Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 2.5Few parks or trails are on the map in Boston
6 acres are parks and preserves, 3.9 per 1,000 residents. 45% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.3 miles of mapped trail cross Boston, 0.1 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 28% of U.S. towns. What drives it
How much outdoors does Boston have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Boston is ahead of 28% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; conserved land comes closest.
Few Georgia towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Boston’s 3% is ahead of 65% of Georgia towns, while its trails per square mile lead 35% of them.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
45 conserved acres
3% of Boston’s land. Who manages Boston’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 39 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 1 of 2 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Sports Complex Park Local Park | Town or city | 5 | Open |
1 places to go in Boston
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).
The best walking months in Boston: April and May
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 10.4 | 11.1 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 13.7 | 14.1 | 14.0 | 13.3 | 12.3 | 11.4 | 10.5 | 10.2 |
| High (°F) | 63 | 67 | 73 | 79 | 86 | 90 | 91 | 91 | 87 | 80 | 71 | 65 |
| Rain (in) | 4.8 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 3.7 |
November is the driest month (2.8 in) and July the warmest (highs of 91 °F). 6.1 inches fall in July, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 91 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Boston →
Questions about parks and trails in Boston
How much of Boston is conserved land?
3% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Georgia town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Boston?
163 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Boston or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 6 of them inside the city line.
How much outdoors does Boston have?
Ahead of 28% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Boston neighbors.
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →