When Boston’s “festival market” opened in 1976, it quickly became a prototype for the concept. With shops, restaurants, food stalls, jugglers, and musicians, the indoor-outdoor Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market complex is a popular spot for a meal, shopping, and people-watching. 
 
Five buildings and the outdoor area around them make up the marketplace. The Greek Revival–style center building, called Quincy Market, has a long interior corridor that’s an enormous food court, with vendors such as Boston Chowda Co., Steve’s Greek Cuisine, and North End Bakery (with savory arancini—stuffed rice balls—in addition to sweet treats). On either side of the building, glass canopies cover restaurants, bars, and pushcarts that hold everything from crafts created by New England artisans to hokey souvenirs. Throughout the complex you’ll find a mix of chain stores and unique shops. One constant since the year after the original market at this location opened in 1826 is Durgin-Park, a traditional New England restaurant. Public restrooms are on the lower level.
 
Faneuil Hall itself is a colonial-era building where many of the great orators of America’s past inspired their listeners to rebellion. National Park Service rangers staff the first-floor visitor center and give brief talks in the second-floor Great Hall auditorium.