I live in Boston and thought that it might be helpful to put together a diary for those not familiar with the city who are traveling to the Frozen Four.

I by no means am an expert on the city, and my opinions might not be shared by other locals, so I hope people will add some additional recs in the comment section

—Where to stay:

For people who have not yet made reservations, I would really recommend finding a place or hotel in Boston proper or in Cambridge just across the Charles River. The vast majority of things to do (and the TD Garden) are all walkable from these locations. I would personally put in a plug for my neighborhood of East Boston (more on that below) because a) it is literally where you land at Logan (I usually walk to the terminal from my home) and is only 1-2 subway stops from downtown and the Garden. There are a number of airport hotels as well you can stay at. 

 

With that being said, the Garden is built right on top of North Station, which has subway and regional rail service that goes pretty far out to all the northern suburbs, so if you stay with friends or just decide to stay outside the city it does make getting to the game convenient. 

—Do you need a car?:

I would strongly rec. against it for the reasons I note above: you save $ on the rental and can walk everywhere if you stay in Boston-Cambridge 

—Things to do:

The main things to do (non-nightlife/bar category) revolve around the Harbor/Freedom trail, other sporting events, and the museums. 

My favorite things to rec. to people are.

1. Do a day of walking around. Start with a duck tour or combo bus/boat pass to get your bearings or if you’d rather not deal with your guides that can be hit or miss, get a guidebook and explore. The Boston common and other freedom trail stuff is well marked. 
2. Go to East Boston: It’s one of Bostons more historical neighborhoods (the Kennedy’s and the Mavericks among many others) lived there during its heyday as the ship building capital of the world. It’s got some of the best restaurants in the city, including the (imo) best Italian at Rinos, Peruvian and other Latin American places. It also has a working shipyard with a cider distillery that has a tasting area/bar as well as an Australian meat pie place. The new waterfront has by far the best view of the city along the new waterfront walk as well. 
3. Walk around the colleges: Besides the “Michigan of the East”, MIT has a cool campus and Northeastern/BU are located quite near the Museum of Fine Arts and the Stewart Gardner Museums if you like doing museum stuff
4. Normally I would add “go to a Red Sox game”, even if you’re a Tigers fan who hates them. However they are out of town next weekend. You can still take a tour of it as they have those on most days. 

—Where to eat:

In my opinion Bostons food scene is not as good as it should be. That being said, here are a couple of my family’s favorites:

-East Boston 

Cunard Tavern (right by waterfront, good mix of options and lively bar scene)

Angela’s Cafe (Mexican, mole specialty)

Rincon Limeno-(Peruvian, their seafood Tacu Tacu is one of my favorite all time dishes)

Rinos- (lobster ravioli insanely good but need to go early as there are jo reservations) can also do takeout and walk/Uber to waterfront about 15 min away by foot

-Boston: 

North End

There are a lot of great Italian places, including the ubiquitous Mikes pastries for cannoli). I’m hoping other local folks will be able to add recs below) 

There is also the Union Bay oyster house, that has been around since the 1700s (and looks like it). JFK ate there on election night 1960z 

-Downtown:

A lot of options here as well that I’m not that familiar with (kids, man). There is the usual assortment of steak houses and seafood places as well as bars.

-Cambridge

Helmand: Afghani, about a 10-15 min walk to the TD garden. 

Aceituna: Cheap and very good middle eastern shawarma, etc near Helmand/MIT 

Oleana: Great eclectic Mediterranean, reservations can be tough 

Bartleys Burgers: In Harvard Square. Very good and lots of specialty options with funny names

—Nightlife/around the Garden

There are a lot of bars etc on Canal st and nearby if you want to pregame. Because everything is so close you can also walk a bit for more options. The bars are somewhat generic (no Ricks Cafe type place that I know about) but there are all over the place, especially on Boylston near BU/NEU

Finally, I would suspect the UM Club of Boston will do something as well, though I’m not sure.

 

Feel free to ask anything In the comment section  and I’ll do my best to answer. 

 

Go Blue!

PS- wear Brady UM stuff if you really want to endear yourselves to the locals…