Boston Area Itinerary Help
 

Our family of 4 are travelling from Toronto to Boston in July to cruise to Bermuda. We want to tour the Boston / Cape Cod area before and after the cruise.

We could really use some help on interesting things to see, and finding inexpensive accommodation.

Here is our tentative plan.

Thurs: Leave Toronto, tour Watkin's Glen (Finger lakes), and head to eastern NY.
Fri: Tentative, something in the mountains before Boston.
Sat: Arrive Boston, tour the interesting parts of the city
Sun-Sun: Cruise to Bermuda
Sun: Tour Boston further.
Mon: Fast ferry to Province Town
Tues: Drive up coast to Rockport.
Wed/Thurs: Return to Toronto.

Looks OK to me, though the fast ferry day trip to P'town isn't going to give you much of a tour of Cape Cod.

Thanks for the input. Any ideas of inexpensiveplaces to stay, especially in Boston and Rockport?

it seems to me like you are covering a lot of ground, and aren't leaving much time to actually see anything. Personally, I don't like an itinerary that has driving and re-packing every day. I mean, you drive from Watkins Glen to say, the Berkshires, leaving you at best 4 hours to see something. You drive to Boston, have an afternoon...maybe lunchtime on. Arrive after your cruise, disembark, check into a Boston hotel, and then see what exactly?

I would either skip Watkins Glen, or skip the mountains Spend 2 nights in one of those places before driving to boston. Then skip either PTown or Rockport, so you spend an entire day in Boston.

They are driving directly from Toronto to Boston and back. How they chose to split up the 8-hour drive doesn't affect the total drive time much. Some of us would prefer to spend two days in one place and others would prefer not to spend an entire day on the road, and see different things instead.

Likewise, visitors from Toronto might find Rockport and P'town more interesting than another full day in Boston. It's all a matter of personal preference.

We are a very active outdoor type family,with boys 13 and 11. Cities don't usually make it on our itinerary, but I personally really want to see Boston. Because we don't often stay in cities I am experiencing sticker shock over the price of Boston hotels. Any suggestions for there and Rockport would be great. As for the drive the stops aren't really a priority. My husband wants to show the boys Watkins Glen, but we are just looking to break up the drive with some activity. The itinerary is tenative so we could change it or possibly add one more day.
Thanks for the input so far.

What's your hotel budget for Boston?

If you have not tried Priceline, coming to Boston is a great time to learn how to use it. Bidding will cut your hotel costs by 33%-60%.

I don't think there is a lot to gain by going to both P'town and Rockport on a short visit. Rockport has the better waterfront, P'town has the better seashore (facing the Atlantic) and the more liberated lifestyle.

An alternative to the north is Salem, which has a waterfront, the incredible Peabody-Essex museum (cultural objects like furniture etc more than art) and interesting archictecture, and you could do Marblehead the same day. To the south on the Cape, see Sandwich and then drive out Route 6a (not US 6), with some random detours down interesting side roads. You will see the Old Cape, lots of quaint houses, shopping and galleries galore. The other side of the Cape (Hyannis, Yarmouth, etc) has the miniature golf courses and fried fish stands. Nowhere in Massachusetts is it easy for non-residents to get to a beach, since many require resident stickers for parking, but the water is usually unpleasantly cold anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

wyatt92
Even in Vancouver we have never spent more than $150.00 a night and we got a really nice room for that. Don't know if I am dreaming in that price range.
Ackislander, I don't really know how to do priceline, it seems like you have to have a really excellent grasp of the area to do it properly.
Another question, can non residents access the beach in Rockport? I think I would find it annoying to have a beach right there that I couldn't get at. I was looking at P'town and Rockport because they seemed like good areas to walk/hike. While I love shops etc my family has no (read 0) tolerance. We have to get out of the car and move. I will look into the areas you suggested though.

Priceline might not be a good choice in this case, since a family of 4 would have to bid for 2 rooms and might end up spending as much as if they had booked a room with 2 beds, at more-accessible rates.

There will be no hotels in Boston for that price on your dates.

An alternative might be to stay in Rockport, or in an economy hotel in between Boston and Rockport, both nights. The guys can head out there upon your cruise's arrival in Boston on Sunday, leaving mom to enjoy Boston (including its shops) on her own; she can take the train out to Rockport from North Station later in the day.

I disagree that Rockport has a better waterfront. It doesn't get much better than Provincetown. I go to both many times a year. I would go to P-Town over Rockport. Do a full day. Rent bikes. Pedal to the Provincelands bike trail. Stop at Race Point Beach and Herring Cove Beach. Shop and people watch afterwards.Climb the Pilgram tower Eat and catch the ferry back.

raineday you are describing a perfect summer day for us. That is exactly how we like to spend our time.
Anonymous and anyone else, would it be possible to stay outside Boston as you suggested ,and still do the ferry to Provincetown?
I thought that even though my family is allergic to shopping that they still would enjoy walking around the freedom trail or fanuiel hall? Are those kid friendly activities? They are very good walkers/bikers. I must confess museums for us tend to be bad weather activities. (I am getting of easier than last summer where most of my vacation was spent in a tent, some of the campsites being ones that required portaging).
Thanks for everyones continued help.

$150/night will be very difficult in Boston. I just checked some random dates in July and the Longwood Inn was showing up at $139/night, which would be a good choice.

I'm sure your kids would love the Freedom Trail and Faneuil Hall. There's just so much history and so many things to see that's it's much better to stay in town if you can.

an alternative for hotels 'in boston' if you're willing to use the T is to look in the medford/sommerville area or somewhere outside of the north end, back bay area. Or, try a B/B. You might be able to find a quad room in that range but it will depend on the exact dates.

Boston hotels are expensive. Last fall when we visited Tufts with our son we stayed at the Medford Hyatt Place which is right off the highway north of Boston. It shows Saturday night rates in July as $116/night with AAA/CAA if you have that.
Nice rooms.

I love Boston. Two suggestions...1) The tour of Fenway Park is great. Our tour guide told stories the whole tour from throughout the Red Sox history, including how during a Red Sox/Yankees game, a fan got hit in the head with a home run ball, then during an interview in which a reporter asked if he thought it was a sign he should become a Red Sox fan, he agreed and switched! 2) The All Star Sandwich shop in Cambridge is amazing. My husband and I are young and don't have kids yet, but it would be a great place for a family too. Have a great time! We are going back there in September and actually got Red Sox tickets! For cheap hotels, visit my blog (below), where I posted some sites we use to get good deals.
Brittany (http://bartravels.blogspot.com)

Where are you going to Park in Boston $$$$$$.

Raineday,
I don't know, I haven't even thought about parking yet. I was hoping there would be reasonable parking at the ferry terminal, while we are on the cruise, and I assumed hotels would have parking, for a nominal fee. I guess if parking is really outrageous it might be cheaper to rent a car, leave it and pick anoother one up when we leave Boston.

Sorry I mean't cruise terminal

I can see that you don't travel to cities very often! Any hotel parking in Boston will be a minimum of $25/day, I can't imagine the cruise terminal would be any cheaper.