Advice for a week in Boston, especially Lodging
 

Hello, my wife and I are in our late 60s and plan to spend a week in Boston this mid September. We are getting a late start at this but have an idea of what we want to see and do but we are not familiar with the city and its neighborhoods except for several hours of researching the internet.

Ideally, we would like to stay in a quiet, moderate hotel in a pretty historic area within walking distance of lots of restaurants and shops, things to see or near handy transportation. I'm thinking $300-400 a night or possibly more if it would really be worth it. We don't need a 5 star with lots of amenities, just a nice or very nice comfortable hotel conveniently located.

Our primary list of things to do include historical walking tours, bicycle tour along the Charles, Old Ironsides, Cambridge/Harvard tour, day trip to Concord/Lexington, gardens, parks, nice quaint shops and good restaurants. We like perusing antiquarian bookstores too and just walking around in attractive areas. .

Can you recommend a couple parts of the city and a few hotels to focus in on? Thanks so much.

Ross in North Florida

September is great in Boston. As far as lodging, stay in Boston. Real Boston, not the deceptive names such as Burlington/Boston, etc that hotels call themselves, mostly because Boston is one of the most expensive hotel cities in the US.

Areas to look for include Back Bay, Downtown, Faneuil Hall, Copley. Second best - Waterfront, South Boston - not because these are bad areas but because hotels expand the perimeter beyond what is really in that area.

My daughter and friends took the Boston bicycle tour and loved it. I recommend walking food tour of the North End (also one of Chinatown - good, but North End is better). You could rent a car for a day to go to Lexington/Concord. Also possibly to Salem to see Peabody Essex Museum. there are some nice Harbor historical cruises, from under 2 hours to longer. Whale watches. Fenway Park tour, even if not baseball fan.

Do a search here on specific lodging. I live near Boston, so have very limited experience on hotels.

I'm not sure if it will fit your budget, but take a look at the Elliot, on Mass Ave, between back bay and Kenmore square. It's a very quaint, smaller hotel, that has often won "most romantic hotel in Boston" awards. It's convenient to the T and has quite a few really nice restaurants within a few blocks. Plus a short Walk to Copley square.

Any of the Copley square hotels would probably work to...Fairmont Copley Plaza, the Lenox, others I'm not thinking of.

Stay away from the seaport hotels. They tend to be more business oriented, and definitely not historic.

The Marriott Long Wharf would be another goo d choice, right in Faneuil Hall area. I wonder if it counts as quiet though...

We recently stayed at the Loew's Boston and really liked it. It's not small or particularly romantic, but it's well appointed, has a good bar (we didn't try the restaurant) and is on a quiet street. I thought the location was great, but it was our first time in the city--maybe there is better.

Old Ironsides is in dry dock for the next couple of years for major restorations

All good hotel suggestions. Also take a look at the Omni Parker House right on the Freedom Trail, the Nine Zero almost next to the Parker House, and the Lenox in Back Bay.

the Charslesmark 655 Boylston st www.chalesmarkhotel.com

If I didn't live here I'd check out the Lberty fleet tall ship on long wharf. www.ibertyfleet.com. starting at $55 for a single. the downside, you share a bathroom.

Junior King Suite at The Lenox , or the Taj Hotel.

<i>I'm thinking $300-400 a night or possibly more if it would really be worth it.</i>

Depending upon the conferences, that should give you a pretty broad choice of hotels.

To my mind, the best located hotels in Boston are the Four Seasons or the Taj, followed closely by the Revere, the Park Plaza, the W, and the Ritz. They are all right in the center of the action.

If none of the above fit the bill, I'd look at the Back Bay hotels - Sheraton, Westin, Fairmont, Eliot, Hilton, Loews, etc.

Thank you all so much for these excellent recommendations. Just perfect for us. Any suggestions on a day trip to s pretty seacoast town? We definitely want to visit Concord/Lexington and anything Thoreau.

I agree with suggestion to rent a car and possibly do an overnight for Concord/Lexington. If you are interested in visiting the Alcott House, you might also want to visit Fruitlands in Harvard MA. Otherwise, a car in Boston is a bad idea.

Salem MA and the Peabody Essex Museum is an option for a seacoast town but if you go further north, you could visit Portsmouth NH and Strawbery Banke. Nice downtown shopping area. I always recommend one of the boat tours. A few weeks ago we went up the Piscataqua River again. The narrated tour for inland rivers is very good. The boat dock is within walking distance of the parking garage.

Also agree with Gail on the food tours except I liked the Chinatown tour best because it ended with a dim sum lunch.

http://www.libertyfleet.com/boston-t...accommodations


cigalechanta, that is awesome, we would do that in a heartbeat.
SAVING!!

vbooks, if you loved Little Women, I highly recommend a visit to the Louisa May Alcott home in Concord. Easy to do alongside Walden Pond.

Can someone remind me, I believe her gravesite and Emerson's and Thoreau's are all nearby?? Or am I misremembering?

flpab, note that you are basically homeless from 10am - 8pm while the boat is doing day sails.

All at Sleepy Hollow

The Alcott family, including Amos Bronson Alcott (Transcendentalist, philosopher, educator), Abby May (Wife of Amos Bronson Alcott), and their daughter Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women and others)
Ephraim Wales Bull (inventor of the Concord Grape)
Arthur R. Bethke (Concord Oil Owner, US Army Captain, Bethke Cancer Center)
William Ellery Channing (Transcendentalist and poet)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Transcendentalist, essayist, lecturer, and poet
Daniel Chester French (sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter and others)
Sophia Hawthorne (wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne)
George Frisbie Hoar (19th-century politician)
Richard Marius (Reformation historian and Southern novelist)
Ralph Munroe (yacht designer and pioneer of South Florida)
Elizabeth Peabody (education reformer)
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (author and social reformer)
Henry David Thoreau (American Transcendentalist, philosopher, essayist, and lecturer)
Mary Colman Wheeler (founder of the Wheeler School)
George Washington Wright (California's first representative in Congress)

I am originally from Boston and go there quite frequently to visit family. I always stay at the Lenox Hotel in Back Bay. Small hotel with a great staff.

Many thanks to all of you. Now we are really motivated to spend a full day at Concord. If we just get transportation to the town, is Concord/Walden small enough to find everything on foot or would we need some kind of a tour?

My impression was that you could not possibly do it on foot. I think that posters here tend to recommend renting a car. We had a rental as we were heading out of the city.