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One day in Boston - what to do

Ronsangel

By Ronsangel,
in East Coast Departures

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Ronsangel

Ronsangel

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We will be driving to Boston (well Cambridge) on Friday from Ontario, Canada, and are leaving Sunday on the Carnival Glory.

 

Decided to stay in Cambridge at the Kendall Hotel as Saturday morning will start at the MIT Museum (hubby's request). From there, we were thinking about purchasing tickets for the Old Town Trolley to see Boston, but are wondering if anyone has opinions or ideas for a better way to see the town and spend the day?

 

Not looking for anything in particular...not baseball fans, not history buffs...just want to feel like we saw Boston. Might do some shopping. Definitely want some yummy food.

 

Any suggestions for what to do on our one day in town before we sail out?

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LizG12

LizG12

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if you're not against taking public transportation, take the train from the hotel (if I looked up the right hotel, you're walking distance to the train - www.mbta.com ) to Park St - you'll be walking distance from Downtown Crossing (shopping), the State House (not sure if/when they have tours), the Boston Common & Boston Gardens (not the same place where the hockey & basketball play), Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, City Hall (not sure about tours). Quincy Market has restaurants, and across the street (more or less) is the North End which is the Italian district.

 

Copley Square (also easily accessible on the train, but not a short walk from Park St) has the John Hancock tower (the tall glass building if you've seen pictures of the Boston skyline) and the Prudential (the other tall building). The Prudential has a shopping center, and I think they've re-opened the viewing station near the top of the building.

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Ronsangel

Ronsangel

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Great suggestions...thank you all! All of those places are certainly ones we've looked at and heard of. Thought a hop on, hop off might be easiest to get around while learning a little something at the same time. Looks like the T is pretty easy to navigate though, so might give that a shot. Appreciate all of your help!

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LizG12

LizG12

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Boston is a walking city - if you take the train to Copley Square or the Prudential (basically opposite sides of the same "square") you can walk between the two, then walk a couple of blocks to Newbury St. Walk down (and shop :) ) Newbury St. You'll end at the Boston Gardens. Walk through there, see the swan boats (maybe ride the boats), walk through Boston Common. Go across Tremont and down one of the small streets to Downtown Crossing. Head left to Government Center, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market. Then walk across to the North End, and take the train back to the hotel.

 

if you don't want to walk that much (it's going to be hot this weekend!), you can pick up trains in Copley, the end of Newbury St, Park St, Downtown Crossing, Government Center... You're probably not going to be more than a couple of blocks from a train station at any time.

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HardToPort

HardToPort

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We will be driving to Boston (well Cambridge) on Friday from Ontario, Canada, and are leaving Sunday on the Carnival Glory.

 

Decided to stay in Cambridge at the Kendall Hotel as Saturday morning will start at the MIT Museum (hubby's request). From there, we were thinking about purchasing tickets for the Old Town Trolley to see Boston, but are wondering if anyone has opinions or ideas for a better way to see the town and spend the day?

 

Not looking for anything in particular...not baseball fans, not history buffs...just want to feel like we saw Boston. Might do some shopping. Definitely want some yummy food.

 

Any suggestions for what to do on our one day in town before we sail out?

 

Hi London!

 

Cambridge, Ontario here. I cruised out of Boston in June with my Dad and we spent a weekend. If I only had a day here's what I'd do. Take transit downtown to the Faneuil Hall area and walk to the water. Across from Legal Seafoods is the water taxi area. Grab the water taxi that goes to the Charlestown Navy Yards and go see the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) and take a walk up to the Warren Tavern, a very famous bar where Paul Revere once spoke. Have a beer, maybe walk to Bunker Hill. All told this won't take more than 2-3 hours. Then water taxi back to Boston.

 

The water taxi is only $3 pp each way but offers beautiful views of the harbour.

 

Once back in the harbour area go to Faneuil for a little shopping and a cold drink and / or a bite to eat. They have amazing street musicians that you can see from a bar called "Dick's". People watch and soak it in. You can't beat Legal Seafoods for dinner and they have a "casual", sushi and "fine dining" restaurant in the same building so there's something for everyone.

 

In Saint John walk up the hill to the market area and have a bite to eat and a beer at Billy's Seafood, It's my favourite maritime haunt and regulars can be very entertaining.

 

Safe travels!

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Ronsangel

Ronsangel

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Thanks everyone. Leaning toward taking the T and winging it since it seems pretty easy to get around. We don't live in a subway city, so a little nervous about knowing where we're going and when we need to switch lines, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

 

Thinking about walking around Cambridge first ... mostly MIT ... then taking the T into the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area, and deciding what to do from there. Sounds like the North End is the place to end our evening for dinner, then we just need to find the T to take us back to our hotel! Worst case....let's say we're exhausted and lost...would a taxi from the north end to cambridge be crazy expensive??

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sail7seas

sail7seas

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Thanks everyone. Leaning toward taking the T and winging it since it seems pretty easy to get around. We don't live in a subway city, so a little nervous about knowing where we're going and when we need to switch lines, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

 

Thinking about walking around Cambridge first ... mostly MIT ... then taking the T into the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area, and deciding what to do from there. Sounds like the North End is the place to end our evening for dinner, then we just need to find the T to take us back to our hotel! Worst case....let's say we're exhausted and lost...would a taxi from the north end to cambridge be crazy expensive??

 

 

In the evening, after dinner, a taxi from North End to your hotel should not cost much more than $10 - $12 plus tip. Could be less. :)

 

Edited by sail7seas
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Ronsangel

Ronsangel

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In the evening, after dinner, a taxi from North End to your hotel should not cost much more than $10 - $12 plus tip. Could be less. :)

 

 

Oh wow...that's not expensive at all! Ok, how about to/from Faneuil Hall? Would that be much more?

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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Thanks everyone. Leaning toward taking the T and winging it since it seems pretty easy to get around. We don't live in a subway city, so a little nervous about knowing where we're going and when we need to switch lines, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

 

Thinking about walking around Cambridge first ... mostly MIT ... then taking the T into the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area, and deciding what to do from there. Sounds like the North End is the place to end our evening for dinner, then we just need to find the T to take us back to our hotel! Worst case....let's say we're exhausted and lost...would a taxi from the north end to cambridge be crazy expensive??

 

If you do the North End, you will think that the only thing they do there is eat out and bake. There are more restaurants there than you can shake a stick at, and I've never been to a bad one.

 

If you are looking to take some nice Cannolis or Italian cookies onboard for embarkation lunch/snack, there are quite a lot of bakeries centered around Hanover Street. Mike's is where the tourists go, Modern is where the suburbanites go because Mike's is full of tourists, but Bova's (couple of blocks off Hanover) is where the locals all go.

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Nitemare

Nitemare

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If you do the North End, you will think that the only thing they do there is eat out and bake. There are more restaurants there than you can shake a stick at, and I've never been to a bad one.

 

If you are looking to take some nice Cannolis or Italian cookies onboard for embarkation lunch/snack, there are quite a lot of bakeries centered around Hanover Street. Mike's is where the tourists go, Modern is where the suburbanites go because Mike's is full of tourists, but Bova's (couple of blocks off Hanover) is where the locals all go.

 

Nice summary

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gubby

gubby

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We were in Boston a couple of years ago for 2 days before a cruise. We walked the Freedom Trail then and toured old Ironsides. It was such a lovely time that lately we have been talking about returning. After reading all these posts, I think that the time has come and we will drive to Boston in early September. Thanks all for rekindling some wonderful memories.

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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We were in Boston a couple of years ago for 2 days before a cruise. We walked the Freedom Trail then and toured old Ironsides. It was such a lovely time that lately we have been talking about returning. After reading all these posts, I think that the time has come and we will drive to Boston in early September. Thanks all for rekindling some wonderful memories.

 

Great time of the year. If you are over in Charlestown again, I highly recommend the Warren Tavern for either lunch or dinner.

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LizG12

LizG12

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Wow, I had no idea things were so close together! Can't wait to find our way around on Saturday!! Thanks to all of you for your info and help :)

 

bring an umbrella, they're predicting scattered storms.

 

By the way, most banks close early on Saturday (noon, 1pm) and not every bank does foreign to US money exchanges, so if you need to change dollars, either get there early, or make sure your bank cards works in the US. (When we went to Canada, using the machines to get Canadian dollars had lower fees than changing US$ to Canadian inside the bank. I don't know if it's the same going the other way.)

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Stevesan

Stevesan

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If you do the North End, you will think that the only thing they do there is eat out and bake. There are more restaurants there than you can shake a stick at, and I've never been to a bad one.

 

If you are looking to take some nice Cannolis or Italian cookies onboard for embarkation lunch/snack, there are quite a lot of bakeries centered around Hanover Street. Mike's is where the tourists go, Modern is where the suburbanites go because Mike's is full of tourists, but Bova's (couple of blocks off Hanover) is where the locals all go.

 

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli".:p

Edited by Stevesan
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