Travel Information for Massachusetts Hotel Guests
If you are searching for an inn, hotel, motel or resort near a Massachusetts attraction, amusement and theme parks, or close to shopping, cultural events, historic sites, museums and performing arts centers, or nearby zoos, a festival, a golf course, a Massachusetts state park, this is where you will find it.
With more than 1,500 miles of shoreline on the Atlantic coast as well as two famous offshore islands – Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard – MASSACHUSETTS boasts more than 80 beaches. Travelers can also visit a number of beaches near lakes, ponds and within national parks. There are 107 state forests and parks. More than 170 art, history and sporting museums are scattered across the state. Visitors can also enjoy one of the state’s three living history museums which recreate New England’s past. Massachusetts has more than 50 theaters and performing arts centers. Travelers often make the pilgrimage to treasure hunt in the state’s well-known factory outlets, antiques shops, craft galleries and flea markets.
BOSTON, Massachusetts' capital, successfully combines big-city amenities with a friendly, small-town atmosphere; the Freedom Trail is a behind-the-scenes look at the drama of the American Revolution; strolling along the trail's red line, visitors will discover Paul Revere's House, home of the patriot and silversmith from 1770 to 1800, Old North Church, Boston's oldest church, and Faneuil Hall, the 1742 market and meeting hall dubbed "Cradle of Liberty" which gave its name to Faneuil Hall Marketplace; at the trail's end is the newly-restored USS Constitution, the U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned ship; the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum is a replica of ship where the notorious protest took place in 1773; the Boston Maritime Trail is a self-guided walking tour of Boston's historic waterfront and visitors can see Boston By Foot or Boston By Sea; the Black Heritage Trail reveals the history of Boston's 19th-century African-American community; Boston's art museums, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, present invigorating exhibitions; the Kennedy Library and Museum portrays the life, leadership, and legacy of President Kennedy; family favorites are the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science and its four-story Omnimax Theatre, and the Children's Museum with its "do-touch" exhibits; other attractions are New England's tallest building and Old State House, the oldest public building in Boston; it was the seat of Colonial government and site of debates that led to the American Revolution; The Bull & Finch Pub, which inspired the television show "Cheers," sits at the bottom of Beacon Hill; Fenway Park is one of America's oldest ball parks and home to the Red Sox.
Crossing over the Charles River from Boston, visitors find themselves in CAMBRIDGE, home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, the nation's oldest university, with its museums; Longfellow National Historic Site is a grand mansion that served as George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters and, later, as the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The CAPE COD National Seashore has long stretches of sandy beaches and desert-like sand dunes.
SANDWICH, the Cape's oldest town, is home to Heritage Plantation with its collections of early American artifacts, antique cars, and folk art; the Thornton W. Burgess Museum was the home of the author known for "Peter Rabbit and the Briar Patch”.
The John F. Kennedy Museum in HYANNIS is a multimedia exhibit about the days JFK spent on Cape Cod.
The artists' colony of PROVINCETOWN is on the tip of the Cape; There are whale-watch trips from Barnstable and Provincetown.
CONCORD is renowned as the site of the battle that began the American Revolution; Concord's past is brought to life at Concord Museum; Minute Man National Historical Park preserves the significant historic sites associated with the opening battles of the American Revolution.
Historic DEERFIELD’s main street is lined with 18th- and 19th-century houses filled with period furnishings, ceramics, and silver; the Memorial Hall Museum has American antiques, and in South Deerfield the Candlemaking Museum at Yankee Candle uses 200-year-old equipment to demonstrate traditional candlemaking.
GLOUCESTER is the departure point for whale watch operators; there are more than 30 artists in residence in Rocky Neck Art Colony; overlooking the ocean is Hammond Castle Museum with its Renaissance art and 8,200-pipe organ. Wolf Hollow IPSWICH at offers an opportunity to view gray wolves in their natural environment.
LEXINGTON attractions include Buckman Tavern, the meeting place of Minute Men on April 19, 1775, and Hancock-Clarke House, Paul Revere's destination the night of the famous ride was.
LOWELL in Merrimack Valley commemorates the history of America's Industrial Revolution; in the Lowell National Historical Park there are tours of the old cotton mills, barge trips through the canal and lock system, and rides on an early 1900s trolley; the New England Quilt Museum presents changing exhibits from folk art to fine art.
New England's largest island MARTHA'S VINEYARD has soft sandy beaches, pine forests, rolling hills and moors, and six delightful towns; the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust owns and operates Vincent House, the Old Whaling Church, and the Dr. Daniel Fisher House; tours include the Flying Horses Carousel, America's oldest carousel.
Sea captains' houses line the cobblestone streets of NANTUCKET ISLAND; the Whaling Museum, a former spermaceti factory, now overflows with artifacts and memorabilia from the island's once-thriving industry.
Located in Bristol County, NEW BEDFORD's historic district has gas-lit cobblestone streets; the New Bedford Whaling Museum has a half-scale model of a whaling vessel.; the schooner "Ernestina" is a 100-year-old ship with a rich history as a fishing vessel and arctic explorer.
MASS MoCA , the largest contemporary arts center in the country is at NORTH ADAMS.
Herman Melville penned Moby-Dick at Arrowhead in PITTSFIELD, his home from 1850-1862; Arrowhead is now a museum interpreting the life of the Melville family in the Berkshires. To the west of Pittsfield is the Hancock Shaker Village which interprets the lives of the Shakers who lived here from 1790 to 1960.
PLYMOUTH is forever associated with the pilgrims and their arrival at Plymouth Rock; attractions include The Mayflower II, a full-scale reproduction of the ship in which the hardy Pilgrims made their harrowing 66-day voyage, Plimoth Plantation, an outdoor museum which re-creates the village and life of Plymouth in 1627, and Pilgrim Hall Museum.
QUINCEY is known as the “city of presidents”; the Adams National Historic Park comprises 11 historic structures featuring the home of John Adams, second president of the United States, and John Quincy Adams, sixth president.
ROCKPORT is a seacoast village and artists’ colony with many interesting shops and galleries on Cape Ann.
SALEM is the home of the witch trials of the 1690s and has several attractions on this theme, including the Salem Wax Museum of Witches and Seafarers, Salem Witch Museum and Salem Witch Village; the Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves and interprets maritime history, while Peabody Essex Museum is devoted to Salem's 18th- and 19th-century trade with the Orient.
The state's northernmost coastal town SALISBURY, home to the Salisbury Beach State Reservation, is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Merrimack River.
SPRINGFIELD has the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Quadrangle, a quartet of art, science and history museums and a library, the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, the nation’s first armory, and Six Flags New England theme park.
The largest collection of Norman Rockwell original illustrations are at a museum in STOCKBRIDGE where many of his friends and neighbors served as models for his Saturday Evening Post covers.
At STURBRIDGE Old Sturbridge Village is a living-history museum which re-creates a rural New England settlement of the 1830s.
The WORCESTER Centrum Centre and Mechanics Hall are the setting for such 19th-century orators as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Henry David Thoreau. Other attractions include the Higgins Armory, and the Worcester Art Museum, one of the leading small art museums in America.
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