The center of this historic town, ten miles north of Boston, rests on the shores of a beautiful Great Pond. Lake Quannapowitt, named for Quonopohit (1636-1712), sachem of the Naumkeag people, is the canvas for community events, from a world-class farmers’ market to outdoor movie shows. Wakefield has historically had a large Italian-American community, manifested …
Roughly equidistant to Boston and Providence, which are half an hour away, Bridgewater is a town of around 30,000 in Plymouth County. The town’s central commercial area is on an historic square, with mature trees and a vibrant series of outdoor concerts on Thursday evenings, known as Bridgewater Music Alley. Intertwined with the downtown area …
A haven for progressive thought and a destination for the LGBTQ+ community, Northampton is often described as the most liberal city in the United States. A large proportion of the city’s residents identify as gay or lesbian, and Northampton officially boasts the highest number of lesbian couples per capita of any city in the country. …
This well-heeled suburb of Boston is on the map for its institutions of higher education. The most famous is the private women’s liberal arts college, Wellesley College, which has an amazing list of high-achievers among its former students, including Hilary Clinton. The Wellesley College campus is one of the most beautiful in New England, where …
Incorporated in 1726, Stoughton is about 17 miles south of downtown Boston, and was famed for its shoemaking industry in the 19th century. Stoughton’s downtown area has diverse restaurants and some stately buildings, like the Lucius Clapp Memorial, home to the local historical society, and a grand Romanesque Revival train station. The town is mere …
Locally known as the “West Side”, this city faces off across the Connecticut River from Springfield, which is the core of a large metropolitan area in the Pioneer Valley. Even though there’s a big city just across the river, large swaths of West Springfield are remote and ripe for adventure, whether you’re hiking the Metacomet-Monadnock …
On the border with Connecticut, Agawam sits just across the Connecticut River from the city of Springfield. The premier attraction in Agawam is Six Flags New England, the largest theme park in the region, with rides for all ages and a massive water park. Also on Agawam’s doorstep are the fairgrounds for the Eastern States …
A wealthy suburban town to the south of Boston, Milton takes pride in its leafy streets, rich history and parcels of protected open space. The largest of these is the Blue Hills Reservation, where a chain of granite hills culminates with the 635-acre Great Blue Hill, the summit of which has views of the whole …
In the Merrimack Valley by the NH-MA state line, Dracut is a town of just over 32,000 and a northern neighbor to the mill town, Lowell. The landscape in Dracut is rural, with a lot of opportunities for agritourism, meeting the herd at an acclaimed dairy farm, digging for carrots or picking your own berries …
With a strong community spirit and lots of public events, Needham is a town on the I-95, and has boundaries defined by the Charles River. That watercourse appears in many of Needham’s standout attractions, with spacious parcels of urban nature along the banks in the west and south, and the iconic Echo Bridge crossing the …