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Boston-thanks for the suggested trip!
Boston-thanks for the suggested trip!
A few months ago I posted asking for suggestions on 3-4 day getaways to a small/medium city that would be easy to walk around, with lots to see and do and of course good food! I received many great suggestions and will try out several of them I'm sure in the coming year, but Boston was the pick this time.
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
After the help I received (thanks for all the suggestions, LiamsAunt!) I thought it only right to post a trip report:
I chose Boston primarily for ease of flight-not too many places can be reached nonstop from Buffalo so that was a big plus. I liked the short flight so much that we're talking about doing it for a Maine trip. Maine's been on our short list for a long time (those darn STJ vacations keep interfering!) but with the ease of flying into Boston and then getting a car this would be very do-able.
Boston has a unique feature from their airport-you can fly in and then take a water taxi where you want to go. How fun is that? We flew in on a beautiful morning, took the shuttle bus from the airport to the taxi dock and the boat was waiting for us. It's $10/person one way or $17 r/t.
Researched where to stay and chose the Boston Yacht Haven Inn. We're small town farmers (vineyard) and readily admit to not being comfortable in a big city "closed in" environment. Since we love being by the water this place worked out perfectly for us, and while we had a few hiccups while there, it was great and I highly recommend.
We'd reserved a room with a deck and totally enjoyed watching the boats/yachts come and go and the planes flying in and out of Logan. It was fun! Plus we'd google the yacht names to see who owned what, many are charters-wow are they a lot to charter! $100k +/week.
We were quite close to the North End which is heavily Italian so ate at many great Italian restaurants. We did take one of the trolleys around just to get our bearings, and walked and walked and walked everywhere else. We also ate seafood, though have to say we preferred the Italian restaurants.
Boston has several nice greenway areas, with water features, including the well known swan boats-these guys must have some serious thigh muscles to paddle them!
Several beautiful rose gardens:
Of course there's the Freedom Trail and the history too:
And the Garden and the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge:
Saw this goliath on the water one day-absolutely HUGE:
We took the water taxi back to the airport too :
Overall, we enjoyed Boston. I think if we hadn't stayed where we did we might have been more claustrophobic. We went to Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall one morning and that was too chaotic for us, too much going on. So having the water area/deck was a really nice breather for us. Absolutely loved the food and the goings on of the North End. On the down side was somewhat surprised at the amount of litter in the parks, and actually didn't think people were too friendly. I supposed they get tourist overload, but we didn't run into too many overly friendly servers, store people, etc. Probably just like on the islands, since you are on vacation and relaxed, you expect others to be relaxed and friendly too, but it’s not their vacation after all!
So our Boston trip was finished; now I will have to take some of the other suggestions and plan some getaways for next year. Thanks again!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
After the help I received (thanks for all the suggestions, LiamsAunt!) I thought it only right to post a trip report:
I chose Boston primarily for ease of flight-not too many places can be reached nonstop from Buffalo so that was a big plus. I liked the short flight so much that we're talking about doing it for a Maine trip. Maine's been on our short list for a long time (those darn STJ vacations keep interfering!) but with the ease of flying into Boston and then getting a car this would be very do-able.
Boston has a unique feature from their airport-you can fly in and then take a water taxi where you want to go. How fun is that? We flew in on a beautiful morning, took the shuttle bus from the airport to the taxi dock and the boat was waiting for us. It's $10/person one way or $17 r/t.
Researched where to stay and chose the Boston Yacht Haven Inn. We're small town farmers (vineyard) and readily admit to not being comfortable in a big city "closed in" environment. Since we love being by the water this place worked out perfectly for us, and while we had a few hiccups while there, it was great and I highly recommend.
We'd reserved a room with a deck and totally enjoyed watching the boats/yachts come and go and the planes flying in and out of Logan. It was fun! Plus we'd google the yacht names to see who owned what, many are charters-wow are they a lot to charter! $100k +/week.
We were quite close to the North End which is heavily Italian so ate at many great Italian restaurants. We did take one of the trolleys around just to get our bearings, and walked and walked and walked everywhere else. We also ate seafood, though have to say we preferred the Italian restaurants.
Boston has several nice greenway areas, with water features, including the well known swan boats-these guys must have some serious thigh muscles to paddle them!
Several beautiful rose gardens:
Of course there's the Freedom Trail and the history too:
And the Garden and the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge:
Saw this goliath on the water one day-absolutely HUGE:
We took the water taxi back to the airport too :
Overall, we enjoyed Boston. I think if we hadn't stayed where we did we might have been more claustrophobic. We went to Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall one morning and that was too chaotic for us, too much going on. So having the water area/deck was a really nice breather for us. Absolutely loved the food and the goings on of the North End. On the down side was somewhat surprised at the amount of litter in the parks, and actually didn't think people were too friendly. I supposed they get tourist overload, but we didn't run into too many overly friendly servers, store people, etc. Probably just like on the islands, since you are on vacation and relaxed, you expect others to be relaxed and friendly too, but it’s not their vacation after all!
So our Boston trip was finished; now I will have to take some of the other suggestions and plan some getaways for next year. Thanks again!
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cliffnchristi
- Posts: 162
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:33 pm
- Location: Virginia
Oh, we ate lots of places 
Compared Mike's to Modern Pastries, liked Mike's since they were easier to order for us newbies-having them all on display helped.
Tried to get into Neptune's Oyster, but too much of a wait. Since we weren't on a schedule we'd just find places that had tables open. We tend to eat early so that wasn't too difficult.
Not all North End, but tried:
Legal Seafood
Union Oyster House (historical purposes only)
Antico Forno-like that many of the restaurants have windows that fold open. Nice touch.
Assaggio
Summa Cantina
Max Brenner's-thumbs up on the chocolate, down on the rest of the food.
The Daily Catch looked interesting, but always had a HUGE line.
Would go back just to try out more restaurants!
Compared Mike's to Modern Pastries, liked Mike's since they were easier to order for us newbies-having them all on display helped.
Tried to get into Neptune's Oyster, but too much of a wait. Since we weren't on a schedule we'd just find places that had tables open. We tend to eat early so that wasn't too difficult.
Not all North End, but tried:
Legal Seafood
Union Oyster House (historical purposes only)
Antico Forno-like that many of the restaurants have windows that fold open. Nice touch.
Assaggio
Summa Cantina
Max Brenner's-thumbs up on the chocolate, down on the rest of the food.
The Daily Catch looked interesting, but always had a HUGE line.
Would go back just to try out more restaurants!
95 is always fun to drive in the summer, we have been driving at night (kids drive) and get to where we are going in the AM and sleep on the beach waiting for hotel roomPA Girl wrote:That hotel looks like the type of place we would like. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. After a horrible drive up and down 95 this Aug, flying to Boston and/or Maine sounds good to me!
I thought my husband was going to freak out! WTF is with the 80 mph sprint to a dead stop FOR NO REASON AT ALL!?!?! Repeat every 20 minutes....shoemak38 wrote:95 is always fun to drive in the summer, we have been driving at night (kids drive) and get to where we are going in the AM and sleep on the beach waiting for hotel room :roll:PA Girl wrote:That hotel looks like the type of place we would like. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. After a horrible drive up and down 95 this Aug, flying to Boston and/or Maine sounds good to me!
Years ago, we would make the trip several times a season. Friends have a house in RI and we would think nothing of leave after work on a Friday and drive home Sunday night, a 6+ hour trip each way. I don't know how we did it.
He has pestered about going to Maine and I kept saying I will only go if we can fly. After hour 5 of this last 95 trip, he agreed to my demands.
Glad you enjoyed Boston, I have to say I'm very partial to this city. I travel a lot for my job and Boston to me has a lot to offer when compared to other cities. Some more feedback for you:
The bridge you mention is more commonly called the Zakim bridge by locals, named after Lennie Zakim who was a local community activist. The most interesting thing about this bridge is that it is one of the largest "cable stay" bridges in the world. There are also two lanes cantilevered off the north side of the bridge, they always freak me out.
Agree that the north end is a lot of fun, I've very rarely had a bad meal there.
Really hope you got to walk through the residential areas of Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Areas like these distinguish Boston compared to other cities.......quiet tree lined residential sections right in the middle of the city.
Newbury St is also a very cool place to hang and shop, hope you made it there.
It's really a very easy city to explore, glad you had fun!
The bridge you mention is more commonly called the Zakim bridge by locals, named after Lennie Zakim who was a local community activist. The most interesting thing about this bridge is that it is one of the largest "cable stay" bridges in the world. There are also two lanes cantilevered off the north side of the bridge, they always freak me out.
Agree that the north end is a lot of fun, I've very rarely had a bad meal there.
Really hope you got to walk through the residential areas of Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Areas like these distinguish Boston compared to other cities.......quiet tree lined residential sections right in the middle of the city.
Newbury St is also a very cool place to hang and shop, hope you made it there.
It's really a very easy city to explore, glad you had fun!
Surfnh:
Thanks for clarifying the bridge name; I could only remember part of it. I think bridges can be so interesting and make such a "statement". Buffalo's been trying to update a bridge to Canada for years now and people can't agree on how to make it look. It's too bad; a signature bridge is so pretty.
We're early risers so we'd get up quite early and do our walking; we like watching places start up in the morning. We did walk up to Beacon St and around the houses up there. Saw several walking tours; we'd picked up a flyer on some but didn't have the timing for them. That's one thing we usually try to do whenever we visit a new place-take an architectural tour. It is a pretty area-I like to see what people do for plantings/flowers and such. I liked the Kennedy rose gardens by the water-they had labelled all the roses; I was disappointed they hadn't done that in the ones by the Commons-if you're a rose grower you like to see what you might want to grow on your own, so having them named helps a lot.
We did have fun!
Thanks for clarifying the bridge name; I could only remember part of it. I think bridges can be so interesting and make such a "statement". Buffalo's been trying to update a bridge to Canada for years now and people can't agree on how to make it look. It's too bad; a signature bridge is so pretty.
We're early risers so we'd get up quite early and do our walking; we like watching places start up in the morning. We did walk up to Beacon St and around the houses up there. Saw several walking tours; we'd picked up a flyer on some but didn't have the timing for them. That's one thing we usually try to do whenever we visit a new place-take an architectural tour. It is a pretty area-I like to see what people do for plantings/flowers and such. I liked the Kennedy rose gardens by the water-they had labelled all the roses; I was disappointed they hadn't done that in the ones by the Commons-if you're a rose grower you like to see what you might want to grow on your own, so having them named helps a lot.
We did have fun!
my own personal fun fact about Zakim and the bridge 
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/1703513/detail.html
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/1703513/detail.html