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The best things to do in Back Bay are walking Newbury Street from the Public Garden to Massachusetts Avenue, seeing Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library on Copley Square, looking over the city from View Boston at the top of the Prudential Tower, and walking the Commonwealth Avenue Mall toward the Charles River Esplanade. Most of it is free, and the neighborhood is compact enough to cover on foot in an afternoon.
Back Bay is Boston's neighborhood of Victorian brownstones west of the Public Garden, with Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street and Boylston Street running its length. It suits first-time visitors, shoppers and anyone who wants a day of architecture and food without a car.
Back Bay at a glance
| Stop | What it is | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Copley Square | Trinity Church, the Central Library and the Boston Marathon finish on Boylston Street | Free to walk; church tours charge |
| Newbury Street | Shops, galleries and cafes in brownstones, from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue | Free |
| Prudential Center and View Boston | Indoor shopping and a 52nd-floor observation deck | Deck ticketed |
| Public Garden and Commonwealth Avenue Mall | The 1837 botanical garden and a tree-lined walking mall | Free |
| Charles River Esplanade | Riverside park with paths and the Hatch Memorial Shell | Free |
Copley Square: Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library
Copley Square holds two of the most important buildings in the city, facing each other across the plaza. Trinity Church, designed by H.H. Richardson and consecrated in 1877, is a National Historic Landmark that the American Institute of Architects has named among the ten most important buildings in America; it opens for tours Tuesday through Saturday.
Opposite is the Central Library of the Boston Public Library, whose McKim Building of 1895 is also a National Historic Landmark. Walk in off Dartmouth Street for the grand staircase, the reading room and the courtyard; it is free and open seven days a week. The Fairmont Copley Plaza, open since 1912, completes the square. The Boston Marathon finishes on Boylston Street beside the library, and Marathon Sports stands just steps from it.
Newbury Street: shopping in brownstones
Newbury Street starts at the Public Garden, where The Newbury Boston hotel has stood at number 1 for nearly a century, and runs west to Massachusetts Avenue. The shops are in the ground floors and basements of 19th-century brownstones, so browsing means stepping up and down short flights of stairs.
Near the Arlington Street end, Shreve, Crump & Low has sold jewelry in Boston since 1796 by its own account. Toward the middle, Buck Mason sells everyday American basics. At the Massachusetts Avenue end, Trident Booksellers & Cafe has paired books with a kitchen since 1984, and Newbury Comics is the local record and pop-culture chain on the street that shares its name. See our Newbury Street guide for more.
Prudential Center, Copley Place and View Boston
For bad weather, Back Bay moves indoors. The Prudential Center is a shopping arcade of more than 70 shops and eateries at the foot of the Prudential Tower, and Copley Place on Huntington Avenue is the neighborhood's luxury mall. At the top of the tower, View Boston has an indoor 52nd-floor panorama and an open-air roof terrace a floor below, with a bar. It suggests going at sunset.
The Public Garden, Comm Ave and the Esplanade
Back Bay begins at the Public Garden, established in 1837 as the first public botanical garden in America, with its lagoon and Swan Boats (seasonal, spring to early September). From the Garden, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall runs west as a tree-lined walking path between the two sides of the avenue.
North of Back Bay, footbridges cross Storrow Drive to the Charles River Esplanade, a riverside park with paths for walking, running and cycling, the Hatch Memorial Shell, where the Boston Pops play on the Fourth of July, and sailing at Community Boating.
Where to eat in Back Bay
- Contessa: a glass-enclosed Northern Italian rooftop on top of The Newbury Boston, overlooking the Public Garden.
- Uni: chef Ken Oringer's Japanese restaurant in The Eliot Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue.
- Grill 23 & Bar and Abe & Louie's: two long-running Back Bay steakhouses, on Berkeley and Boylston streets.
- Lolita Back Bay: modern Mexican food and tequila in a dark, mural-covered room on Dartmouth Street.
- Bukowski Tavern: a beer-only bar tucked into the Dalton Street garage since 1998.
Getting around Back Bay
The Green Line runs under Boylston Street with stops at Arlington and Copley, and the E branch has a Prudential stop that exits into the Prudential Center. Back Bay station, on Dartmouth Street across from Copley Place, serves the Orange Line, Commuter Rail and Amtrak. Driving is rarely worth it; garage parking is expensive and street parking is scarce.
Is Beacon Hill part of Back Bay?
No. Beacon Hill is a separate neighborhood on the other side of Boston Common and the Public Garden, with its own gas lamps, Acorn Street, Charles Street shops and the Massachusetts State House; its T stop is Charles/MGH on the Red Line. The two are neighbors and easy to combine in a day, starting on Beacon Hill and walking through the Public Garden into Back Bay. For more walking ideas, see things to do near the Boston Park Plaza and relaxing things to do in Boston.