Experience the best of Cambridge

Cambridge lies across the Charles River from Boston and is home to Harvard University, founded in 1636, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard Yard, with its brick halls and elm-shaded lawns, sits beside Harvard Square, where bookshops, cafés and street musicians gather around the subway station. The city was named after Cambridge in England, where many early Puritan leaders studied.

Harvard's museums include the Harvard Art Museums and the Museum of Natural History, which shows the Glass Flowers, thousands of lifelike plant models made of glass. MIT has its own museum and a campus of notable modern buildings. The Longfellow House served as Washington's headquarters in 1775, and Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first garden cemetery in the United States, is a park of old trees and graves.

The Charles River path is busy with rowers, runners and cyclists, and the Head of the Charles regatta each October draws crews from many countries. Lexington and Concord, where the first fighting of the American Revolution took place in 1775, lie a short way north-west. New England clam chowder, lobster rolls and baked beans are regional classics. Snow muffles the Yard in winter, and the autumn leaves along the river turn deep red.