As another person who lived out there for a handful of years,
- A couple of expensive but tasty places to grab seafood are The Barking Crab and James Hook & Co
- our favorite place to eat in the North End was Giacomo’s. It is not the kind of Italian place where you sit and people watch all night, you’re in and out. But the food is good. Fair warning, it gets insanely busy and it’s cash only. No reservations.
Outside the North End my favorite Italian place was Olivia’s Bistro in Newton.
- For a fancy night out, La Voile on Newbury Street is great. Otherwise Newbury is sort of fun to just wander down with a lot of very bougie shops.
- As others have mentioned, The Freedom Trail is great particularly if you’re interested in history
- Symphony Hall is a world-class concert hall if that were up anyone’s alley
- Downeast Cider House for good unique cider
- For museums, both the Museum of Fine Art and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are really good, and those two can easily take up your day. There’s also a Museum of Science attached to MIT’s campus that should be re-opened by now after moving a couple years ago to Kendall Square
If you’re planning on using public transit (“the T”), I recommend the Transit app. It’ll give you arrival times for subway, bus, and commuter rail. Note that you use Charlie Cards or Charlie Tickets to pay for bus and subway, but there’s a separate system to pay for the commuter rail, if you were going somewhere further.