Boston city skyline at night

Things to do in Boston at Night Time

Rich history, fine museums and a lively nightlife scene means there’s plenty to keep you entertained of an evening in Beantown. We’re talking buzzy cocktail bars, gallery lates, top-flight sporting events, heritage trails, ghost tours, beautifully illuminated landmarks and more. Dive in for our guide to some of the best things to do in Boston at night time. 

The Freedom Trail by Night

The King's Chapel Cemetery in Boston

If you only do one thing when you’re in Boston, it has to be a tour of the Freedom Trail, a collection of 16 historic Boston sites that, between them, contain the entire history of this great city. Guided tours are readily available and reveal the dark secrets of landmarks including Boston Common (the oldest public park in the United States, fact fans), the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, the 17th-century King’s Chapel Cemetery, Paul Revere’s House, and the site of the Boston Massacre.

A specter in the window

Night tours ramp up the more macabre aspects of Beantown’s torrid history, with tales of brutal murders, deadly sword duels, grave robbings and hanged witches, as well as providing quite stunning views of major historic landmarks illuminated against the night sky. And, if you like your city tours extra spooky, there’s a tour for you too. Take the Old Town Trolley tour, a ghostly spook-tacular that calls at some of Boston’s oldest burial grounds.

Museum Lates

An exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Boston has a quite excellent roster of museums, meaning you’re never far from an Old Master or historical artifact. Better yet, many have regular late opening hours that allow you to dodge the daytime crowds and ogle the exhibits in relative solitude. Hit up the Museum of Fine Arts for your fix of Renoir, Frida Kahlo and Ancient Egyptian mummies. It’s open until 10PM Wednesday through Friday. Friday night also sees the Museum of Science stay open until 9PM, meaning you can check out the planetarium and meet the resident triceratops without fear of trampling a tot. The beautiful Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum stays open until 9PM on Thursdays, showcasing an eye-popping collection that includes pieces by Rembrandt, Botticelli and John Singer Sargent.

Italian Dining in North End

Chocolate chip cannoli

Ride the T (Boston’s speedy subway system) to the city’s cute North End neighborhood, a vibrant Italian-American enclave with some of the prettiest houses, most atmospheric cobbled lanes and hands-down finest Italian cuisine in town. Giacomo’s is a local institution, serving up great mountains of lobster ravioli and spaghetti aglio e olio to a devoted local crowd. Or try the landmark Union Oyster House (Boston’s oldest restaurant) for fresh seafood and hearty bowls of clam chowder. Pizza lover? The North End has you covered. The queue outside century-old Regina should tell you everything you need to know about the deliciously crispy, brick-oven treats that await within. Order a 16” capricciosa or puttanesca for the win (with extra anchovies, natch). Then sweeten the deal with a bagful of crunchy cannoli from Mike’s Pastry, where the vast selection of flavors runs the gamut from limoncello to peanut butter. Yum.

A Night at the Boston Opera

Woman's hand holding opera glasses in the auditorium

There’s nearly a century of entertainment history between the walls of the Boston Opera House (aka the Citizens Bank Opera House). A movie theater for over 50 years, it has been an opera house on and off since the 1980s, bringing high art and culture to the good people of Beantown. It’s now the permanent home of the Boston Ballet, meaning you can catch the likes of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, as well as annual performances of The Nutcracker during the festive season. Touring Broadway productions are also a popular option here: the opera house has hosted shows including Hamilton, Wicked, Les Miserables, Cats and Miss Saigon over the years, to name just a few.

Sunset Cruise of Boston Harbor

Boats in Boston Harbor

Night time activities in Boston don’t come much more romantic than a harbor cruise. Sip a glass of bubbly as the sky turns dusky pink and Boston’s buildings light up like Christmas trees all along the waterfront. As well as those stunning city lights, you can also take in views of top Boston attractions including Castle Island, the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, and the epic feat of engineering that is the soaring Zakim Bridge.

View Boston

The Massachusetts State House in Boston at dusk

From river deep to skyscraper high, View Boston is way up in the clouds at the top of the Prudential Center. Take the elevator 750 feet up for one of Boston's great night time experiences. As the twinkling lights of the city skyline roll out beneath your feet, see if you can spot Beantown highlights like the glittering dome of the Massachusetts State House, Fenway Park Stadium (home of the Boston Red Sox), and boats the size of ants bobbing along the Charles River. Afraid of heights? Fear not: the 51st Cloud Terrace has a bar, where a whisky-fueled Ward Eight cocktail should provide all the Dutch courage you need to step out onto the al fresco wraparound walkway Cheers!

Boston Common

George Washington Statue in the Public Garden next to Boston Common

With its long and storied past that takes in the American Revolution, Martin Luther King and Pope John Paul II, it’s no wonder Boston Common – the oldest public garden in the US, no less – remains one of the city’s most sought-after attractions. Take a romantic evening stroll along its lamplit walkways, and admire its illuminated statuary in relative peace and quiet. Winter visitors can even strap on their skates and take to the ice on the frozen Frog Pond. Boston? Frost-on, more like!

Catch the Big Game

Match night at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox

Beantown’s sporting legacy is the stuff of legend, and catching a big game should be on everyone’s bucket list. Anyone can get a kick from the electric atmosphere generated by night time crowds of fans as the excitement starts to rise beneath those dazzling stadium lights. Pick your flavor from American football (the Patriots), baseball (the Red Sox), basketball (the Celtics), and ice hockey (the Bruins). And, while we can’t always guarantee a win for the home side, what we can guarantee is a great, great time.

Save on activities and attractions in Boston

Save on admission to Boston attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.

Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Freelance travel writer

Stu caught the travel bug at an early age, thanks to childhood road trips to the south of France squeezed into the back of a Ford Cortina with two brothers and a Sony Walkman. Now a freelance writer living on the Norfolk coast, Stu has produced content for travel giants including Frommer’s, British Airways, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, and now Go City. His most memorable travel experiences include drinking kava with the locals in Fiji and pranging a taxi driver’s car in the Honduran capital.

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Child in a science museum
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The Institute of Contemporary Art or Museum of Science

Boston has always been a forward-thinking kinda town, its role in the American Revolution being the stuff of legend. That rich history is writ large through the city streets, much of it effectively an open-air museum devoted to that era. But the progressive spirit lives on. It’s there in the fantastic street art and futuristic city skyline, dominated by soaring skyscrapers, among them One Dalton and the space-age John Hancock Tower, New England’s tallest building. Beantown institutions like the Museum of Science and Institute of Contemporary Arts also keep the innovation alive, with eye-popping exhibits and interactive installations that will blow your mind. We took a look inside to find out what to expect from the ICA and Museum of Science, including the highlights of each, plus how to get tickets. Museum of Science: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: Every great city deserves a great science museum, and Boston is no exception, boasting one of the best in the world. Initially founded as a scientific society in 1830, the MoS began morphing into a museum in 1862, eventually growing into the beautiful butterfly that spans the Charles River today. And it’s quite the whopper indeed, with more than 700 exhibits, plus a planetarium, IMAX theater and zoo.  The Museum of Science in Brief: This mind-expanding hub of innovation contains exhibits galore, with opportunities to explore the wonders of the prehistoric world, the human body, outer space and beyond. We’re talking a near-complete triceratops skeleton, indoor lightning bolts, an AI-powered robotic dog, and optical illusions that will boggle your mind. And that’s just for starters! Join live interactive presentations throughout the day, get involved in engineering design challenges, and say hey to the 100+ cute critters that call the Live Animal Care Center home. You can also immerse yourself in wraparound movie experiences at New England’s only IMAX theater, and experience eye-popping space visuals in the epic Charles Hayden Planetarium. Family Friendly? A fine day out for curious kids young and old, this one is very family friendly and attracts something in the order of 1.5 million science-hungry visitors every year. Getting in: The exhibition halls at Boston’s Museum of Science are open 9AM-5PM daily. General admission is included with a Boston pass from Go City. The pass includes access to stacks of Boston activities, tours and attractions, including the Museum of Science, plus the Museum of Fine Arts, the Freedom Trail walking tour, Paul Revere House, a sunset harbor cruise, and more. Find out how you could save up to 50% with the Boston pass, and get yours here.  Note that shows in the theaters and planetarium require additional tickets, which can be purchased direct via the MoS website. Museum of Science Highlights If you have even a passing interest in how the human body (yes, yours!) works, then the Hall of Human Life is for you. Find out what’s really keeping you awake at night and test the efficiency of your gait across multiple interactive exhibits. Hair-raising fun awaits in the Theater of Electricity, where you can see the world’s largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator produce its own lightning bolts. Electric! Young minds will be blown in the AI exhibit. Meet the museum’s robot dog and get the chance to interact with AI-generated art. No visit to the Museum of Science would be complete without saying hey to the 65-million-year-old resident of Triceratops Cliff. One of only four near-complete triceratops fossils on display anywhere in the world, it’s sure to keep the kids talking for weeks afterwards. The Charles Hayden Planetarium combines stunning starscapes with music by some of the biggest names in rock and pop – Prince, David Bowie, Rihanna and more – for a multi-sensory experience that’s out of this world. Institute of Contemporary Art: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art has been around since 1936, and in its current home – a striking industrial-style building in the Seaport District – since 2006. Previously an exhibition space only, the ICA has spent the last two decades amassing its own permanent collection, adding hundreds of sculptures, paintings, prints, photos and installations to its rotating roster of visiting exhibitions and performance art. The museum also acquired and renovated a nearby exhibition space (the ICA Watershed), which hosts a different artist takeover every year. The ICA in Brief: Displayed in an extraordinary cantilevered building that seems to hover over the waterfront, the ICA’s permanent collection includes visually stunning works from established and emerging artists. Expect to see signature pieces from the likes of Cornelia Parker, Nan Goldin, Taylor Davis, Marlene Dumas and Laylah Ali, to name only a few. Check out the ICA website for information on all current and forthcoming exhibitions. Family Friendly? Art-lovin’ grown-ups will be in clover here, and there’s enough to keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours, too, thanks to the institute’s visually arresting exhibits and installations, plus gallery game cards that allow the little 'uns to experience the space as a ‘thinker, maker, explorer, or performer’. Families of four (with maximum two kids aged 12 or under) go free on on the last Saturday of each month. These Play Date Saturdays include hands-on art-making, performance, films, and more. Getting in: The ICA is open 10AM-5PM Tuesday-Sunday, with late opening until 9PM on Thursdays and Fridays. General admission is $20, with free admission after 5PM on Thursdays – advance booking for free tickets and events is highly recommended. ICA Highlights The ICA’s cantilevered harbor building is every bit the contemporary art space, all bright, intimate galleries and glass corridors that appear to hover over the water below. Don’t miss Eva Hesse’s gravity-defying minimalist 1960s piece ‘Ennead’, or Cornelia Parker’s signature ‘Hanging Fire’, a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture made from carbonized wood pieces. There’s also a thought-provoking collection of photographs by Boston’s own Nan Goldin.  The ICA Watershed is open from spring to fall for a single artist takeover every year. You can visit for free – just hop on the ferry from the ICA for sculptures and art installations on an epic scale inside this former warehouse. Previous exhibitors include John Akomfrah, Diana Thater and Guadalupe Maravilla. Museum of Science or Institute of Contemporary Art: Which is Better? In truth, you should put both of these venerable Boston institutions on your must-see list. Because anyone who has an even vaguely curious mind or takes joy from thought-provoking visual stimuli will find plenty to enjoy at both attractions. No question though: the Museum of Science is the superior choice for families, thanks to its many interactive exhibits, mind-expanding live presentations and epic theater shows. The ICA is a rather more grown-up affair, designed for quiet contemplation and harborside walks, ideal if you’re traveling as a couple. Reminder: you can visit the MFA with a Boston attraction pass from Go City, and the last Saturday of each month is free for families at the ICA so, if you happen to be in town at the right time, go right ahead and do both! Save on Attractions, Tours and Activities in Boston Save money on Boston attractions, tours and activities with a pass from Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
The Museum of Fine Art in Boston
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Museum of Fine Arts Vs Institute of Contemporary Art Comparison

Revolutionary spirit and great art are in Boston’s DNA, meaning you’re rarely far from a picture-perfect historical landmark, fascinating cultural artifact or priceless Old Master. You can feel it on the Freedom Trail – the city’s comprehensive walk-through of the birth of America, in the family-run restaurants of the authentic Italian district, and in the bleeding-edge contemporary art galleries of Boston’s hip South End neighborhood. And that’s just for starters. Beantown’s art museums are second-to-none, offering deep dives into the history and cultural heritage of Boston, the Americas and beyond. Two absolute titans of the scene, the Museum of Fine Arts and Institute of Contemporary Art feature highly on the hit-lists of many art-loving visitors to the city. We took a closer look at this dynamic duo to find out how they compare, including a smidgen of hstory, some of the treasures you can expect to find in each, and how to visit… Museum of Fine Arts: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (aka the Boston Art Museum) has been wowing visitors since 1870 and has been growing in size and popularity ever since. The museum moved to its current home – a suitably grand purpose-built neoclassical edifice complete with colonnades and a great rotunda (with frescoes by John Singer Sargent, no less) – in 1909. Since then, it has expanded to include a collection of some 500,000 pieces across 100 galleries, running the gamut from ancient artifacts to modern masterpieces. One of the biggest art museums on the planet, its stellar collection pulls in more than 1.2 million visitors every year. The MFA in Brief: It’s not easy to be brief about a museum of this size and caliber, but we’ll try. Within its hallowed walls, the MFA houses thousands of rare treasures, from paintings and sculptures to musical instruments, pottery and textiles. In other words, pretty much everything from ancient Egyptian mummies to paintings by Monet, Van Gogh and Kahlo. Ogle Nubian pottery, Chinese ceramics and masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, and experience the largest collection of Japanese art outside of Japan, including paintings, ceramics and 17th-19th-century ukiyo-e woodblock prints.  Getting in: Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is open daily except Tuesdays. Hours are 10AM-5PM, with late opening until 10PM on Thursday and Friday. Tickets are included with a Boston pass from Go City. The pass includes access to dozens more activities, tours and attractions, including Paul Revere House, the Museum of Science, a Freedom Trail walking tour, a sunset harbor cruise, and more. Find out how you could save up to 50% with the Boston pass and get yours here.  MFA Highlights Give your neck a workout in the museum’s epic rotunda, where frescoes by John Singer Sargent adorn the domed ceiling.  Don’t miss John Singleton Copley’s portrait of local hero Paul Revere, maker of the historic Sons of Liberty Bowl, which is also – natch – on display here at the museum. We’re in the Monet! We’re in the Monet! The MFA boasts one of the best collections of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art outside of France, including landmark pieces by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas and others. Fans of Japanese art will be in clover, with over 100,000 pieces including woodblock prints, fine ceramics and Buddhist statues. Ancient Egypt is never less than utterly fascinating, and the MFA’s collection does not disappoint, with pieces that include Rameses III prisoner tiles, ancient idols, exquisite Nubian jewelry, and decorative sarcophagi. Institute of Contemporary Art: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: A relative upstart in comparison to the MFA, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opened over 60 years later, in 1936. Originally the Boston Museum of Modern Art, it has undergone several changes of name (and even more changes of location) before settling on the Institute of Contemporary Art (or ICA) in 1948 and, in 2006, the striking industrial-style Seaport District location it now calls home. The building, 65,000 square feet of gallery and performance space, houses a relatively modest permanent collection (hundreds rather than thousands of pieces), supplemented by rotating exhibitions, installations and performances that reflect the very best of the contemporary international art scene. It attracts around 200,000 visitors annually. The ICA in Brief: The ICA’s permanent collection includes essential pieces from established and emerging artists, including many from past exhibitors. These include the likes of Cornelia Parker, Taylor Davis, Nan Goldin, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marlene Dumas and Laylah Ali, to name just a few. Check out the ICA website for information on all current and upcoming exhibitions. Getting in: The ICA is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10AM-5PM, with late opening until 9PM on Thursday and Friday. General admission costs $20, but Thursday evening admission is free after 5PM – tickets are available from Thursday morning and advance booking is highly recommended. ICA Highlights Jutting out over the harbor, the ICA’s Seaport District home is every bit the contemporary art space, all bright, intimate galleries; its glass corridors and elevators seem to float above the water below. Don’t miss Cornelia Parker’s signature ‘Hanging Fire’ sculpture, Kara Walker’s thought-provoking meditation on racism and gender discrimination, based on characters from Mark Twain's ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, and the fine collection of photographs by Boston’s Nan Goldin. A ferry takes passengers over to the ICA Watershed outpost, where a single artist exhibits work from spring to fall each year. Past exhibitions have included large-scale installations and sculptures by the likes of Diana Thater, John Akomfrah, Firelei Báez and Guadalupe Maravilla. Museum of Fine Arts Vs Institute of Contemporary Art Comparison: Which is Best? Art aficionados will find much to enjoy in both the MFA and ICA. The Museum of Fine Arts takes the prize for the sheer variety and scope of its collection, and is likely to be the better choice for lovers of art history and antiquity. The Institute of Contemporary Art is by its very nature a far more niche experience, but with futuristic sculptures, paintings and installations that are no less eye-popping than those at the MFA. Don’t forget: you can visit the MFA with a Boston attraction pass from Go City, and Thursday evenings at the ICA are free so, heck, why not spoil yourself and do both? Save on Attractions, Tours and Activities in Boston Save money on Boston attractions, tours and activities with a pass from Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak

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