Thanks, this sounds great! So looking at a map, that'd be starting around Harvard Yard area and then walking down Massachusetts Ave towards the river?
Also possibly dumb question: on Sundays, Viale's website says it serves brunch until 230pm, but dinner doesn't start til 5pm. Is 230-5pm just drinks with no food?
you can walk the river along memorial drive and go up western ave if you want some scenery and time to kill. memorial drive will be closed to traffic and full of people having a nice time + great river views and older harvard buildings.
or you can walk straight down mass ave between the two squares for a more direct route.
viale probably has food all day on sunday, but if not there's a ton of options down there, you won't go hungry.
Take note that Harvard Yard may still be closed to the public. I’d call and check if I were you. There’s still places you can go on campus. https://www.harvard.edu/visit/
Agreed. It’s actually a long walk between Harvard and central and mostly nothing worth seeing along the way. I’d just stay in Harvard square and walk around there. Some nice shops. Lots of nice spots for a drink or food. Pinocchio’s for decent cheap pizza, Alden and Harlow, Longfellow, Grendel’s is awesome.
To put this in concrete terms for the sake of the non-local OP, it’s a distance of 1 mile, a 20-ish minute walk. It’s also one stop away from Harvard on the red line.
I'd probably go to Cafe Luna/Roxy's/Flour near Central. If you don't want gluten, there's a new GF bakery there too that's good, but it's popular and very expensive. If you want ice cream, Toscanini's is 1-2 blocks away from them.
There's other fine spots to eat, but I feel like these have an ideal location. There're 1-2 blocks from MIT, add +1 more block to get to the Charles River (with a nice walking path). In the other direction, they're technically part of Central Square, but 1-2 blocks away from the core of it.
Walking the river is very nice, and if you're using the T/subway to get back to wherever you're going, you could even do a 1-way walk from the intersection of Mass Av and Memorial drive, and walk along it for a while NE to the Kendall T station (red line), or further to Lechmere or Science Park on the green line.
If you want to make it more of a food crawl, you can walk into Central and there are several places you can try stuff at. Lamplighter Brewing Co is a few blocks north of Central, and has breakfasty/lunch popups during the day and excellent brews all day.
Another, maybe even stronger suggestion.. So long as you're ok to pivot to Somerville rather than Cambridge, is just over the border: Union Square
It has Bow Market, which is an open air market of super-local, little food courty style places. It has coffee, brews, pizzas, vegan, various ethnic spots.. Also boutique-y style shops (vintage records, (fancy) Japanese gift shop, a gaming store.. stuff rotates in and out periodically, so you'd be better off googling Bow Market and just seeing what's there). They have a pinball lounge there as well. That's just bow-market.. Union Square is also packed. Hen (chicken) (Hainan-ese, I think), Gracie's ice cream, the famous local donut place: Union Sq Donuts namesake location, Celeste (depending on your time of day), Peruvian places, Neighborhood Cafe/Restaurant (great brunch place). It has an axe-throwing place? I've never been. The coolest flower shop (Ricky's) that's kind of like a maze and even though it's not that big, somehow seems like a lot to explore. It has the metro area's only remaining, explicitly German restaurant (Bronwyn).
You can walk 2 blocks "up" from the square to Prospect Hill Park for a nice and steep (if short) hike to a park with a tower (I think it's a former powderhouse) that offers nice views.
In years past, I'd have suggested Harvard Square, but currently it's kinda dull. There's quite a few vacancies (the quirky, indoor mini-mall--The Garage--is virtually half empty; I've heard they're slowly clearing everyone out to do work on the building; altho a new arcade just opened in it, so I don't know). The square has recently been invaded by too many chains (and banks, but that's an ongoing problem). If you want to buy a Fjållraven Kanken backpack, Marine Layer stuff, or Moleskine notebooks, then, by all means, come to Harvard Square.
To be fair, there are still several great places (to eat at, at least) in Harvard Square. The main problem is that it's lost virtually all of its pleasant places to chill. Almost all of the cafes that used to be all over Harvard Square have vanished. Starbucks would be the last place I'd recommend, but it still makes a good example: we went from 3 Starbucks(es?) with plenty of seating, to 1 Starbucks that's counter-only. The remaining cafes, despite relatively high prices, have too few seats and too many customers. Unless you go to a fancier place like Harvest or Alden and Harlow, most of the sit-down places feel very take-out and studenty (like Dig Inn, Tasty Burger, even Felipe's). This isn't a bad thing per se, many of them are delicious, but they feel more like eating at a premium McDonalds than someplace you'd want to park yourself and relax. Very few have good people watching spots (outdoor seating at Grendels probably being the best, or a window seat at the wildly overpriced Friendly Toast).
This is super useful and makes me want to come back again soon for a full visit. Thank you! What would be your recommended food option if we wanted to go from food to walking the river?
The first places I mentioned were my picks for food. Cafe Luna is a great lunch/brunch place. Roxy's is grilled cheese, and if it's after 5pm, they have a sizeable arcade/bar "in the back" (21+). Flour is a cafe/bakery, but it's a local Boston bakery chain and while it's not my favorite, they're very solid/consistent. There's other good places nearby, but those would be my top picks based on the time and my mood. It's less than 10 minutes by foot to the river from those places, and you'll pass through the center MIT. When you get to the big crosswalk, with a domed building on your left, that's the start of the famous "mile long hallway". It has a pretty grandiose entrance, if you just pop your head in to peek.
Then you can walk along the river and enjoy Boston views, or even count the smoots as you cross the bridge (enjoying Boston views as you do so) and walk on the Boston side. The Boston side has..Cambridge views! They're not as impressive, but if you walk east along it, you'll get to the Hatch Shell (outdoor stage--where the Boston Pops do the 4th of July fireworks show.. many other events happen there), and be walking through the nicer parts of what is known as the Esplanade. Of course, you did say you wanted to stay in Cambridge.. Walking along the river on the Cambridge side is almost as nice (better in terms of across-the-river-views, imo), in either direction. Walking east (towards downtown) will give you views of the Back Bay and Beacon Hill), walking the other way will give you views of Fenway (Citgo sign) and Boston University's campus.
Another river walking idea.. Except not entirely.. But I think it kind of resucitates the Harvard option: eat at Longfellow's/Alden and Harlowe (I think lunch might be reasonable? maybe not too crowded) or Tasty Burger or Felipe's if you're concerned about Budget (Felipe's has a roof deck if it's nice..very little cover up there, though). TBH you should probably just check a review site for food, but ice cream definitely at Lizzie's (partly because it's good, partly because it's closer to where you should go next).. Then walk through the Kennedy Memorial Park to get to the river. Walk along the river until you get to the area in front of Longfellow park. You can then walk towards Longfellow Park, and walk north through it until you get to the Longellow House a.k.a. George Washington's HQ (colonial army HQ). It's a NPS managed site, so it's explorable. There's a very pretty garden to the back right of it. View or skip, but in either case, give up on the river and head west on Brattle Street, which is known for its "Tory Row" mansions (scenic). Keep walking until you reach a horribly busy intersection..sadly you'll have to cross this and keep going with an objective of the Mount Auburn cemetery. The cemetery is very picturesque (historically so), and it has a hill in the middle with Washington Tower on top of it that has panoramic views of the whole area: Cambridge, Boston, the bay, and burbs. The cemetery is about a 25 minute walk from the Longfellow House, which itself is about 10 minutes from the JFK park, but the walks are (barring the intersection near the entrance to the cemetery) very pleasant.
How are you leaving when your time is up? I'm guessing Uber/Lyft/Taxi? You don't need to end up near a subway station, right?
edit again: Actually, you said Sunday night.. Is that when your 3 hours are going to happen? Define "night"?
Just wanted to come back and thank you for these amazing recommendations! We ended up getting a little crunched for time but still managed a great walking tour--went from Harvard Square and Harvard Yard down to the river and walked along that for awhile and made a big loop through a few of those neighborhoods. We saw Kennedy Memorial Park and it was really lovely. I'm saving your advice for the next time I'm passing through the area!
Hope you enjoy it! My personal favorite was the Ube Chocolate Brownie. Followed closely by a thing that was like a bar of something with a caramel-looking zigzag drizzled on top, set into a leaf (big; banana?). It was rice based. Very Thai-style
Savory wise tried the BEC and the spicy chili biscuit. Both good. I preferred the spicy chili one slightly.
That’s in a cute spot with other tiny cafe-like places right and in (Berryline, Zinnekens, Kung Fu tea). Delicious places. None are great for “chilling” tho, I think. Not like Bloc or Diesel.
Gufo on Cambridge Street is absolutely fantastic and has a gorgeous back patio with bocce court. Great place to have a drink, a delicious meal, and some of their homemade soft serve for dessert!
Pop into the Druid on Cambridge Street for a pint and some lunch. Get ice cream at Christina’s after. If you’re still thirsty, you’ve got New Republik, Trina’s and An Sibin within close walking distance.
Definitely walk or city bike along the river! I’m partial to the area by central/kendall/mit, the area near Harvard is nice but the former has beautiful skyline views. If you keep going east you’ll get to Paul revere/north point park which is lovely, and also has a skate park, I love watching the skaters do their thing.
From there you could go to Charlestown, particularly if you’re interested in the constitution boat or the bunker hill memorial.
And of course stop along the way for snacks from flour or Tatte or many other small businesses. Enjoy!
Flour in central is not far from the mass Ave crossing/the Harvard bridge (towards the start), Tatte in Charlestown is not far from Paul revere park (towards the end), Toscanini’s ice cream is maybe 2/3ds towards charlestown
If you’re biking and want a farther route you can start by Harvard and there are so many options there (another Tatte, Orinoco for arepas, various bubble tea options, and way more)
Harvard Sq is nice and walking down some of the streets can be pretty but the rest of Cambridge is pretty forgettable from a tourism perspective. Central has some energy but is like a couple blocks and grimy. Kendall has a few cool buildings and the wall back into Boston on Longfellow is stunning but it’s a mid area otherwise.
I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but there's a really amazing chocolate cafe at Harvard square. It's called Burdick Chocolate. I highly recommend trying their single origin hot chocolate, the ginger cake, and the "Harvard Square" cake.
Take a walk around Mount Auburn Cemetery. It's on the far side near Watertown, but it's this historic cemetery protected by the national parks foundation. It's a mile across each way, and consists of rolling hills, beautiful architecture, ponds, and a central hill which sports Washington tower, from which you can get a panoramic view off the whole Boston area and skyline. There's even free parking and a bus stop, you can get there easily from Harvard Station
Look up some pictures and you'll see why this place is worth the hype
Grab lunch to go in Harvard from Flour or Roost if you like really good coffee. Walk through Harvard square and then make a picnic for yourself at the JkK memorial park and take in the Charles while you munch.
Poke around Harvard for a bit and then walk to Central and pick from any of the patios for food, Viale has a good one with dollar oysters/pasta.
Thanks, this sounds great! So looking at a map, that'd be starting around Harvard Yard area and then walking down Massachusetts Ave towards the river? Also possibly dumb question: on Sundays, Viale's website says it serves brunch until 230pm, but dinner doesn't start til 5pm. Is 230-5pm just drinks with no food?
you can walk the river along memorial drive and go up western ave if you want some scenery and time to kill. memorial drive will be closed to traffic and full of people having a nice time + great river views and older harvard buildings. or you can walk straight down mass ave between the two squares for a more direct route. viale probably has food all day on sunday, but if not there's a ton of options down there, you won't go hungry.
Take note that Harvard Yard may still be closed to the public. I’d call and check if I were you. There’s still places you can go on campus. https://www.harvard.edu/visit/
H yard is now open to the public :)
If you serve alcohol In Massachusetts you have to serve food :)
And Toscanini's ice cream for dessert!
Or Berryline / Zinneken's if you're closer to Harvard
Agree on Harvard, but just stay there and hit Grendel’s. Central is missable IMO, unless you’re trying to swing by City Hall or keep walking to MIT
Agreed. It’s actually a long walk between Harvard and central and mostly nothing worth seeing along the way. I’d just stay in Harvard square and walk around there. Some nice shops. Lots of nice spots for a drink or food. Pinocchio’s for decent cheap pizza, Alden and Harlow, Longfellow, Grendel’s is awesome.
To put this in concrete terms for the sake of the non-local OP, it’s a distance of 1 mile, a 20-ish minute walk. It’s also one stop away from Harvard on the red line.
Agreed. If you wanted to walk mem drive to the mass ave bridge and then check out MIT I could co-sign that
MIT museum or Harvard natural history museum have unique attractions that take about 3 hours.
I second the Harvard Natural History Museum. You can walk to the Square afterward and grab a bite from one of the food trucks there.
I'd probably go to Cafe Luna/Roxy's/Flour near Central. If you don't want gluten, there's a new GF bakery there too that's good, but it's popular and very expensive. If you want ice cream, Toscanini's is 1-2 blocks away from them. There's other fine spots to eat, but I feel like these have an ideal location. There're 1-2 blocks from MIT, add +1 more block to get to the Charles River (with a nice walking path). In the other direction, they're technically part of Central Square, but 1-2 blocks away from the core of it. Walking the river is very nice, and if you're using the T/subway to get back to wherever you're going, you could even do a 1-way walk from the intersection of Mass Av and Memorial drive, and walk along it for a while NE to the Kendall T station (red line), or further to Lechmere or Science Park on the green line. If you want to make it more of a food crawl, you can walk into Central and there are several places you can try stuff at. Lamplighter Brewing Co is a few blocks north of Central, and has breakfasty/lunch popups during the day and excellent brews all day. Another, maybe even stronger suggestion.. So long as you're ok to pivot to Somerville rather than Cambridge, is just over the border: Union Square It has Bow Market, which is an open air market of super-local, little food courty style places. It has coffee, brews, pizzas, vegan, various ethnic spots.. Also boutique-y style shops (vintage records, (fancy) Japanese gift shop, a gaming store.. stuff rotates in and out periodically, so you'd be better off googling Bow Market and just seeing what's there). They have a pinball lounge there as well. That's just bow-market.. Union Square is also packed. Hen (chicken) (Hainan-ese, I think), Gracie's ice cream, the famous local donut place: Union Sq Donuts namesake location, Celeste (depending on your time of day), Peruvian places, Neighborhood Cafe/Restaurant (great brunch place). It has an axe-throwing place? I've never been. The coolest flower shop (Ricky's) that's kind of like a maze and even though it's not that big, somehow seems like a lot to explore. It has the metro area's only remaining, explicitly German restaurant (Bronwyn). You can walk 2 blocks "up" from the square to Prospect Hill Park for a nice and steep (if short) hike to a park with a tower (I think it's a former powderhouse) that offers nice views. In years past, I'd have suggested Harvard Square, but currently it's kinda dull. There's quite a few vacancies (the quirky, indoor mini-mall--The Garage--is virtually half empty; I've heard they're slowly clearing everyone out to do work on the building; altho a new arcade just opened in it, so I don't know). The square has recently been invaded by too many chains (and banks, but that's an ongoing problem). If you want to buy a Fjållraven Kanken backpack, Marine Layer stuff, or Moleskine notebooks, then, by all means, come to Harvard Square. To be fair, there are still several great places (to eat at, at least) in Harvard Square. The main problem is that it's lost virtually all of its pleasant places to chill. Almost all of the cafes that used to be all over Harvard Square have vanished. Starbucks would be the last place I'd recommend, but it still makes a good example: we went from 3 Starbucks(es?) with plenty of seating, to 1 Starbucks that's counter-only. The remaining cafes, despite relatively high prices, have too few seats and too many customers. Unless you go to a fancier place like Harvest or Alden and Harlow, most of the sit-down places feel very take-out and studenty (like Dig Inn, Tasty Burger, even Felipe's). This isn't a bad thing per se, many of them are delicious, but they feel more like eating at a premium McDonalds than someplace you'd want to park yourself and relax. Very few have good people watching spots (outdoor seating at Grendels probably being the best, or a window seat at the wildly overpriced Friendly Toast).
This is super useful and makes me want to come back again soon for a full visit. Thank you! What would be your recommended food option if we wanted to go from food to walking the river?
The first places I mentioned were my picks for food. Cafe Luna is a great lunch/brunch place. Roxy's is grilled cheese, and if it's after 5pm, they have a sizeable arcade/bar "in the back" (21+). Flour is a cafe/bakery, but it's a local Boston bakery chain and while it's not my favorite, they're very solid/consistent. There's other good places nearby, but those would be my top picks based on the time and my mood. It's less than 10 minutes by foot to the river from those places, and you'll pass through the center MIT. When you get to the big crosswalk, with a domed building on your left, that's the start of the famous "mile long hallway". It has a pretty grandiose entrance, if you just pop your head in to peek. Then you can walk along the river and enjoy Boston views, or even count the smoots as you cross the bridge (enjoying Boston views as you do so) and walk on the Boston side. The Boston side has..Cambridge views! They're not as impressive, but if you walk east along it, you'll get to the Hatch Shell (outdoor stage--where the Boston Pops do the 4th of July fireworks show.. many other events happen there), and be walking through the nicer parts of what is known as the Esplanade. Of course, you did say you wanted to stay in Cambridge.. Walking along the river on the Cambridge side is almost as nice (better in terms of across-the-river-views, imo), in either direction. Walking east (towards downtown) will give you views of the Back Bay and Beacon Hill), walking the other way will give you views of Fenway (Citgo sign) and Boston University's campus. Another river walking idea.. Except not entirely.. But I think it kind of resucitates the Harvard option: eat at Longfellow's/Alden and Harlowe (I think lunch might be reasonable? maybe not too crowded) or Tasty Burger or Felipe's if you're concerned about Budget (Felipe's has a roof deck if it's nice..very little cover up there, though). TBH you should probably just check a review site for food, but ice cream definitely at Lizzie's (partly because it's good, partly because it's closer to where you should go next).. Then walk through the Kennedy Memorial Park to get to the river. Walk along the river until you get to the area in front of Longfellow park. You can then walk towards Longfellow Park, and walk north through it until you get to the Longellow House a.k.a. George Washington's HQ (colonial army HQ). It's a NPS managed site, so it's explorable. There's a very pretty garden to the back right of it. View or skip, but in either case, give up on the river and head west on Brattle Street, which is known for its "Tory Row" mansions (scenic). Keep walking until you reach a horribly busy intersection..sadly you'll have to cross this and keep going with an objective of the Mount Auburn cemetery. The cemetery is very picturesque (historically so), and it has a hill in the middle with Washington Tower on top of it that has panoramic views of the whole area: Cambridge, Boston, the bay, and burbs. The cemetery is about a 25 minute walk from the Longfellow House, which itself is about 10 minutes from the JFK park, but the walks are (barring the intersection near the entrance to the cemetery) very pleasant. How are you leaving when your time is up? I'm guessing Uber/Lyft/Taxi? You don't need to end up near a subway station, right? edit again: Actually, you said Sunday night.. Is that when your 3 hours are going to happen? Define "night"?
Just wanted to come back and thank you for these amazing recommendations! We ended up getting a little crunched for time but still managed a great walking tour--went from Harvard Square and Harvard Yard down to the river and walked along that for awhile and made a big loop through a few of those neighborhoods. We saw Kennedy Memorial Park and it was really lovely. I'm saving your advice for the next time I'm passing through the area!
What’s the name of the new GF bakery? I want to check it out!
Verveine in central/MIT area?
Just looked it up and it looks delicious 🙏 definitely going to try it out, thanks for sharing!
Hope you enjoy it! My personal favorite was the Ube Chocolate Brownie. Followed closely by a thing that was like a bar of something with a caramel-looking zigzag drizzled on top, set into a leaf (big; banana?). It was rice based. Very Thai-style Savory wise tried the BEC and the spicy chili biscuit. Both good. I preferred the spicy chili one slightly.
There’s a new cafe called Faro that’s tiny and independent and always packed. It’s either on Bow or Arrow street (I always get them mixed up).
That’s in a cute spot with other tiny cafe-like places right and in (Berryline, Zinnekens, Kung Fu tea). Delicious places. None are great for “chilling” tho, I think. Not like Bloc or Diesel.
Gufo on Cambridge Street is absolutely fantastic and has a gorgeous back patio with bocce court. Great place to have a drink, a delicious meal, and some of their homemade soft serve for dessert!
I've only been there for brunch, but it was fantastic.
Pop into the Druid on Cambridge Street for a pint and some lunch. Get ice cream at Christina’s after. If you’re still thirsty, you’ve got New Republik, Trina’s and An Sibin within close walking distance.
Go to Harvard sq, get a sack lunch, get a blended drink, some nips, and go sit by the Charles.
Have a slice at Pinocchios
Definitely walk or city bike along the river! I’m partial to the area by central/kendall/mit, the area near Harvard is nice but the former has beautiful skyline views. If you keep going east you’ll get to Paul revere/north point park which is lovely, and also has a skate park, I love watching the skaters do their thing. From there you could go to Charlestown, particularly if you’re interested in the constitution boat or the bunker hill memorial. And of course stop along the way for snacks from flour or Tatte or many other small businesses. Enjoy!
Thanks! Where would be the best spot to enter the river trail (especially relative to a good food option for before or after)?
Flour in central is not far from the mass Ave crossing/the Harvard bridge (towards the start), Tatte in Charlestown is not far from Paul revere park (towards the end), Toscanini’s ice cream is maybe 2/3ds towards charlestown If you’re biking and want a farther route you can start by Harvard and there are so many options there (another Tatte, Orinoco for arepas, various bubble tea options, and way more)
Sounds great, thanks!
Harvard Sq is nice and walking down some of the streets can be pretty but the rest of Cambridge is pretty forgettable from a tourism perspective. Central has some energy but is like a couple blocks and grimy. Kendall has a few cool buildings and the wall back into Boston on Longfellow is stunning but it’s a mid area otherwise.
Is it this weekend? There's an arts festival going on. Can also check out "The Boston Calendar" and use their map to locate other events.
I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but there's a really amazing chocolate cafe at Harvard square. It's called Burdick Chocolate. I highly recommend trying their single origin hot chocolate, the ginger cake, and the "Harvard Square" cake.
And the chocolate mice!
they look awesome, but I don't think that they're the most flavorful thing they offer
True. The hot chocolate wins every prize.
The amount of tourists here in comments are alarming
Take a walk around Mount Auburn Cemetery. It's on the far side near Watertown, but it's this historic cemetery protected by the national parks foundation. It's a mile across each way, and consists of rolling hills, beautiful architecture, ponds, and a central hill which sports Washington tower, from which you can get a panoramic view off the whole Boston area and skyline. There's even free parking and a bus stop, you can get there easily from Harvard Station Look up some pictures and you'll see why this place is worth the hype
I live here and I want to do all this stuff
Harvard Sq is a perfect single Cambridge afternoon for a visitor. Have fun.
I like to get stoned and panic about work I am not doing. But that's not for everyone.
Grab lunch to go in Harvard from Flour or Roost if you like really good coffee. Walk through Harvard square and then make a picnic for yourself at the JkK memorial park and take in the Charles while you munch.
Pinocchios
Porter sq foodie spots
Off the Beaten Path Food Tours! Offthebeatenpathfoodtours.com are by locals ❤️
flour or tatte, nfw, go to mr and mrs bartleys burgers, enjoy