Hi,
I’m from the UK, and my friends and I are doing a road trip across the US in the summer. We pass through Boston in late July. We’d love to soak up the university atmosphere in the city, eat some great food, visit some nice bars, and explore the nightlife. It would be great to hear your advice on where to go, what to see, and where to stay!
Thanks
Andy
When you visit Boston in July, Harvard’s campus will be in summer session which means that many of the students you will see on campus (perhaps more than an 1,000 of them) will be teenagers (ages 16-18) taking summer classes hoping that their experience will give them a leg-up in the applications process. So, if you chat-up a student on campus, please ask if they are a full time Harvard student or a high school student taking summer classes.
Secondly, be prepared for bus loads of tourists who will also be visiting Harvard and follow common courtesy: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/10/harvard-issues-new-rules-for-tourists-people-flock-yard/tmx0rejxnjkH9j3KNKsBEL/story.html
The legal drinking age in the US is 21. If you present a fake ID at a bar, be prepared to have it taken away. Many nightclubs do not even allow patrons under 21, so your activities may be limited due to your age.
In terms of what to do in Boston, Google is a wonderful tool and I suggest you use it. Here, I’ll get you started: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g60745-Activities-Boston_Massachusetts.html.
Hi there,
The reason I posted on here was that I was hoping people would have some real insights into how best to see the city (especially people who are the same age as us!). Google can only go so far, and I want to get opinions from people who know Boston inside out. So, please if anyone has any recommendations it would be greatly appreciated!!
By the way, we have no intention in chatting up teenagers, and we are all above the age of 21 so any alcohol consumption will be completely legal. The only illegal activities will be our terrible dancing and bad British humor.
Thank you!!
Do not try and drive around Boston or Cambridge! Use the T subway.
@Andy4244: FWIW: Harvard students are generally too busy with their academics and on-campus extracurricular activities to do much exploring of Boston. When my daughter attended Harvard, she got into Boston may once or twice a semester and did the usual things you could find through through a Google search. I imagine many Harvard students are the same. So, I’m not sure what you might actually find out through a thread like this unless you hit upon a “townie” who knows the city inside and out.
Thanks Tom - any advice like this is really useful for us, as we’ve never even driven in the States before!
Walking around Harvard Yard and the Upperclassmen houses including the Quadrangle is interesting and fun. If you cross the Charles River you can see most of Harvards athletic facilities and the Harvard Business School which is beautiful.
Cambridge is a great place to walk, you can walk to MIT and see that Campus, there are many great shops and restaurants. The Charles Hotel for brunch on a Sunday is quite the experience, expensive but you have never seen so much delicious food in your life. Toscano’s and the Beat Hotel are two restaurants worth visiting. There are many many great restaurants.
There are lots of things worth seeing in Boston. Quincy Market, the harbor area is a lot of fun in the summer months, close by is the North End which is the Italian section of Boston, so many great restaurants! Regina’s Pizzaria is a must if you like pizza, the best I have ever had.
Cambridge and Boston are great areas to explore and very easy to walk in. Uber is a great way to get around less expensively.
I can’t imagine that you will not thoroughly enjoy yourselves.
It’s a very walkable area with good transportation (and a huge pain in the neck to drive around) so I would NOT get a car for navigating Boston and Cambridge. Definitely spend some time in Harvard Square in Cambridge, and if you’re there on a sunny Sunday, you may discover that Memorial Drive, which runs next to the Charles River, is closed, making the area next to the area relaxing and festive. Tripadvisor or chowhound may point you to some good food options, but the Square caters to a student population, so you should find good places just by wandering around.
I’m less clear on where the downtown Boston young/student hangouts are these days, but maybe someone else can chime in. It might help to post this question in a general travel forum rather than “Ivy League,” because the hangouts in Boston will generally be populated by kids from colleges OTHER than Harvard.
Mr. Bartley’s Burgers, a few blocks from the Harvard T station, is not to be missed. Google it and you’ll see why.
What grade are you?
The Harvard students I know go to Boston all the time (mainly for concerts at NEC and museums). Not relevant to your questions but relevant to this forum 
These things are individual and others would have other suggestions.
Harvard Square, yes, and the river. Harvard museums. Shay’s, Daedelus, Wagamama’s. But also check out Inman. Lilypad, great ice cream, S & S. In Central Square the Middle East, a club.
In Boston, Charles Street, Beacon Hill, Public Garden (swan boats), Newbury Street, Copley Square, North End (LIttle Italy) for restaurants. ICA, MFA, Berklee, NEC, BoCo.
Air bnb’s tend to be booked up.
Do the Freedom Trail self-guided walk in Boston to see where the British Colonists transitioned to becoming American Revolutionaries by tossing tea into the harbor to protest the excessive taxation. And have a Sam Adams beer (or tour of the brewery) to toast the New World. 
As the previous posters have said, you’re going to have an amazing time because Boston and Harvard are incredibly beautiful! Here are some of things you could do at Harvard:
Here are some things you can do in Boston:
Make sure you have enough money on your ticket for the T, because some of the smaller stations do not have machines to let you re-charge it.
When you go, the Harvard Summer School (for high school and college students) will be in session, so you’ll be able to get feel of what it’s like with Harvard students on campus. Yes, there are that many tourists all the time. No, do not touch the foot of the John Harvard Statue because immature male students do pee on it (and the school claims to clean it, but I have never seen it happen). Also, enjoy the sight of tourists taking photos of the squirrels on their iPads! I wish I could experience this amazing place all over again. Have the best time!
As a follow along to tourists “taking photos of the squirrels,” if you look closely, you’ll probably see some bunny rabbits around HBS and the Yard!
Public Garden is prettier than Boston Common and has swan boats
http://www.secretboston.net/100-secret-things-to-do-in-boston/
I’m a frumpy mom who lives in Hawaii and is also a terrible dancer. I got the above link from my much cooler offspring who can’t wait to go to college in Boston in the fall, so no personal knowledge is being bestowed.
Enjoy your adventure!
On our last visit to Boston, we got cannolis at Maria’s Pastry Shop in the North End - not far from the Haymarket T-station. Delicious!!! We rode the T everywhere and felt completely safe.
I’m going that way for the first time too this summer; thanks for ideas!
OP: if you’re traveling the US, the best website to explore by far that tells SO SO much is tripadvisor dot com; and look at the forum sections for every state, and then every city. @gibby mentioned it too earlier on. They have very active and helpful forums that share all sorts of advice and ideas. I think planning trips and researching is so much fun!
Be prepared to hear English spoken like never before…All the jokes are all too true.
Mike’s Pastry, or Maria’s?
The whole Boston accent thing is so annoying. Most people don’t speak with anything resembling the Kennedy’s or whatever the heck the Boston accent is supposed to be