Cambridge Guide: Harvard, MIT and Harvard Square

Cambridge is a separate city across the Charles River, but for visitors it's part of any Boston trip. It is home to two of the most famous universities in the world, Harvard and MIT, which have very different characters: one red brick and ivy, the other concrete, glass and invention. The Red Line gets you there in about fifteen minutes from downtown.

Harvard

Get off at Harvard station and you're in Harvard Square. Harvard Yard, the old heart of the university founded in 1636, is through the gates across the street. Walk under the elms past Massachusetts Hall, built in 1720, and the statue of John Harvard, whose foot students tell you not to rub (they know what happens to it at night). The Widener Library, with its wide steps, faces Memorial Church across the Yard. Free student-led tours start from the Smith Campus Center and must be booked online in advance. They tell the stories better than any sign.

The Harvard Art Museums, under one glass roof designed by Renzo Piano, have a fine collection of European, American and Asian art. The Harvard Museum of Natural History is best known for its Glass Flowers, thousands of botanical models made by a father and son in Germany, so detailed it's hard to believe they aren't real.

Harvard Square

Independent bookshops, cafés and street musicians, though chain stores have taken over some of the old corners. The Harvard Book Store and the Coop are the places to browse. Walk down to the river for the view of the boathouses, especially during the Head of the Charles regatta in October.

MIT

Take the Red Line two stops towards Boston to Kendall/MIT, or walk along Massachusetts Avenue. MIT's campus is a gallery of modern architecture: the Great Dome, the brick Chapel by Eero Saarinen, and Frank Gehry's tilting Stata Center. Outdoor sculptures by Henry Moore and Alexander Calder are scattered around, and the MIT Museum by Kendall Square shows robots, holograms and the university's odder inventions.

How to spend the day

Start at Harvard in the morning, have lunch around Harvard Square, then take the Red Line to Kendall for MIT in the afternoon. Finish with a walk across the Harvard Bridge to Back Bay at sunset, with the Boston skyline ahead of you. Our things to do list covers the rest of the city, and our where to stay guide explains when to stay in Cambridge instead of Boston.