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The top things to do in Fenway, Boston are a tour or a game at Fenway Park, an afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a walk through the Back Bay Fens, where the Fenway Victory Gardens and the Kelleher Rose Garden sit inside an Olmsted park. In the evening, Lansdowne Street behind the ballpark has a bar inside the stadium and two concert halls.
Fenway is more than game day. Google's walking route from the ballpark to the Gardner Museum is 0.7 miles, about 15 minutes, along the Fens, and the MFA is around the corner from the Gardner, so one day covers baseball, art and a park without a car.
Fenway Park: tour it even without a game
Fenway Park has been the Red Sox's home since April 20, 1912. Guided tours run every day of the year, leaving at the top of each hour from the Team Store on Jersey Street, across from Gate A; from April through October they run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 60-minute public tour costs $30 for adults and $21 for children 3 to 12, and it stops on top of the Green Monster, the 37-foot left-field wall, when that area is open. On game days the last tour leaves three hours before first pitch.
On a game day, gates open 90 minutes before the start. Bags must be single-compartment and no larger than 12 by 12 by 6 inches, and backpacks are not allowed.
Lansdowne Street: Bleacher Bar and live music
Bleacher Bar at 82A Lansdowne Street is the only bar inside Fenway Park, in a former batting cage under the center-field bleachers. A garage door looks straight onto the outfield, and you do not need a game ticket to go in. It opens two hours before every Red Sox home game and is 21 and over during games and after 10 p.m.
The same street holds the MGM Music Hall at Fenway and the House of Blues, the two main concert venues in the neighborhood. Check each venue's calendar for shows.
Museum of Fine Arts
The MFA on Huntington Avenue holds nearly 500,000 works, from ancient Egypt to contemporary art, and it is too big for one visit, so pick a few galleries before you go. Free one-hour guided tours leave from the Sharf Visitor Center every day the museum is open. Adults pay $30 and youths 7 to 17 pay $14; children 6 and under are free. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and open until 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. The Green Line E branch stops right outside at Museum of Fine Arts station.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Around the corner on Evans Way, the Gardner is one collector's house of art, opened in 1903 and still arranged as she left it, around a glass-roofed courtyard garden that is in flower all year. The empty frames from the 1990 theft still hang. Adults pay $25, and everyone 17 and under gets in free, as does anyone named Isabella. Entry is by timed ticket and popular times sell out, so book ahead. It is closed on Tuesdays and open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays.
The Back Bay Fens, the Victory Gardens and the Rose Garden
The Back Bay Fens is the park between the museums and Kenmore Square. Frederick Law Olmsted was hired by the city in 1878 to turn a polluted tidal marsh here into parkland, and it is now part of the Emerald Necklace. Two things in it are worth seeking out:
- The Fenway Victory Gardens, 7.5 acres of community plots that the Fenway Garden Society says are one of only two World War II victory gardens still operating continuously in the country, and the only one in its original location. More than 500 gardens are tended by more than 475 members.
- The James P. Kelleher Rose Garden on Park Drive, a formal garden added to the Fens in the 1920s and 1930s style by landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff.
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy's Shattuck Visitor Center is at 125 The Fenway, in a former 1882 pump station.
Symphony Hall
At 301 Massachusetts Avenue, a short way east of the MFA, Symphony Hall is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is known for its acoustics. See the BSO's calendar for concerts.
Kenmore Square and where to stay
Kenmore Square, at the north end of the neighborhood, is where the Citgo sign stands over Beacon Street. Hotel Commonwealth at 500 Commonwealth Avenue has rooms and two suites that face the ballpark, and Kenmore station on the Green Line is at the building. For another option a few blocks away, see our guide to The Verb Hotel, and for more choices, hotels near Kenmore Square.
Getting to Fenway
Take the T. The Red Sox strongly encourage fans to come by MBTA because parking is limited and game-day traffic is heavy. The Green Line serves Kenmore and Fenway stations, the Green Line E branch runs to the museums, and the Worcester Line Commuter Rail stops at Lansdowne, beside the ballpark. If you are combining Fenway with Copley Square and Newbury Street, our guide to things to do in Back Bay picks up the route east.
Sources: Fenway Park, Fenway Garden Society, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Boston Symphony Orchestra; listing facts from our linked listings. Checked October 1, 2026.