2.5 days in boston with daughter and visiting colleges
 

Hi. DD and I will be in Boston for the weekend of nov 9. we arrive around 6 on friday night, will tour tufts on sat and then have the rest of saturday and sunday until 5 to tour. freedom trail, shopping and some good food. what else? she really wants to shop! i guess gardens will be a dud bc it's winter. public transportation.

we have al dente booked for fri night. we want to try dim sum on sunday. favorites? dd won't eat red sauce also.

appreciate the help.

Hei la Moon in Boston is good for dim sum.

Your daughter might enjoy checking out Cambridge/Harvard Square even if she isn't interested in Harvard. There are lots of good university museums from anthropology to fine arts. Of course the MFA or Gardner museums in Boston are other possibilities.

Second Hei La Moon for traditional dim sum from carts. Taiwan Cafe and Gourmet Dumpling House are decent for xiao long bao, but no carts.

You mention public transport... if one of the stops is BC, bear in mind it takes forever to get there on the Green Line. And some of the other Boston area schools, like Brandeis, may require a car. Heck, Tufts is probably a 15-20 minute walk from the T.

I would make sure you have Uber or Lyft set up on your phone.

ETA: it looks like Tufts may be your only stop. I have a lot of friends that went there. Fantastic school. PM if you have questions.

Travelgourmet, thanks. Tufts is our only stop. We will have visited Brown before and Dartmouth after. How long should it take to get to Tufts door to door? Am from NYC but not familiar with the T.

also, what about good location for soup dumlings?

Is al dente a good choice for Italian? I tried to find a place that just wasn't red sauce.

Depends where exactly you are staying.

It is about 20-25 minutes from the Boston Common area to Davis Square T stop via public transit. From Davis to campus is roughly a 20 minute walk (no hills until you get to campus, so not a bad walk). The 94 and 96 buses are also options from Davis to Tufts.

If you took an Uber or Lyft from Boston to campus, you are probably looking at under half an hour on a Saturday.

Taiwan Cafe (1a) or Gourmet Dumpling House (1b) were my go-to's. Some prefer Dumpling Cafe, but I only ever went if the line was too long at the others. I've heard good things about Dumpling House in Cambridge, but have not been.

My favorite Italian restaurant in Boston was Erbaluce (most definitely not red sauce) and you will be there before they close due to lease issues. But it has been a couple years since I lived in Boston and I wasn't an avid consumer of sit-down Italian as I found most of it pretty lazy.

If Italian is a must, you might consider getting your fix while in Providence, which has some excellent restaurants. For something casual and uniquely Rhode Island, try Timmy's for grilled pizza.

https://timmyspizzari.com/

I had a great meal at Erbaluce. Very good service, too!

It’s been a couple years since I last had dim sum in Boston. The best places at the time were China Pearl, Hei La Moon, and Empire (aka Emperor’s) Garden. Haven’t eaten at any of the newest options.

If you have only two days for Boston sightseeing, expect to use one of those days for the Freedom Trail. If you like art museums, consider spending your second day between the Gardner Museum and Musuem of Fine Arts. If art museums aren’t your thing, you could consider spending the morning at the JFK Presidential Library and the rest of the day exploring Cambridge.

Two excellent Northern Italian spots ii.e. not red sauce) in the North End are Mammai Maria and Prezza. Al Dente is fine, though.

We did a college tour there. Boston also has an excellent aquarium.

Or another option is to head out to Concord--Louisa May Alcott's house, Walden Pond, Hawthorne's house.

5alive is right, a day trip to Concord is excellent. In fact, there are a ton of great day trips from Boston besides Concord: Salem, Gloucester, New Bedford, Plymouth, Rockport, Marblehead, Ipswich, Newburyport, Lexington,Quincy, and Lowell among them. Much of Cape Cod can also be reached as a day trip as well.

For Italian in Boston, we always dine at Saraceno in the North End on Hanover Street. Their seafood risotto and spaghetti alle vogole are excellent, not red sauce. Lucca, also on Hanover St. is excellent, Northern Italian which less red sauce. Strega is another popular choice on Hanover Street. Strega also has a second location on the waterfront in the Seaport area and there is an outpost of NYC’s Babbo’s nearby.

MBTA.com has good routing option - enter start/destination. I would avoid bus as MBTA option - stick to train/trolley. I would stay in central Boston and take Uber to Tufts. It can take 20 minutes to forever, depending on traffic.