Things to do or see in Boston

Orikaeshigitae

Rather surprisingly, I might be heading to Boston in the next couple months for a weekend. What would locals recommend I do/see? I like awesome food and weird things/situations.

VisionOfClarity

You could have visited while I still lived there. Instead you can settle for looking up Thorgot. Also, eat at Gaslight, visit SOWA, go to the MFA and if there is a feast in the North End that weekend definitely go.

VisionOfClarity

And hit up Charles River Canoe and Kayak and see the city from the river.

Killgrimage

For weird/cool weekend stuff, there is the Institute of Contemporary Art. Also, depending on when you are here there's usually something cool going on in the Garden. The touristy stuff that I actually like to do is go to the Museum of Science and the Aquarium. Also, whale watching! Be advised that's like a four hour trip on a boat, but I've been twice and had a great time both times (no guarantee there will be whales, just FYI, but there were both times I went).

Boston is a big foodie city. I could recommend places, but some of the fun is discovering places yourself (though yelp helps). If you are a history buff, it's fun to do the Freedom Trail but it might be way too hot. Old North Church is (imo) the most worth it attraction on it anyway, so you can just skip to that one and eat delicious italian food that is in the area when you're done!

Orikaeshigitae

Thanks guys. It gives me a good base for planning.

wonderpug

Where are you coming from? Boston's Chinatown food offerings will be eye-opening to some people, but hum-drum to others.

There's tons of great pubs, Irish or not. If you want to try bangers & mash, this is a good place to do it. Redbones in Davis square is a beloved Southern BBQ place that specializes in ribs. Right next to it is Sacco's Bowl Haven, which has candlepin style bowing (small pins & ball, 3 rolls per frame) on old lanes from 60 years ago. It lost some charm when it got bought and renovated by a pizza chain but it's still pretty neat.

If you like fine dining, there's tons of fancy pants options that range from unpretentious to superpretentious that have phenomenal food. If you like seafood there's a lot of great options.

The North End is the 'Little Italy' section and is worth a visit. Grab some cannoli at either Mike's Pastry or Modern Pastry, depending on where you want to pledge your allegiance. Personally I haven't had much luck with the actual Italian food on the main drag. Massimino's is my favorite Italian eatery in the area, and it's a ways off the beaten path.

Dali or Tapeo for great tapas (get the pork & goat cheese), avoid anything related to Cheer's, "Restaurant Row" in the South End has a ton of awesome options, Dick's Last Resort qualifies as 'weird' since all the waiters intentionally abuse the customers physically and verbally, and the food is pretty decent. I could go on and with food recommendations if you want to narrow down what you're interested in.

The MIT museum is small but if you're geeky you'll probably get a kick out of it. They've got a hologram art exhibit with holograms the size of a big screen TV, various robots that you could have seen on Scientific American Frontiers, and other stuff that would fit your 'weird things' category.

There's a number of weird buildings to see, but I don't know if that's what you have in mind for weird. The ICA's art definitely counts as weird.

If you can narrow your scope I'd be happy to give more specific recommendations or warnings.

VisionOfClarity

For goodness sake don't go to Mike's or Modern. Go to Bova's. If you don't believe me you can ask That Dave Fella about it.

schuss

Check all the PAX threads about sightseeing in boston. There's easily 5-10 of them.

cmsamo

We did the Boston Duck Tour when we were in town for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun, and we got to see a few neat places. The tour guide was pretty informative.