• Travel the Freedom Trail, which is marked by signs and a red pavement line. It is a 5km (3-mile) walk that passes 16 points of historical interest, some of which are in the Boston National Historical Park (website: www.nps.gov/bost).

• Learn to sail off the coast of Marblehead (website: www.marblehead.org). The old town is full of 18th- and 19th-century homes of fishermen, merchants and artisans, and is one of the east coast's premier sailing centres.

• Travel back in time to Plimoth Plantation (website: www.plimoth.org), an open-air museum recreating a 1627 Pilgrim village in the town of Plymouth. The Mayflower II, also in Plymouth, is a full-scale reproduction of the ship in which the pilgrims made their harrowing 66-day voyage from England.

• Explore the wild marshes or take a solitary stroll along pristine beaches in Cape Cod. It has some 400km (250 miles) of beautiful beaches, seaside towns and fishing villages. The Cape Cod National Seashore (website: www.nps.gov/caco) features unspoilt sandy beaches and stunning desert-like sand dunes.

• Relax on Nantucket Island, once a great whaling port, now a popular sun resort. Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (website: www.mvy.com), a picture-postcard island, both lie off the coast of Cape Cod and are easily accessible by air. Enjoy the slow pace of island life that has attracted writers, artists and designers, or dive into entertainment and nightlife.

• Retrace history at Old Sturbridge Village (website: www.osv.org) in central Massachusetts; a living history museum recreating an 1830s New England town.

• Travel the Mohawk Trail (website: www.mohawktrail.com). The legendary Native American trail winds through 202,347 hectares (500,000 acres) of state parks, forests and reservations, and is popular for foliage viewing in the autumn.

• Hear a performance of The Boston Symphony Orchestra (website: www.bso.org), one of the greatest of all international ensembles. The orchestra has a full schedule of autumn and winter concerts, and makes its summer home at Tanglewood in the Berkshires (western Massachusetts). ‘Boston Pops' concerts are staged in the spring and summer, as well as at Christmas.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.