Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin.
Back Bay is an officially recognized historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and the area was fully built by around 1900. It is most famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes—considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States—as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings, and cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library, and Boston Architectural College. Initially conceived as a residential-only area, commercial buildings were permitted from around 1890, and Back Bay now features many office buildings, including the John Hancock Tower, Boston's tallest skyscraper. It is also considered a fashionable shopping destination and home to several major hotels.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Getting to Back Bay
- Airports
- Boston Logan (BOS), 6 km · Rhode Island T. F. Green (PVD), 75 km · Bradley (BDL), 140 km
- Providence/Warwick → Back Bay78 km · quickest by road, 2h 3m · $8–11
- Portland → Back Bay4075 km · quickest by air, 8h 50m · $440–670
- Hartford → Back Bay147 km · quickest by road, 2h 34m · $13–18
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Back Bay
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Back Bay. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inLong Wharf is the most popular; offering MBTA connections to the Charlestown Navy Yard, Logan Airport, Hingham and Hull, as well as a seasonal ferry to Salem.
- Get inBoston Harbor Cruises offers other seasonal ferries, decamping to the Boston Harbor Islands, or heading out to Provincetown.
- Get inThere is another ferry from here to Hingham, and a seasonal one to Winthrop.
- Get inWater taxis are plentiful all along the waterfront, servicing 28 different points between downtown, South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown.
- Go nextHead down to the wharf and take a ferry out to the Boston Harbor Islands.
From Wikivoyage: Boston/Downtown, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01256 km
- 02262 km
- 032,729 km
- 042,746 km
- 052,847 km
If you know how people move in Back Bay – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Back Bay
Back Bay is 2 km from Boston, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.