Charles River Esplanade

The Esplanade is a three-mile ribbon of parkland along the Charles River basin that serves as Boston's running track, cycling path, and outdoor living room from April through October. The views across the river to Cambridge — with the MIT dome and the Harvard boathouses visible upriver — provide a backdrop for joggers, cyclists, and the rowers whose sculls glide across the water in the early morning light.

The Hatch Memorial Shell, an outdoor concert venue at the midpoint of the Esplanade, is where the Boston Pops perform their legendary July 4th concert — the one that ends with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture accompanied by actual cannons and fireworks over the river. The event draws half a million people to the riverbanks and is one of the largest Independence Day celebrations in the country. On regular summer evenings, the Shell hosts free concerts, movie screenings, and community events that fill the lawn with picnicking families.

The Esplanade was created in the early 1900s by filling the mudflats along the river, and the landscape design by Arthur Shurcliff includes groves of trees, flower gardens, and a series of lagoons that create sheltered areas away from the main path. The community sailing programme operates from a dock on the Esplanade, offering some of the most affordable sailing lessons in America — you can learn to sail on the Charles River with the Boston skyline as your backdrop for the cost of an annual membership.