New Bedford Whaling Museum

The centerpiece of New Bedford, this excellent, hands-on museum remembers the town's heyday as a whaling port. The museum occupies seven buildings situated between William and Union Sts. A 66ft skeleton of a blue whale and a smaller skeleton of a sperm whale welcome you at the entrance. To learn what whaling was all about, you need only tramp the decks of the Lagoda, a fully rigged, half-size replica of an actual whaling bark.