The Hamptons - as in Long Island? Do you have any idea how long a drive that is and I doubt you will find a room for 1 night only, especially at this late date. If you want beachh for a night ,there are way more places that are far closer to Boston.

It would take you HOURS to get from Boston to the Hamptons. You would have to drive to New London, CT, take a ferry, then drive to whichever Hampton you can find a room in. Google maps makes this a 5 1/2 hour trip, but that would have you making the ferry right on time.

You don't say when all this will be, but I would guess you are probably out of luck for finding anywhere you would want to stay before Labor Day. Most of the beaches are private or require a town parking permit (which your hotel will/should be able to give you -- be sure to ask) but I believe there are very few if any beaches within walking distance of most towns. There are, by the way, a bunch of towns, and you need to look at a map to familiarize yourself with them if you really want to try this.

You might do Rhode Island the weekend before the conference, flying into Green (PVD)as well as out of there. You could visit Providence, Tiverton, Newport, the South Coast, and maybe Westerly or even Mystic, Connecticut, before driving to Boston or giving up the car at PVD and taking the bus or train to Boston. Parking will cost you more than $40 a day in Boston, so givee this some thought. You won't need it while you are there or to go to Salem or Rockport.

Where is the conference? Where are you staying? What do you like? Knowing this, we can offer suggestions on what you might want to do in the time you have. The Paul Revere House itself takes about 45 minutes, but the entire Freedom Trail, which goes right in front is an all-morning walk.

Your second weekend, you can drive back to PVD and lose the car, then fly Cape Air to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket, where you won't need a car. Then you can fly back to PVD and home. Again, you will need reservations for the planes, and
for lodging, really through September and on weekends until mid-October.

Thank you so much for the replies! What an eye-opener! Our conference is on August 20 to 24, and we will be staying near Boston Logan airport. I am really interested in the itinerary you described Ackislander, of flying in and out of PVD. It looks like the Hamptons is out of the question then, with our time limitations. We do like to explore the towns, experience a clambake, eat some lobsters, go biking or walking. Forgive my naivete, we are in the very first stages of this trip, so nothing is etched in stone yet, and al suggestions would be very helpful!

Well, I think you first need to

1) get a map of the eater US
2) have a look at google maps or yahoo to get even some vague time about distances/travel times
3) give SOME consideration to the fact that you are interested in exclusive summer resorts in August when they are packed to the rafters
4) The Hamptons are on Long Island - a suburb of NY - not Boston - and to get there is about 6 hours driving time - plus a ferry trip of about 1.5 hours - which has to be reserved in advance (and they do fill up) in each direction with NO stops
5)are you aware Martha's Vineyard is an island - and that getting there is not just time-consuming - but flights or ferries need to be reserved far in advance?

I'm not aware of any places that are going to let you stay one week end night - usually they require at least two nights (Fri and Sat) and many places require a week at a time

Most people going to these places reserved many weeks - if not months - ago.

Decent places to stay will be very rare and definitely big budget

I think you need to do a lot of work TODAY and get reservations for SOME place - then you can look for alternate places you prefer. You also need to get TODAY reservations for whatever method you will use to get from the mainland to the Vineyard

I think you're saying that all your Boston and Salem sightseeing will be after 5 p.m. when the conference gets out.

Since the Hamptons are out, why don't you spend Saturday and Sunday exploring Boston and taking a day trip up to Salem. You can take a ferry there or the train. The sites on Boston's Freedom Trail are not open in the evening so you could at least visit some of the buildings on Saturday, including the Paul Revere House, and take the movie tour Saturday or Sunday (unless they run in the evening).

You can walk around the Harvard buildings in the evening but I'm pretty sure you need a Harvard ID to go into any. That evening you could have dinner in the Square.

Another night you could explore the North End and eat at one of the many Italian restaurants there. Back Bay and Copley Square are worth visiting and walking down Newbury St. to window shop and Commonwealth Ave. to admire the architecture. Combine that with the Public Garden, Boston Common, and Beacon Hill.

And then explore the waterfront and seaport area. The Boston Harbor Hotel has free summer entertainment, Mon.-Thurs., on their terrace. http://www.bhh.com/pdf/summer%20series_SM6.pdf

Is your hotel an airport hotel or right outside the airport? Most have shuttles to the nearest "T" stop. You can check the route planner at www.mbta.com

I think you should decide on one location for Friday and Saturday nights at the end of your trip.

Thanks for all of the replies, i've been doing research all morning and based on all the suggestions, will have to pare down so much more of the plans. Great advice, CW on the boston itineraries, and you're right, it is best to stick to one location for the friday and saturday at the end of the conference. Traffic is horrible, i found out, after 2 pm from Boston, so driving will not be an option. We could probably stay in Hyannis or Provincetown (take the bus from boston airport). I am looking for hotels in the hyannis or provincetown.I've never tried a B&B, and am open to these, since we don't have the kids. We could probably go to martha's vineyard the next day. But another option that caught my eye is flying into Martha's vineyard from boston, then staying there the entire time.

You could also take the bus to Falmouth or Wood's Hole to go to the Vineyard. At that time of year, you may run into places that will only rent for two nights, not one.

I wouldn't give up on driving there, leaving the car, and ferrying over to MV. Traffic at 2:00 on Friday to the Cape won't be terrible. Of course, flying would be much easier.

After a couple of days scrambling through itineraries and watching with horror as the plane ticket fares and hotel rates went high by the hour, it seemed, we finally have a more definite itinerary! Thank you again for the very helpful replies!
We will fly in to Providence airport from california and will stay at Warwick. The hotels in Newport are in the 1000s now, so we decided to opt for the really reasonable rates in Warwick. We will be taking the red-eye on Thursday night so will arrive in Warwick at 9 am Friday. We plan to rent a car from the airport then visit Newport throughout the day, and check out one of the mansions- i've read great reviews on Breakers. Then later in the afternoon we booked a schooner cruise in Newport, and after this plan to find some lobsters to eat, hahaha! Looking for suggestions on free public parking as well as good places for lobster on Friday night.
The next day, we are going to MV via the vineyard ferry on the first trip and will take the last trip back. WE plan to rent some bikes and just explore. Suggestions on where to rent bikes and have lunch at MV would be really great!
Then on Sunday we will head out to Boston. I don't have the logistics down on this one yet. Perhaps rent a car and drive, or take the train. The car seems attractive, as I have mentioned that we dont travel light.

We will stay the whole week in Boston for the conference and managed to snag one more night at our hotel near Boston logan airport at conference rate, so we will be staying on till saturday, and might take a day trip to salem on this day. Then we bid goodbye and leave for So Cal on Sunday morning.

Again, any and all suggestions I thirstily anticipate, and greatly appreciate.

I just found out that the Amtrak would have been a good option, would have taken about 40 minutes and 22 dollars each to get to Boston South Station, then Silverline Bus to Logan airport, then shuttle to the hotel. But they do not allow checked baggage, so I think we will just rent a car. Hopefully this will allow us to make leisurely stops along the way.

Don't let a lack of checked luggage stop you from taking AMTRAK, please! It's easy peasy, and there are no interesting places to stop between Warwick and Logan. (Yes, folks, I know, but there is no place worth spending time compared to getting to Boston and starting to do city things). You won't want to drive in Boston, and you can take a wonderful high speed ferry to Salem and come back on the commuter train to North Station.

The rest of your trip sounds eminently doable. I don't think there is much (any) free parking in the waterfront area of Newport, but the folks at your schooner trip may be able to tell you.

My cousins took the ferry from Quonset Point to the Vineyard last summer and found it a great way to go. I think you arrive in Oak Bluffs, which is not impressive at first but has a wonderful area of restored Victorian cottages.

The Vineyard is large enough that you may want to take the bus to Edgartown rather than bike. You could also get a sightseeing tour by bus that would take you to places like Gay Head and Menemsha as well as Edgartown, but do leave yourselves time to walk around.

Anecdote: You are Californians so you are car oriented. Friends moved from Boston to Montecito outside Santa Barbara. By the time the real estate agent showed them the third house with a three car garage, they began laughing hysterically. The real estate agent was puzzled; my friends said, "We have lived in Boston for sixteen years without a car. Now there is room for three!" And they were rich enough to have three Bentleys! It just never occured to them that having a car in the Back Bay (they owned a whole townhouse) was a good idea.

I'd make only one recommendation. If you want to rent bikes, I think you might do better either at Block Island or Nantucket, both of which are (in my opinion) more bike-friendly, particularly Block Island, which is closer to Warwick. Both are smaller than Martha's Vineyard, which can also be hilly and have more car traffic.

I'm also surprised that you can find a hotel in Newport for something cheaper than the "thousands". There are several modest hotels on the outskirts (not by the mansions, but further out). Though they may be fully booked by now.

As Doug says, there are a lot of the usual chain hotels in Portsmouth, adjacent to Newport. It's much more convenient to go to Newport from there. It's just down the street.

You can park at the garage near the visitor center. I don't think there is any free parking in downtown Newport anymore. Asking your cruise operator where to park is a good idea. Maybe they validate.

I don't quite understand your Amtrak comment about luggage. There are places to store your large pieces of luggage in each compartment (front or back). There are overhead racks and plenty of room at the seat for your carryon. Loads of people travel on the train with luggage.

Did you check out the Hyatt Regency Goat Island for your Newport stay?

There is a very nice, scenic bike trail on the Vineyard that runs from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown. If it's warm, you can just hop in the water at many spots along the trail. I don't know much about Warwick, but the Cape is one of the best beach/biking destinations on the east coast. There are many miles of paved rail trails that wind thru dunes, along the water and thru the woods on the Cape, and there are literally hundreds of miles of beaches of every description. This year, the water seems to be warmer normal, which makes for some good swimming. Unfortunately, the green head flies and ticks also seem to be worse this year!

Looks like your trip is shaping up nicely!

It's likely that hotels are cheap in Warwick because it's not particularly near anything other than the airport. Definitely look at hotels closer to Newport, with map "in hand". Portsmouth and Middletown are on the same island as Newport; also look at Jamestown on the other end of the bridge. And even towns in Massachusetts are a better bet than Warwick... The drive from the airport to Newport takes you right up on the edge of Massachusetts, and towns such as Swansea and Westport will have hotels/motels.

You're not going to want a car in Boston - but you could use it to get to Salem and then be able to explore nearby towns on Cape Ann as well. Rockport and Gloucester are fishing villages and have great lobster! It sounds like Amtrak's description is misleading: you can't *check* luggage like on a plane, but as long as you can drag it onboard, there is room and no limit on quantity or weight. (No security scan either-!)

There are a lot of good restaurants in Newport, but I've never thought to go there for lobster... I've enjoyed seafood at the Clarke Cooke House. My favorite restaurant in town is the Fluke Wine Bar & Kitchen. Both are on Bowen Wharf. For a real local, very casual meal, there are a number of clam shacks in the area. In Rhode Island: Evelyn's in Tiverton is the most popular, both with locals and as a result of the Food Network; Quitos is in Bristol, which is a very cute quaint town in and of itself; Flo's in Middletown will be closest to Newport; there's also Aunt Carrie's in Narragansett...

Thank you so much, Ackislander, Doug Stallings and cw for the tips about amtrak! As you say, ackislander, we californians are so car-oriented that the only time I have ever been on the train was to try the metrolink weekend train trip that courses through the beaches of SoCal and the only luggage we had were our swimsuits and beach paraphernalia!

I've looked into Martha's Vineyard Sightseeing Tours and will probably do the one-hour tour so that we have the rest of the day to just explore. The three-hour tour is tempting but we will get there by ten and it feels like we won't have too much time to relax. We head back to Quonset point at 7.

Since my hotel reservation is still cancellable, i shall look into the alternative areas that everyone has so generously listed, thank you so much! At first I thought of B&B's but my husband who is not especially chitchatty said he might be more comfortable in the anonymity of a hotel, rather than a B&B accommodation, hahaha! Most of the hotels in Newport are booked, alas, so like I said, I will look at the alternatives, including Hyatt Regency Goat Island, Happy Trvlr. Thanks also, ggreen for the list of potentials!

Thanks, zootsi for the bike info in MV, as well as the headsup on the ticks! And Doug Stallings, i'm tempted to bike in Block Island, since you mentioned it. I will research the logistics and determine if it is doable on the Sunday just before we leave for Boston. Since we will go by train, we might have more time and funds to check out one more place before Boston. But yes, I will consult the map, lest anyone shudder again at my bravado and geographic challenges!

Tonight i will also start choosing which restaurant to go to for restaurant week and hope that i can still get reservations to the good ones!

Thanks again for all the replies, I will be doing more research, and as usual, the suggestions are most welcome!!! What a lovely forum fodors.com provides. I wish i had more travel savvy so i can be as helpful to others as you all have been to me!

Oh my goodness, the pictures of Block Island are breath-taking!

ellacrostina, if you have a good rate for a hotel in Boston, consider taking the ferry from Boston to Provincetown for the day. You could rent bikes there and go out to the National Seashore in Provincelands and enjoy the unique town of Provincetown too.