TRAVEL GUIDE: BOSTON, USA

This week I’m really excited to be hosting Anna from Aspects of Style, where she shares wonderful travel and style tips. Although we currently live in different continents, Anna and I grew up in the same neighbourhood and hadn’t met for years until we started reading each others’ blogs and realized we share a lot more than our love for blogging. The blogsphere is a small world, after all! Anna is guiding us through her favourite spots in Boston, a city I would love to visit in the future. Let’s see where she takes us!

Hello there! I’m Anna, originally from Athens, Greece but currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. I blog over at Aspects of Style, sharing (yes you’ve guessed it) my personal style, as well as my travel diaries and tips! Today I compiled an “unofficial” guide to Boston which consists of all my favorite places in the city! Enjoy!

:: Favorite seafood restaurant: Legal Seafoods ::

Boston has many types of cuisines, like all large multinational cities: Italian, Asian, American and so forth. If you want to get a taste of New England’s cuisine though, you have to pay a visit to a seafood restaurant. Legal Seafoods has been around since the ‘50s and is synonymous to fresh fish and seafood. My favorite dish there is the lobster roll (because I wouldn’t dare order a whole lobster!) If you are a soup fan you have to try their clam chowder, or the lobster bisque!

:: Favorite neighborhood: South End ::

South End is known as the “the largest urban Victorian neighborhood in the US” and started off as a residence for the overflowing population of Boston, then turned to a diverse neighborhood by ethnicity, cultural background and sexual orientation before gentrification started in the ‘80s. Today the South End is regarded as a hip neighborhood filled with a variety of restaurants (thanks to its multicultural tenants) and a few specialty stores!

:: Favorite Breakfast/Brunch spot: SoundBites, Somerville ::

Coming from Greece, where brunch isn’t a thing, I was amazed to see people actually queueing for brunch!  Since September I’ve been visiting several of these brunch spots and I can say that SoundBites is the best (It’s been awarded best breakfast in Boston after all)! Now, this place is definitely going to be hard for people who have trouble choosing, as the options are never-ending: vast assortments of omelets, waffles, eggs benedict, pancakes… Everything you can think of is in there!!

:: Favorite shopping area: Back Bay ::

Even though there is a mall in Cambridge that I frequent pretty often, the Back Bay is my favorite shopping area, as it feels very European!! Newbury Street is the “star” here, filled with stores for all budgets, along with restaurants (like Papa Razzi), cafes (like Thinking Cup) and cupcake bakeries (like Georgetown Cupcake)! And if it’s cold and rainy, you can always resort to The Shops at Prudential Center and Copley Place which are indoor malls!

:: Favorite Museum: Harvard Art Museums ::

Boston is filled with Museums for every taste. There’s the Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Institute for Contemporary Art, the MIT Museum and Harvard Art Museums (and I’m pretty sure there are other smaller ones too)! My favorite one has to be the latter, which re-opened last fall, after undergoing a major renovation. The renovated building, designed by Renzo Piano, features a beautiful atrium (pictured) and features exhibits ranging from the antiquity to pop art! It’s also compact, which means that you will not spend half of your day there and can venture out to exploring Harvard University and Harvard Square as well!

:: Favorite spot to take a photo of Boston’s skyline: Memorial drive in Cambridge ::

There are many places where you can take a photo of Boston’s skyline, which is different depending on the place you choose to shoot. My favorite spot (which I discovered thanks to Instagram) is the Memorial Drive in Cambridge, MA (just in front of MIT’s Sloane School). This drive along Charles River gives you a great view over the Back Bay, where Boston’s most iconic buildings stand: The Prudential Center and John Hancock tower.