Boston Guide

Welcome to our guide on the best things to do in Boston. Whether you’re looking to explore the city between sessions or extend your stay at AFP 2025, check out our recommendations for unforgettable experiences in one of America’s most iconic cities. 

Great Spots Near the Convention Center

Breakfast

• Flour Bakery + Café has an almost cult-like following, so be sure to order ahead to reserve one of the most popular items including chef/owner Joanne Chang's famous pecan-studded sticky buns, a brioche au chocolat, coconut cream pie, or lemon meringue tart.

• Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant serves breakfast every day until 3:00 p.m., so head to this gem for Fruity Pebbles pancakes, maple-cider braised bacon, breakfast pizza, and an espresso martini — and an excellent start to the day. 

Lunch or Dinner

• A James Beard Semi-finalist for 2025, Chickadee is a marriage of New England ingredients with Mediterranean inspiration, yielding rewards such as a lobster campanelle fra diavolo and the best fried chicken dishes in Boston. 

• Row 34 is an upscale seafood restaurant in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, featuring lobster rolls, oysters, fish entrees, and craft cocktails in a renovated Boston Wharf Company textile warehouse built in 1908: “… we love local oysters and beer, source our lobsters from Jeremy’s cousin Mark (in York, Maine), and will run all over New England to find the freshest fish around.”

• City Tap – Fort Point is an elevated American pub offering 60 draft lines of craft beer from around the world. Reclaimed barn wood and repurposed steel create a rustic yet comfortable bar and dining atmosphere. 

• Visit 75 on Liberty Wharf Bar & Grill for a cozy, intimate experience with expansive harbor views serving upscale American cuisine. 

• Boqueria Seaport is a Barcelona-style tapas restaurant and bar serving craft cocktails, Spanish wines, and late-night bar bites in the heart of Seaport.

Dinner only

• For a truly special, upscale French dining experience, visit Menton, Chef Barbara Lynch's modern interpretation of fine dining. Chef Lynch is the only female in the United States to hold the distinguished title of Grand Chef Relais & Châteaux. Be sure to make reservations!

After hours

Cocktails

• Drink blends time-honored techniques and the classic cocktails of the Prohibition Era with modern innovation and the very best artisanal ingredients.

Nightlife

• Laugh Boston is a 300-seat, state-of-the-art venue that features the nation's top touring stand-up comedians — and it’s only a two-minute walk from the Convention Center. 

• Flight Club is an upscale bar that combines elevated food and beverage menus with dynamic tech-enabled Social Darts®. Be sure to book ahead if you want to play!

• Viva Karaoke is a combination of futuristic nightlife with a high-class Bostonian atmosphere. Over 500,000 feet of high-tech LED lights spread over 23 private rooms and a main stage area.

• Stats Bar & Grille is a multi-level sports hub that has 24 TVs so you can catch all the big games in one go. They offer daily dining for a casual bite to eat throughout the week and a weekend brunch that draws a big Sunday football crowd.

Other things to do

• The Harborwalk is a 43-mile park that connects the city's waterfront neighborhoods, offering beautiful views of Boston Harbor — perfect for a leisurely walk to start or end your day. 

• Faneuil Hall Marketplace is the nation's premier urban marketplace. Housed in three beautifully restored 19th century buildings, its 112 shops and 13 restaurants offer tantalizing delicacies and unique gifts in a festive atmosphere that spills onto cobblestone streets filled with a variety of street performers and signature events.

The North End: If it’s authentic Italian food, old-world charm and some rightfully famous pastries (be sure to try a lobster claw) you seek, the North End is where you want to go. Here, you’ll find the Boston Public Market, historic Copp’s Hill Burying Ground and Old North Church (home of the famous phrase, “Two if by sea.”), and Polcari’s Coffee, established in 1932. 

Some of the highest-rated Italian restaurants include:

• Bricco’s breads, fresh pastas, and imported meats are sourced from DePasquale’s own old-world panetteria and salumeria next door. The pillowy gnocchetti baked with bufala mozzarella is a favorite. 

• Carmelina’s invites you in to the world of executive chef Damien DiPaola’s creative pasta dishes — from the vodka sauced, tiger shrimp-topped ravioli stuffed with fresh Maine lobster to the impossibly rich baked rollati filled with prosciutto and ricotta. 

• La Famiglia Giorgio’s: “It might even be as good as my mom’s” is a sentiment echoed over and over again inside this cozy Salem Street brownstone, where the Giorgio family has been churning out gargantuan portions of red-sauce classics for nearly three decades.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Located on a 10-acre park, overlooking the sea that he loved and the city that launched him to greatness, the Library stands as a vibrant tribute to the life and times of President John F. Kennedy.

The Institute of Contemporary Art’s exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas.

Boston Children’s Museum: A unique environment where play and learning converge, BCM offers abundant opportunities for exploration and discovery for all ages.  

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum: Be a part of the famous event that forever changed the course of American history through a multi-sensory experience that includes live actors, interactive exhibits, and full-scale replica 18th-century sailing vessels!

New England Aquarium: Enjoy the wonder of 70 exhibits featuring aquatic animals from around the world including the largest shark and ray touch-tank on the East Coast, the Giant Ocean Tank, live Indo-Pacific coral reef, the penguin colony, a mesmerizing display of free-floating sea nettles, fascinating comb jellies, and more; see the giant octopus in the Olympic Coast exhibit; watch a 3D movie on a screen nearly five stories high; and visit the Blue Planet Action Center to learn about the challenges facing our oceans and what the Aquarium’s leadership is doing to help. 

It’s hard to imagine Boston without its famous and beloved professional sports teams. Fans will find it hard not to take in a Celtics game or watch the Boston Bruins latest matchup if they’re in town. 

Stop by the place “where everybody knows your name …” While Cheers doesn’t quite look like the bar in the Emmy-winning television series on the inside, it’s still fun to visit the bar that inspired the show, even if Sam isn’t there. 

Ye Olde Tavern Tours allow you to drink your way through the history of Boston. “Thousands and thousands of guests have trusted us to learn about Boston's revolutionary and drunken history.”