is also the Cape's oldest, founded in 1637. Many other place names will be familiar to anyone from the south of England: Truro, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Chatham and Harwich being a few examples. Many of them are what you would expect in New England, having a rural feel, cosy pubs, long beaches and great ‘fresh caught' seafood.

Sandwich, Route 6A, better known as the Old King's Highway, forms the spine of the peninsula taking in many historic settlements on its way up to New Beach. Just before New Beach is Provincetown, long renowned as an artistic colony and known also as the gay centre of New England, which would come as a great surprise to the Pilgrim Fathers, who made this their first landing point. Falmouth in the southeast has a classic village green, white church and 19th-century houses. On the south side is Hyannis, famous among other things for being a home of the Kennedy family, and where you will find the JFK Memorial & Museum. Wellfleet, halfway up the western coastline, is popular for its oysters and for being bypassed by the commercial world.

A day trip to the Cape will not seem long enough once you have begun to take in the atmosphere and realised that there are still two real islands to explore, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Provincetown is 205km (130 miles) from Boston by road and many visitors choose instead to travel the direct route by sea ferry. The Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce, 70 Main Street, Buzzards Bay (tel: (508) 759 6000; website: www.capecodcanalchamber.org) or The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce (tel: (508) 362 3225 or 1 888 332 2732; website: www.capecodchamber.org) can provide information.

Salem: The birthplace of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, the little town of Salem is less than an hour north of Boston. It was also the site of the famous 1692 witch trials. One of the main attractions is the Salem Witch Museum, which chronicles witchcraft and witch hunts. New England's oldest mansion (1668), the House of the Seven Gables, was the inspiration for Hawthorne's book of the same name. The Salem Maritime National Historic Site explores the town's rich history. Tourist information is available from Destination Salem, 54 Turner Street (tel: (978) 744 3663 or 1 877 725 3992/SALEM MA; website: www.salem.org).