If I had a bucket list for "the right place at the right time," it would certainly include standards like New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Rio de Janeiro for Carnival or Mexico City for Dia de los Muertos. This past summer, however, I pushed a new one to the top of the list—Boston for the Fourth of July.
As a longtime West Coaster, my two previous visits to Boston had been, well, almost too perfect. They caused me to question my San Francisco loyalties. The Public Garden and Boston Commons were how city parks are meant to be—clean, beautiful and used by everyone. The locals seemed like an ideal hybrid of New Yorkers (charismatic) and San Franciscans (nice). And the history, of course, was absolutely fascinating. I had no transportation, and I didn’t want for any. I walked all day, every day. I could have spent weeks in the museums.
So, when I returned for the third time, for the Fourth of July weekend, I readied myself to be finally let down. I wasn’t.
For the first two days I essentially repeated my last trip—endless walking, endless history—because it doesn’t get old. The Freedom Trail is one of the most popular activities for solo visitors and groups alike, and it couldn’t be simpler. Cribbed straight from The Wizard of Oz, you follow the 2.5-mile yellow line as it zigzags past such historic behemoths as Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere’s House and the site of the Boston Massacre. Even on its own, the walk reveals some of the most beautiful parts of the city.
New on this trip, however, was a thorough perusal of the tony Beacon Hill neighborhood. It’s a truly dangerous place for a foodie like me, as I stumbled upon more than a handful of restaurants that almost coaxed me into blowing my entire budget on a dinner or two. The settings were as alluring as the menus—ideal venues for small group dinners. At least my camera ended the night satiated—I recommend dusk for catching the gas lamps.
No trip to Boston should pass without at least a venture across the Charles River to Cambridge. The Harvard campus is stunning, and offers a number of venues for small to midsize meetings. On-campus museums and art galleries work well for off-site events, and the bars and restaurants surrounding the campus are lively and friendly.
Staying at the downtown InterContinental Boston allowed me to experience yet another major side of Boston—the waterfront. Following on the heels of the "Big Dig," which opened up the waterfront hotels and restaurants to the rest of downtown, significant sections of the HarborWalk have been unveiled in recent years, providing unrestricted access along the city’s waterfront.
The InterContinental itself, having undergone a beautiful redesign, is primed for meetings, with 32,000 square feet of meeting space, an award-winning cocktail lounge and two new restaurants. While the hotel’s signature restaurant, Miel, offers a gorgeous private dining room, I particularly enjoyed the second, Sushi-Teq, which performs the amazing feat of pairing high-end tequilas with sushi. I never would have believed it until I tried it.
In the end, though, it was hard to beat gathering with tens of thousands of Bostonians along the banks of the Charles River to listen to the Boston Pops do their thing and wait anxiously for the fireworks to begin. Looking around, I saw endless opportunities for groups to take advantage—bars and restaurants with views, hotel balconies, private event spaces.
The Fourth of July is one of the few holidays we Americans can call our own, and Boston was at the heart of how this all came to be. You don’t really need to be here on July 4 to experience this city’s immense patriotism and pride, but you can’t really beat it, either.