Explore Boston · About
About This Book
ExploreBoston.com: The City Guide is the print companion to ExploreBoston.com, the independent guide to Boston’s neighborhoods, events and everyday life. This is the first edition (version 1.3), compiled and checked in September and October 2026 and published by Explore Boston Media LLC, 1 Beacon Street, Floor 15, Boston, MA 02108.
Who made it
The book was researched, written, edited, mapped and designed in-house by the Explore Boston editorial team; no outside author is credited by choice. Explore Boston chooses every sight, restaurant, bar and hotel in this book on its merits. No one paid to appear in it, and it carries no advertising. The Freedom Trail and Black Heritage Trail are registered trademarks of their owners; Explore Boston is not affiliated with the organizations, hotels and venues named here.
How it was made
The book began with the guides published on ExploreBoston.com. For print, every chapter was edited and fact-checked: figures, dates and claims were checked against official sources such as the National Park Service, the City of Boston, the MBTA and the institutions themselves, and every restaurant, bar, shop and hotel listed was confirmed open in autumn 2026. Written new for this edition: the eight walks and Fenway Park, Getting Around, Parking, Touring Boston, the Itineraries, Month by Month, Day Trips, Where to Eat, Bars & Nightlife, Where to Stay, the Cambridge chapter, every neighborhood’s Where to Eat list, the Part One and Part Two features, and the information block for every sight.
Hours, prices and admission lines were read from each institution’s own pages in October 2026. The ACCESS line in a sight’s entry repeats what the institution itself publishes about step-free entry and is not an independent inspection. Hotel price bands ($ to $$$$) describe a standard double room before tax across the year, from the hotels’ own rates in autumn 2026; restaurant bands describe a typical meal without drinks.
What stays online
Some things change by the hour: the T, the weather, this week’s events, scores and traffic. Those stay on the website, and the “Live on ExploreBoston.com” boxes carry the address of the live version (in the planning chapters, a QR code too).
Before you go, and corrections
Hours, prices, routes and openings change, and seasonal sights keep their own calendars. Everything here was checked at press time, but confirm the details that matter before you set out. If you find something that has changed, send it to exploreboston.com/contact; corrections go into the next edition.
Sources
Facts in this edition were checked against the publishers’ own pages, chiefly the institutions below; reference works such as encyclopedias were a starting point only, never the check.
Official and institutional. National Park Service (nps.gov: Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, Longfellow House, Boston Harbor Islands); City of Boston (boston.gov) and the Boston Landmarks Commission; City of Cambridge (cambridgema.gov); MBTA (mbta.com); Massport (massport.com); Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (mass.gov/dcr); Commonwealth of Massachusetts (mass.gov); Harvard University and MIT (harvard.edu, mit.edu); the museums, churches, parks, theaters, sports teams, restaurants, bars, shops and hotels listed, each on its own website.
Historical societies and archives. Massachusetts Historical Society; History Cambridge; Historic New England; Boston Athenaeum; Boston Public Library; the Bostonian Society (Revolutionary Spaces); the Freedom Trail Foundation; the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail; the Irish Heritage Trail; the Emerald Necklace Conservancy; Boston Harbor Now.
News. The Boston Globe; Boston.com; Boston Magazine; Eater Boston; Universal Hub; WBUR; GBH.
Maps and data. OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), under the Open Database License; MBTA route and station data; NOAA climate normals for Boston Logan.
Further reading. Walter Muir Whitehill and Lawrence W. Kennedy, Boston: A Topographical History (3rd edition, 2000); Nancy S. Seasholes, Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston (2003); Susan and Michael Southworth, AIA Guide to Boston (3rd edition, 2008); Alex Krieger and David Cobb, editors, Mapping Boston (1999); David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (1994); J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground (1985); Thomas H. O’Connor, The Boston Irish: A Political History (1995); Jane Holtz Kay, Lost Boston (revised edition, 2006).