Back from Boston-had a blast. This trip report is a long one because we did a lot. We still didn%26#39;t get to everything we wanted!
Let me just say, straight up, the people of Boston are by far the most kind, helpful and friendly people we have ever met anywhere!
Friday 3/27-Arrived in Boston!!
Landed at Logan around 9:00 p.m. EST from San Francisco. A van driver offered us a ride to the hotel for $25-sold. He was a very interesting and kind man from Palestine, we enjoyed talking to him about his views on the world. He also told us all about the Big Dig and we saw the last remaining pole thing that held up the expressway.
Checked in to the Intercontinental (I just wrote the review-should be up in a day or so) swift and easy, dumped the bags and went in search of something to eat. A pedi cab driver (the only one we saw the whole time actually!) pointed us in the direction of Faneuil Hall. LOTS of people out and about that evening. We ended up in the Hard Rock because everywhere else we tried to go-you needed to be over 21 to get in and we have an 11 year old. Hard Rock was the Hard Rock-same as ever but just fine for our needs.
Saturday March 28-Trolley Tour
We had chosen the Old Town Trolley because we could get on and off as much as we wanted. Not just once at each stop or sitting for a whole tour such as a Duck Tour. We bought our tickets on line from their website, which saved us a couple bucks and allowed us to print the tickets and get on at any stop rather than go to a ticket booth. We really liked the tour. We walked between some of the stops and then would hop back on-we ended up with 4 different drivers-Christian was our favorite!
We had lunch at the Blackstone Grill. My husband said the chowder was really good. I am VERY allergic to shellfish and they had to make up a menu item for me to avoid any cross contamination (things fried in the same oil etc.) they were very accomodating and thorough which I appreciated!!
The trolley tour gave us an overview of the city so we%26#39;d know which sites we would want to revisit. USS Constitution was great with an informative tour. The last trolley stop pick up was at 4 and we were out in Copley and it was just starting to rain so we were glad to have the transportation back! We had dinner in the bar at McCormick and Schmidt again in Faneuil Hall (easy walk from the hotel). We just had salads but they were good and the service was good. The NCAA game was playing (in the bar and just down the street at the TD Banknorth Center) and when it finished, Faneuil Hall got really crowded again-it was great to see all those people out having fun.
Sunday March 29-Taking the T
Raining pretty good so we decided to master the Boston Subway System-the T. After we stood in South Station looking stupid for about 5 seconds, a really nice man came along and explained the difference between a ticket and a Charlie Pass, a Charlie Card etc. He helped us buy a card and showed us how to tap it on the card reader to open the gate and off we went. I am sure you (and potential we) could figure the pay system out fairly easily. It%26#39;s not complicated, the instructions and maps are easy to use and we got where we wanted to go. It is easier (ticket wise) than our local BART system. We went to the shops at Prudential and looked around-impressive mall if you are into shopping but it%26#39;s kind of generic you could find the same conglomeration of stores in any large city. If you are from somewhere more rural and enjoy shopping, you might want to spend some time here. We got back on the T and went to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. WOW what an amazing place. It is fashioned after a 15th Century Venetian Palazzo and houses Mrs. Gardner%26#39;s amazing collection of art. It%26#39;s a very unique museum and we found it very enjoyable and interesting. The $4.00 audio tour was helpful. That night we decided to wander around the North End until we found something that looked good and we ended up at Artu! YUM What a great restaurant, the food was delicious and the service was just delightful-we had a great time and a wonderful meal.
Monday, March 30-Concord and Lexington
We rented a car from Enterprise at the Government Center and headed out to Concord. We got a little lost because in the direction we were going there were no signs for 128. Eventually we learned (from a bartender) that 95/128 are one in the same-well you know who wouldn%26#39;t know that?? TOURISTS!! how about a freakin%26#39; sign! No big deal, we found our way to the Concord Museum. This museum is not just focused on the Revolutionary War but the history of the area in terms of it%26#39;s literary relevance and the history of the area in general. The highlight for me was the Presidential china on display. Really cool thing to see! We went to the Orchard House (our daughter%26#39;s 5th grade class had just finished reading Little Women). They have a good informative short movie (free!) that is shown in the gift shop. We went to the Old North Bridge, the Minute Man Monument and the Visitors Center in Lexington. The visitors center at Lexington has a great multi media presentation that is very informative- in retrospect we should have started here and we would have better known what we were looking at in the other spots. It is something else to look at these places and think of America%26#39;s beginnings. Very humbling.
We had lunch in Concord at Helen%26#39;s-it was really good.
We returned to Boston and took the car back and the good people at Enterprise drove us back to our hotel-we had been walking in the rain all day and I think they felt sorry for us-we looked like drowned rats!
Back at the hotel-we were really wishing they had a hot tub, we were soaked and freezing but no such luck-instead we had a glass of wine. We cleaned up and it stopped raining long enough for us to walk to the TDBanknorth Center to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Thanks to the forum here and Mahj-we got a good deal on some tickets. My husband was not excited about seeing the Globetrotters-but we ended up having an absolute blast! They were hilarious and very entertaining and our little girl loved it too. By the time the game was over-we ran into the same problem we had on our first night-the restaurants were all 21 and over. We ended up at the Hard Rock again. .
Tuesday, March 31-The Freedom Trail
We walked to the Common and got a $3 map of the Freedom Trail at the Visitors Center. You don%26#39;t need a map to follow the trail because you can just follow the line in the road-but we found it helpful to know what we were looking at on each stop.
We walked every inch of that Freedom Trail including Charlestown the 294 steps up the Bunker Hill Monument. The Freedom Trail is awesome-what a fantastic idea-every school kid should go to Boston and live this history.
We stopped in the North End at Mike%26#39;s Pastry and had our first ever Canolli-pretty yummy. Left the husband at Union Oyster house and we did the African American Freedom trail which is inspiring in it%26#39;s own right as well as the Holocaust Monument. I don%26#39;t think children these days understand how generations of Americans have fought so hard for their freedom and how important it is to maintain and respect these rights. Our daughter was very moved by what she learned this day.
We made our way back through the Common and the Public Garden-they are getting ready for Spring and had drained the little lake but it was still really pretty. That night was our last so we went back to the North End again, with no plan in mind. (took a cab this time!) We had a drink and an appetizer at Bacco and then wandered around a little bit and found Ristorante Nico. . It%26#39;s a fun little Italian place that has a disco concept (disco balls and disco music) Such nice people working there-I can%26#39;t even beging to tell you-we felt like family. The waiter put on a funny music video from Shrek for our daughter. We stayed there for a long time and shared spaghetti and meatball-one giant meatball that was the most delicious thing ever. mmmmmmmmm
Do yourself a favor and go there!
What we didn%26#39;t get to: Fenway Park behind the scenes tour, Mapparium, Harvard Square
What we learned: Lots of restaurants turn in to bars after 8:30-we never really adjusted to east coast time and we ate every meal pretty late and some nights it limited our dinner choices.
Also, some places closed on Sunday. Take the T it%26#39;s cheap and easy and goes everywhere you want to go.
that%26#39;s it for Boston-the next morning we left for Cape Cod which will be a different trip report in their forum but not today . . I think I just gave myself carpal tunnel
Cheers to you Boston, all you wonderful nice people, delicious food and awe-inspiring sights. Oh, and the Globetrotters!
Trip Report (It's a looooooong one!)Thank you for your detailed trip report. Sorry about the (lack of) road signs in Boston. We do that on purpose to confuse visitors (and the occasional locals). You did a lot on the trip and I%26#39;m glad you enjoyed your time here.
Trip Report (It's a looooooong one!)Great trip report, Maui! I really liked your description of your dinner at Ristorante Nico. And sorry about that sign thing - but good for you that you braved the craziness of driving out of the city and made it back to tell us all about it!
Excellent TR very detailed glad you enjoyed yourselves in Boston thanks for sharing.
Thanks for a great trip report Maui! You did quite a bit. Glad you had fun.
Good point about the Fanuiel Hall Restaurants ... never really thought about it cuz we don%26#39;t eat that late w/ the kids --- they%26#39;re on East Coast time ; ) but even when we travel within the time zone, we often find ourselves eating later than usual ....
Maui4us,
Enjoyed your report. Will be visiting Boston in May so reading your experiences makes me very impatient for the day to arrive. One question - is it really cheaper to buy the trolley tour online compared to at the ticket booth?
I read every word!!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and hopefully we%26#39;ll see you back here sometime.
Quick question re: Old Town trolley. Did you have to wait long to be picked up at the stops? And what made one driver stand out amongst the rest?
Thanks for the trip report.
Ristorante Nico sounds like a lot of fun. I never heard of it but it is now on my list of places that I must try!
I am interested in reading your InterContinental review when it is posted, I just stayed there this past weekend.
I just read your excellent review on the InterContinental. I also booked through Hotwire ($117). We were on the 12 floor, too, but we had a very nice view of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. We were lucky to have hot water for great showers and in the gigantic tub. I guess the hotel was all about service and not for the ';Self-Service'; type of person - I agree with you about no coffee maker in the room, too. I 100% agree about your complaint of no information in the room. My minor complaint is that you needed to ask the Concierge basic questions because there was no info book in the room (as you wrote in your review ) Another minor complaint was that the beds seem to be a bit on the small side. I thought the pool area was odd, no direct access from the changing rooms to the pool. You needed to walk pass through the exercise room to the pool.
Overall we enjoyed The InterContinental, especially at the fantastic rate we paid.
Thanks for the nice comments! Here are the answers to the questions
on www.trolleytours.com you will save about $3.00 per ticket on the Old Town Trolley. But the real perk was that we just had to take our printed receipt to any stop and give it to the driver rather than going to a ticket booth and starting there.
What made Christian our favorite was that he seemed to have a lot of interesting information to share-they were all really good though-funny and informative.
oops left one answer out.
No we did not have to wait long between trolleys. At Charlestown we fell into a group of about 30-40 tourists. This was the only time we had to wait more than 5 minutes or so-because the one group took up a lot of space. The driver radioed another trolley and they came right away to get the rest of us. Had we been anywhere other than Charlestown we probably would have just walked to the stop behind us. That%26#39;s the nice thing about this tour-getting on and off anywhere as much as you want. . hope that helps!
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