Boston’s Best Attractions 2012

BEST 100-YEAR-OLD BASEBALL PARK
Fenway Park, Boston
The oldest active Major League field, Fenway turns 100 this season and has earned the right to be quirky. The 37-foot wall in left field (“the Green Monster”) is an artifact of the design constraints of the 1912 lot–likewise, the short right-field foul line that ends at Pesky’s Pole. A park tour is offered daily in season. Lansdowne St. 888-733-7696 (tickets), 617-226-6666 (tours); boston.redsox.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bos

BEST NEW WINGS
Fenway Museums,Boston
The museum quarter of the Fenway has been one big construction site for the last few years, but now that the dust has settled, the wait has proven worthwhile. The Museum of Fine Arts has added an American wing and repurposed its 1981 addition as the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, while the nearby Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has leapt into the 21st century with a new building to augment its stately Fenway Court with modernist space for contemporary art and concerts. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., 617-267-9300; mfa.org. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, 617-566-1401; gardnermuseum.org

BEST ROCK & ROLL SNEAKERS
Converse Store,Boston
Born in Boston and back again, Chuck Taylors rule the streets. And then, you also have to know that rockers and rappers from new to old (that’s Royce da 5’9″ to half the Stones) would rather go barefoot than be caught without their Converse customs on. It might be the hype, but it’s also the bomb. Converse the store is getting it on. Check it out. 348 Newbury St. 617-424-5400; converse.com

BEST NEW MUSEUM
Tea Party Ships & Museum,Boston
The image of rabble-rousing patriots dressing up in Indian garb and tossing British tea into the harbor to protest the king’s tax policies continues to resonate nearly 240 years later. A lightning bolt in 2001 and a fire in 2007 destroyed the old ship and museum devoted to this singular event in U.S. history, but a new museum and three replica ships will open on June 24 of this year to put the Tea Party literally on the map again. Congress Street Bridge. 617-737-3317; bostonteapartyship.com

BEST SKY SHOW
Hayden Planetarium,Boston
Take a trip that is literally out of this world, as you experience roaming the universe in a space ship. The Museum of Science spent $9 million to bring the Hayden Planetarium into the digital age with a state-of-the-art Zeiss Starmaster projector, currently one of only two in the country. The special effects and brilliant star fields are worth every penny. 1 Science Park. 617-723-2500; mos.org

BEST OUTDOOR SHOPPING
Sowa Open Market,Boston
It’s one-stop shopping: Artisans making everything from jewelry to leather accessories to glassware pitch their tents in the parking lot between Harrison Avenue and Albany Street. Even the Fashion Truck shows up, with walk-in couture. Some half-dozen food trucks also serve the market, and a separate farmers’ market sells seasonal produce. Antiques and collectibles also available. 460 Harrison Ave. 800-403-8305; sowaopenmarket.com