Boston is, in my experience, the worst place to drive a car in America. Traffic is terrible, the street layout is irrational, parking is nearly impossible, the Boston drivers behave as if there are no rules. I learned to always use taxicabs when there. Aside from that it's a very picturesque and historic city. If you want marvelous juxtapositions of the very old and the encroachment of the very new - it's a fertile environment. It's a good walking around town. A footnote: the city fathers claim that the swan boats in the park are copyrighted.