Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Boston
Back Bay and the Fenway museums in six hours
The swan boats, the library's reading room, Trinity Church, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Gardner's empty frames.
Back Bay was tidal marsh until the 1850s, when Boston filled it with gravel brought in by train and laid out the only grid of streets in the city. This route crosses it from the Public Garden to the Fenway, where two great museums stand five minutes apart.
The route, stop by stop
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Public Garden
The first public botanical garden in the country, from 1837. The swan boats have paddled the lagoon since 1877, and the bronze ducklings are from Make Way for Ducklings.
25 min here Walk here → -
Boston Public Library
McKim's building of 1895, a palace for the people. Bates Hall, the reading room, has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and is free to walk into.
30 min here Walk here → -
Trinity Church
H. H. Richardson's Romanesque church of 1877, its interior painted by John La Farge. The glass tower behind it reflects it.
25 min here Walk here → -
Museum of Fine Arts
Arrive by tram from the previous stop
One of the great encyclopedic museums: Egyptian and Japanese collections, Copley and Sargent portraits and the Art of the Americas wing.
120 min here Walk here → -
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
A Venetian palace built around a flowering courtyard. In 1990 thieves took thirteen works, including a Vermeer, and the empty frames still hang where they were.
75 min here Walk here →
More walks in Boston
More in Boston
Every walking route in Boston, the full Boston guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.