The North of Boston region features picture-perfect harbors, long sandy beaches, and a wealth of attractions and activities that celebrate the region’s rich arts and maritime traditions. Great seafood, too!

CHECK IT OUT

Gloucester’s seafaring heritage is commemorated by the Man at The Wheel statue and by the 2000 movie, The Perfect Storm. Motif#1, a red fisherman’s shack, perched on the edge of a wharf in Rockport’s Bearskin Neck, has been the subject of thousands of paintings, photographs, and postcards. Marblehead is a yachting mecca; its winding streets are lined with grand mansions and modest artisans’ houses, many of them predating the Revolution. Salem offers a coven of museums that explore the infamous witch trials of 1692, including the Salem Witch Museum. Essex’s main street is lined with antique emporiums and seafood restaurants, where the fried clam, was invented. Elegant Federal homes, built from fortunes made in shipbuilding and the maritime trade, line Newburyport’s High Street. On nearby Plum Island, birders flock to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge to view migrating shore birds. Foote Brothers rents canoes on the Ipswich River. Families flock to Salisbury Beach State Reservation for swimming, fishing, boating, and camping. Whale watching trips leave from Gloucester and Newburyport.

SEASIDE ARTS

The region has long inspired artists. Winslow Homer and Fitz Henry Lane painted at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester; their work is on display at the Cape Ann Historical Museum. In Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum showcases two centuries of art, architecture, and culture. And every summer, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival presents nationally-acclaimed concerts in an intimate setting.

WHAT’S NEW?

Check out the new North of Boston Seafood Trail

Want to visit both Salem and Boston? Take to the high seas aboard the Nathaniel Bowditch, which offers eight round trips daily in the summertime between the Blaney Street Dock in Salem and Central Wharf in Boston.

North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau