Boston Tourist Trap Tips by JessicaG

Oy--I feeling like everything is a tourist trap in Boston. It is a relatively small city, so when tourists come (mostly in the summer), the short list of 'places of interest' are all abuzz with tourists. By far the biggest tourist trap is the 'Cheers' on Beacon St. It is cool to walk by and see where the outside shots for the long-running U.S. sitcom Cheers were filmed. But the actual interior of this place is not the same as the actual Cheers (which was filmed in a studio in California somewhere) and should not be a major attraction on anyone's itinerary. Also, a lot of the restaurants in Boston are definite tourist traps--you will spend too much money for food that ain't that great, and you will probably wait in line to do so. In summer, the restaurants in the North End all have at least 40-minute waits for a table, so that you can shell $12 (minimum) for a plate of pasta and some sauce that costs the restaurant about $1 to make. Artu (the restaurant) is the worst offender, I think, because their portions are teeny and not very flavorful or interesting, yet expensive.

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