Across the harbor from downtown, East Boston trades postcard landmarks for a straight-on view of the skyline, Latin American and Italian cooking, and a waterfront many visitors skip.
Best forSkyline views from the harbor side, Central and South American and old-school Italian food, a neighborhood base next to the airport.
The feelWorking, residential and multilingual: triple-deckers on the hills, bakeries and taquerias around the squares, planes overhead.
Getting thereBlue Line to Maverick (also Airport, Wood Island, Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs); the seasonal East Boston Ferry from Long Wharf (North) to East Boston (Lewis Mall).
From Downtown CrossingAbout 15 minutes by T: Orange Line one stop to State, then Blue Line two stops to Maverick.
ParkingMuch of the neighborhood is resident-permit parking, and driving in means using the harbor tunnels. Take the Blue Line.
East Boston, or Eastie, is the neighborhood many visitors see only from a plane window, and that’s their loss. The waterfront parks along the inner harbor look straight back at downtown, so you see the skyline whole, the way you can’t from inside it. Add Maverick Square’s bakeries and pupuserias, a long-running Italian pizzeria, and a Blue Line ride that takes minutes, and it’s an easy half day.
The trade-offs: there is no Freedom Trail here and few museums. The neighborhood is spread out, from Maverick Square near the harbor to Orient Heights several stops north, and Logan’s flight paths mean planes are part of the soundtrack.
Getting around
Blue Line: East Boston’s stations are Maverick, Airport, Wood Island, Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs, all accessible. Maverick is one stop from Aquarium, on the downtown waterfront.
Ferry: the MBTA’s seasonal East Boston Ferry runs between Long Wharf (North) and East Boston (Lewis Mall), about a 10-minute crossing. Check the MBTA schedule for the current season.
Bus: the 120 (Orient Heights to Jeffries Point) and 121 (Wood Island to Maverick) are the neighborhood circulators; the 116 runs from Maverick up to Wonderland.
To the airport: Airport station on the Blue Line, or the Silver Line SL1 from South Station to the Logan terminals.
Bluebikes: stations at Maverick Square (Lewis Mall), Piers Park, Central Square, the Airport and Orient Heights T stops, among others. The East Boston Greenway makes a good car-free route north.
Walking: Piers Park and LoPresti Park are about 10 minutes on foot from Maverick station. Eagle Hill and Orient Heights are steep; the Harborwalk and the Greenway are the flat routes.
Parking: many side streets are resident-permit only, and Boston has no visitor permits.
When to go
Late afternoon into sunset is the time for the waterfront, when the downtown towers light up across the harbor from Piers Park. Summer is the season for Constitution Beach and for the ferry, which runs only part of the year. Weekend mornings are good for bakeries and breakfast in Maverick and Day squares; weeknights are quieter everywhere.
Belle Isle Marsh is at its best for birds during the spring and fall migrations. Winter is raw on the water, but the Blue Line runs year-round and a food crawl through Maverick Square works in any weather.
A short history
East Boston’s story starts on Noddle’s Island, where Samuel Maverick, one of the harbor’s earliest European settlers, had made his home by the early 1630s. In 1833, William Sumner and the East Boston Company began filling marsh, building wharves and laying out a planned neighborhood, and it grew quickly. From 1845 Donald McKay ran a shipyard on Border Street whose clipper ships set speed records around the world. The nation’s first branch library was built here in 1870.
Immigration built the rest. Irish families arrived in the 1840s, Jewish families from Eastern Europe in the 1890s, and Italians in the early 20th century, becoming the largest group after World War I. The population peaked at more than 64,000 in 1925. The airport that became Logan opened on East Boston land in 1923 and grew onto filled harbor flats. Since the 1980s, newcomers from Central and South America and Southeast Asia have shaped the neighborhood again.
Local tips
Do a simple loop: Blue Line to Maverick, walk to Piers Park and along the Harborwalk to LoPresti Park, then back to Maverick Square to eat.
In season, take the ferry one way and the Blue Line the other; the crossing is about 10 minutes and the view is the point.
Pair the shrine and Constitution Beach: both are near Orient Heights station, though the walk up to the shrine is steep.
Bring a layer. The harbor edge is windier than downtown, even in summer.
Belle Isle Marsh is the last big salt marsh left in Boston, about 225 acres of tidal grass and channels where East Boston meets Revere and Winthrop, and it is a birder’s place first. The state parks department counts more than 200 species here; herons, egrets and ospreys work the creeks, and shorebirds stop over on migration.
Level paths wind through the grass to benches and an observation tower, which is the point of the visit: from the top the marsh spreads out toward the harbor, a wide-open contrast to the dense streets around it. Bring binoculars and come early. It pairs with Constitution Beach, one Blue Line stop back toward the city at Orient Heights.
The 35-foot Madonna on top of Orient Heights comes with a story worth the climb. Her sculptor, Arrigo Minerbi, was an Italian Jew who escaped Nazi persecution partly thanks to refuge from the Don Orione order in Rome, and his original statue stands on Monte Mario above that city. A six-ton bronze-and-copper replica crossed the Atlantic in three pieces and was dedicated here by Archbishop Richard Cushing in 1954.
The statue first stood over the order’s nursing home, then moved to the plaza across the street, where a four-story underground shrine was finished beneath it in the 1980s. The shrine is the Don Orione Fathers’ American headquarters, and the plaza looks out over the harbor, Logan’s runways and the skyline. It is closed Mondays; come toward sunset, and keep voices low for worshippers.
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Constitution Beach
WaterfrontIf you have time
Address 799 Bennington St (footbridge entrance), East BostonT Orient Heights (Blue)Hours Dawn to duskAdmission FreePhone 781-485-2804, ext. 105Webmass.gov/locations/constitution-beach-parkAccess Accessible bathhouse; beach mat and beach wheelchair
Constitution Beach is a neighborhood beach with one spectacular trick: it faces Logan Airport across the water, and jets take off and land on runways about 2,000 feet away. Locals still call it Shays Beach. The crescent of sand is sheltered, the swimming calm, and the views run back across the harbor.
Behind the sand is a full East Boston rec complex: bathhouse, snack bar, playground, tennis, basketball and handball courts, ball fields and an ice rink. Reach it on foot from Orient Heights station by the footbridge over the Blue Line tracks. Come for an hour of plane-spotting and a swim on a summer weekday; it is a local’s beach, not a destination, and that is its charm.
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Piers Park
WaterfrontWorth a visit
Address 95 Marginal St, East BostonT Maverick (Blue)Hours Open year-round; 6 a.m.–11 p.m. Apr 1–Nov 1Admission FreeWebmassport.com/community/public-parksAccess Paved promenade along the pier; Maverick station has elevators
Piers Park is East Boston’s front porch on the harbor, with the downtown skyline straight across the water. Massport built it on a condemned industrial pier and opened it in 1995: a 600-foot brick promenade runs out to shade pavilions, one of them honoring Donald McKay, the clipper-ship builder whose yard was in East Boston.
Piers Park II opened next door in December 2023, bringing the parkland to about 11 acres and giving the Piers Park Sailing Center, which runs community lessons on the harbor, a new building. The playground and splash pad reopened, renovated, in 2026. Walk to the end of the pier at sunset, when the towers go to silhouette, then carry on along the Harborwalk.
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Harborwalk – East Boston Section
WaterfrontWorth a visit
Address Piers Park, 95 Marginal St, East BostonT Maverick (Blue), 10-minute walkHours Piers Park stretch open year-round, 6 a.m.–11 p.m. Apr 1–Nov 1 (Massport)Admission FreeWebbostonharborwalk.orgAccess Paved waterfront walkway; Maverick station has elevators
East Boston’s waterfront has some of the best views of the downtown skyline, and the Harborwalk is how you take them in. Its continuous stretch runs about 3 miles along the inner harbor, from the Logan Airport ferry dock to LoPresti Park, with the towers of the Financial District across the water.
From Maverick, walk 10 minutes to Piers Park, then pick a direction. East leads to the Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina, where the ICA runs the Watershed, a free summer gallery in a former copper pipe factory. West runs along Marginal Street past waterfront apartment wharves to LoPresti Park, with the Zakim Bridge in view. Sunset, with the skyline in silhouette, is the time to come.
Tip The Watershed opens only in summer, late May to late September.
Where to eat
Restaurants in East Boston
Most of East Boston’s eating is Latin American: Mexican, Peruvian and Colombian kitchens run from Maverick Square up Meridian and Bennington streets to Day Square. Italian Eastie holds on at Santarpio’s and Rino’s, and newer rooms on the waterfront face the downtown skyline. For an evening: Blue Line to Maverick, the Harborwalk to Piers Park for the view, then one stop to Airport and Santarpio’s, lamb first and pizza second.
Frank Santarpio’s 1903 bakery began selling pizza in the 1930s, and his family still runs it with no pretense at all. While the pie bakes, order from the barbecue side of the menu: lamb skewers or sausage, served with hot cherry peppers and Italian bread. Then a plain cheese pizza or the Works. There is a second Santarpio’s in Peabody, but this is the one.
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Angela’s Cafe
Mexican (Puebla) · $$
131 Lexington St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Airport (Blue Line), 10-minute walk
Family-run since 2007 and named a City of Boston Legacy Business in 2025, Angela’s cooks the food of Puebla from recipes taught by Mama Angela. The reason to cross the harbor is the moles: poblano, pipián verde and rojo, and adobo. Look for chiles en nogada too. A second Angela’s is at 1012 Bennington Street in Orient Heights.
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Taquería Jalisco
Mexican · $
291 Bennington St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Wood Island (Blue Line), 7-minute walk
The Day Square taquería is a City of Boston Legacy Business, an honor open only to local businesses running at least 10 years. Stop for tacos on the walk up Bennington Street, or eat in. For a longer meal, the second Taquería Jalisco at 980 Saratoga Street in Orient Heights opened in 2025 with more seats, a full bar and a bigger menu, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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Rincón Limeño
Peruvian · $$
409 Chelsea St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Wood Island (Blue Line), 5-minute walk
A Peruvian dining room a block from Day Square. Start with ceviche, either the mixto with shellfish or the plain fish version. Then order lomo saltado, beef or chicken stir-fried with onions and tomatoes, or arroz con pollo; aguadito de pollo, a cilantro-green chicken and rice soup, suits a cold night. Book through the restaurant’s website, which also welcomes large groups and private parties.
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La Sultana Bakery
Colombian bakery · $
40 Maverick Sq, Boston, MA 02128 · T Maverick (Blue Line), 2-minute walk
A Colombian bakery and restaurant on Maverick Square since 1992, a minute from the Blue Line. The cases hold fresh breads, pastries and desserts, and Colombian plates come out of the kitchen alongside them. It makes the obvious coffee-and-pastry stop before the 10-minute walk to Piers Park and its view of the downtown skyline.
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Rino’s Place
Italian · $$
258 Saratoga St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Airport (Blue Line), 7-minute walk
Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and on the city’s Legacy Business roll since 2025, this Saratoga Street kitchen is mostly a dinner place: homemade gnocchi baked with mozzarella, lobster ravioli, Bolognese and veal several ways. Open 3–8:45 p.m. Monday–Thursday and Saturday, from noon on Friday; closed Sunday. Reservations are for parties of six or more only; otherwise get your name on the list by 8:45 p.m. Cash only.
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Mida East Boston
Italian · $$$
65 Lewis St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Maverick (Blue Line), 5-minute walk
Chef-owner Douglass Williams, one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2020, runs this Italian neighborhood restaurant by the Lewis Street waterfront. Book dinner on OpenTable; patio tables are first come, first served on the day. Weekend brunch runs 10:30 a.m.–4 p.m. In 2026 Williams also opened La Tavernetta, an Italian tavern, down the street at 45 Lewis Street.
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ReelHouse
Seafood · $$$
6 New St, Boston, MA 02128 · T Maverick (Blue Line), 7-minute walk
A waterfront restaurant at the foot of New Street, with a patio that looks across the harbor to the downtown skyline. The kitchen cooks New England seafood with flavors borrowed from around the world. Lunch on weekdays, brunch on weekends, dinner nightly, and the bar stays open until 1 a.m. Reserve on Resy for a patio table in warm weather. From April through October the Boston Launch Company water shuttle ties up at the New Street docks beside the door, running to Fan Pier in the Seaport and the Charlestown marina ($7 one way, $18 all day, tickets in the Token Transit app; 3–11 p.m. Monday–Thursday, 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Friday–Sunday).
Where to stay
Hotels in East Boston
East Boston wraps around Logan, and its hotels trade downtown bustle for runway convenience and head-on views of the skyline across the harbor. The Blue Line reaches Aquarium and Government Center in a few stops, ferries and water taxis cross the harbor, and Maverick Square’s Latin American kitchens reward a detour. It is the smart choice for early flights, late arrivals and a quick overnight.
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Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor
Upscale · $$
101 Harborside Drive, Boston, MA 02128 · T Airport (Blue Line)
Set on the eastern shore of the harbor at the edge of Logan, this 270-room hotel looks straight across the water at the downtown skyline, and the view is the reason to book. Harborside Grill serves New England seafood, with a patio in season, a water taxi hops to the Financial District, and a complimentary shuttle runs to the airport.
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Hilton Boston Logan Airport
Upscale · $$
One Hotel Drive, Boston, MA 02128 · T Airport (Blue Line), via the hotel’s free shuttle
Access Accessible entrance and elevators; king and two-queen mobility and hearing rooms with roll-in showers or tubs; accessible pool; TTY; vibrating alarm clocks
The hotel is connected to the airport itself: a covered walkway links it to Terminals A and E, and a free 24-hour on-demand shuttle covers every terminal, the subway, the water taxi and the rental cars. There is an indoor pool for a layover swim, and Connolly’s Publik House pours pints alongside New England pub food.
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Embassy Suites by Hilton Boston at Logan Airport
Upscale · $$
207 Porter Street, Boston, MA 02128 · T Airport (Blue Line)
Access Accessible entrance and elevators; mobility and hearing-accessible suites with roll-in showers or tubs; accessible pool; TTY; vibrating and strobe alarm clocks; portable shower chairs
Every room is a two-room suite with a separate living area and sofa bed, a smart call for families catching an early flight. Made-to-order breakfast and an evening reception are included, a 24-hour shuttle runs to the terminals, the water taxi and the Blue Line, and Airport station is about a 4-minute walk.
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Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport
Mid-range · $$
100 Boardman Street, Boston, MA 02128 · T Orient Heights (Blue Line)
Access Accessible entrance and elevators; mobility and hearing rooms with roll-in showers or tubs; accessible pool; hearing loop at the front desk; TTY
Away from the terminal traffic on the residential north side of East Boston, this hotel is five minutes from Logan on a free 24-hour shuttle. Orient Heights station on the Blue Line is half a mile away, Constitution Beach is a short walk, and an indoor pool and cooked-to-order breakfast round out a practical stay.
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