Massachusetts Region

Red-brick streets and harbor air thread Boston: walk the Freedom Trail, watch a game at Fenway, cross to Cambridge for Harvard, and sample clam chowder and lobster rolls in neighborhood pubs.

Home of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Dr. Seuss Museum, Springfield also offers the Springfield Armory site, riverfront parks and Italian-American eateries favored by locals.

Once a manufacturing hub, Worcester now pulls visitors for the Worcester Art Museum, the restored Canal District and colleges that fuel cafe and craft-beer scenes. Catch a symphony or sample pierogi and seafood in neighborhood diners between walks in Elm Park.

Mill canals cut through Lowell’s downtown; visitors study industrial history at the Lowell National Historical Park, catch folk music, and sample immigrant cuisines that trace the city’s 19th-century factory workforce.

Colonial history sends visitors to Plymouth for Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plimoth Patuxet living-history, the Mayflower II replica, waterfront seafood shacks, and ferries to Cape Cod and scenic Plymouth Harbor cruises.

A former whaling port, New Bedford draws visitors to the Whaling Museum, working harbor and restored textile-era homes; expect Portuguese restaurants, fishing boats, and art galleries along the waterfront, plus seasonal whale-watching departures.

Sea smoke and cobbles herald Nantucket’s whaling past: lighthouses, the Whaling Museum and compact harbor dining. Visitors bike the Atlantic-facing beaches, book boat trips to Great Point and sample island scallops at low-lit supper rooms.

At Cape Cod’s tip, Provincetown mixes art galleries, drag shows and commercial fishing; tourists chase whale-watching boats, climb the Pilgrim Monument, or paddle the harbor before nights of crowded bars and late ferries.