Boston Top Attractions

Children's Museum
Considered one of the top three children's museums in the country, Boston's Children's Museum is a wonderland for kids aged 10 and under, and the place where they are encouraged to touch everything. One of its most popular exhibits, Arthur's World, patterned after Marc Brown's books and the Public Broadcasting series, encourages role-playing, fantasy exploration, reading and writing in the child's favourite Arthur setting.

308 Congress Street
Tel: (617) 426 6500.
Website: www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org  
Opening hours: Sat-Thurs 1000-1700, Fri 1000-2100.
Admission charge: Y.
Disabled access: Y.

JFK Presidential Library and Museum
Designed by famous architect I M Pei, and located on the UMass campus, the JFK Library and Museum chronicles the life of Jack Kennedy until his assassination on 23 November 1963. The exhibition begins with an 18-minute documentary of Kennedy's life from birth until his presidential nomination in 1960. Products of the times (kitchen appliances, 1960s TV commercials, magazines and newspapers) bring to life the era when JFK was in the political spotlight. TV monitors broadcast his speeches and there is a reproduction of the TV studio where the Kennedy-Nixon debates took place. His presidential accomplishments are displayed in a reproduction of the White House. Not to be missed is the view of the harbour from the building. JFK's sailboat, complete with sail flags that spell out JFK and JBK (Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy), sits on the shore.

Columbia Point
Tel: (617) 514 1600.
Website: www.jfklibrary.org  
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1700.
Admission charge: Y.
Disabled access: Y.

Harvard University and Harvard Square
A trip to Boston would be incomplete without crossing the river to visit one of the country's oldest (1638) and most prestigious universities: Harvard. Combined with the neighbouring and equally prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there are over 30,000 students from all over the world enrolled here. Harvard Square is actually a triangle of brick pavement sitting above the Harvard subway station. In and around it are a couple of dozen cafés, bookshops, banks and restaurants, providing a backdrop to street performers, politically and religiously motivated campaigners and lots of ordinary pedestrian activity according to the season and the weather. Harvard University makes up one side of the triangle. The Out of Town newsagents is itself an institution - a good place to buy a local or foreign paper before settling into a café and soaking up the student-cum-intellectual atmosphere. Another focal point for visitors is the Harvard Yard (1636), which is the entrance into the quadrangle surrounded by ivy-covered buildings and a cloistered, peaceful existence. The buildings chronicle American architecture from colonial 18th century to the present day. The Harvard University Events and Information Center offers free tours of the Yard.

Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Tel: (617) 495 1573.
Website: www.harvard.edu/visitors
Tours: Mon-Fri 1000-1400, Sat 1400.
Admission charge: N.
Disabled access: Y.

Harvard's six museums
Harvard also has six world-class museums worth visiting. Fogg Art Museum covers the European Renaissance to the modern day, with notable works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Whistler and Klee. A second art museum is the Bush-Reisinger Museum, the only museum in the country dedicated to the understanding of Central and North European art between 1880 and 1980. A third art museum, Arthur Sackler Museum, focuses on Islamic and Asian exhibits, including Chinese jade, Japanese woodprints and Indian art (www.artmuseums.harvard.edu). The Museum of Natural History (www.hmnh.harvard.edu) is renowned for its display of authentic-looking, hand-blown glass flowers, while the Semitic Museum (www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic) has a collection of Middle Eastern art and archaeology with artefacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant. Finally, the Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (www.peabody.harvard.edu) is a collection of exhibits of archaeology and cultures from six continents. A ticket secures admission to the art museums (Fogg, Bush-Reisinger and Arthur Sackler), which encapsulates a history of world art in over 80,000 exhibits. A Hot Ticket, valid for one year, provides admission to all six of them. Hot Tickets are sold at each of the museums. Check hours on holidays.

Museum of Afro-American History
New England's largest Afro-American museum has in-depth information on white abolitionists and free African Americans. The Museum of Afro-American History is housed in two historic buildings: the African Meeting House, the country's oldest black church and meeting house, and Abiel Smith School, the country's first school for blacks. The museum is also a source of information about and the final destination of the Black Heritage Trail.

46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill
Tel: (617) 725 0022.
Website: www.afroammuseum.org  
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1000-1600.
Admission charge: Y (donation).
Disabled access: Y.

Museum of Fine Arts
Truly a treasure, it is easy to idle away an entire day at the MFA. Its impressive worldwide collection spans from 6,000BC to the contemporary works of such artists as Andy Warhol and Rineke Dijkstra. Of note is the museum's Asian collection. Its Temple Room has the finest Buddhist collection outside Japan, and the collection of Netsuke (Japanese fine art of miniature sculpture used on obis (Japanese sashes) to counterbalance purses, tobacco cases or medicine containers) is fascinating. The Chinese collection includes stone sculptures and furniture. The MFA's Impressionism gallery is small but significant, displaying works of Renoir, Monet, Cassatt, Degas, Pissaro and Cezanne.

465 Huntington Avenue
Tel: (617) 267 9300.
Website: www.mfa.org  
Opening hours: Sat-Tues 1000-1645, Wed-Fri 1000-2145.
Admission charge: Y.
Disabled access: Y.

New England Aquarium
Step inside and discover the world of the underwater. A spiral ramp ascends four floors while circling a giant tank and passing a critical care ward for sick animals, a touch tank, penguins, a coral reef, sharks, eels, turtles and lots of other creatures of the deep which serve to awe and educate visitors. The frogs dwell on the lower level near the ecosystem exhibit. There is also an IMAX theatre, a kids' activity centre and an outdoor sea lion show. Touch, feed and get kissed by a sea lion when participating in the Trainer for the Afternoon programme.

Central Wharf
Tel: (617) 973 5200.
Website: www.neaq.org  
Opening hours: Mon-Thurs 0900-1800, Fri-Sun 0900-1900 (Jul-Aug); Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat-Sun 0900-1800 (Sep-Jun).
Admission charge: Y.
Disabled access: Y.