boston lunch
 

on day one (sept 28) in boston we've planned
duck tours at 9:00. should we buy tickets now?

isabella gardiner museum at 1:30 for a concert and visit. can you recommend a place for lunch before the museum?

I don't think you'll need advanced tickets for the Duck Tour.

As for restaurants, if you like Thai food, there's a place called Brown Sugar nearby which is good (just across the park).

I would absolutely recommend advance tickets for the Duck Tour, especially if you want to go at a specific time on a particular day. If you plan to walk up, you may find they're sold out for the entire day... And, make sure you book with www.bostonducktours.com and NOT superduckexcursions...

I agree with djkbooks, reservations for the Duck Tours are essential as they regularly sell out. If you know exactly when you want to go, definitely book ahead.

As for lunch, the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum has a cafe that, though I've not tried if personally, gets good reviews on Zagat and Yelp:

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/information/cafe.asp

http://www.zagat.com/verticals/Prope...=8&R=37541

http://www.yelp.com/biz/isabella-ste...um-cafe-boston

The gardner museum serves lunch as does the nearby MFA.

You have a problem that I just realized. Not sure of solution though.

Red Sox play Yankees at Fenway Park on Sun 9/28 at 1:30 PM. Entire area around Fenway, which includes at outskirts Gardner Museum, MFA will be mobbed with people, starting as early as about 11:30 or noon. In my opinion, that eliminates eating at some places around Kenmore Square - which I was going to suggest - prior to museum concert and visit. Do not even think of driving into the area that day. Eat at Gardner Museum.

Best bet would be to head to general area as early as possibly after Duck tour - by 11:30 or noon at the latest.

Same issue upon departure, although the MBTA stops you would be using will be before Fenway - so you will get on train prior to the mobs. Game should be over around 4:30 or so, so try to time your departure accordingly - although with baseball one can never really predict end time.

so glad you answered my questions. you've eliminated some potential problems.
thanks!!

if the concert is at 1:30, also know many who attend those also plan on eating lunch at the Gardner -they take reservations only for members and at 11:30, so you would need to get there early to put your name in and possibly look in museum while you wait for a table - and if they are booked you could be out of luck prior to concert - so if that ends up being your plan you may want to call -

your duck tour ends at 10:30 - maybe you head over and either do the above - or go eat the the restaurant at the MFA (which if you take the T you will walk by it on your way to ISG)
The restaurant that takes reservations for members and non members, in the musuem is Bravo - link below and you can make rezzies on opentable.com - their menu has more options than the limited ISG menu -

http://www.mfa.org/visit/index.asp?key=6

or after Duck Tour, stay in town - eat there - and get to Gardner in time fro concert

thanks for the info.
i tried to reserve at mfa but no luck so will call them for an 11:30 rezzie.

do you recommend a pass (which one) for our 3 day stay in boston....actually, cambridge?

thanks.

The aquarium has great whale watching tours if you're interested. About 3 or 4 hours long, I think. We saw lots of whales there, but ask them about late September viewings.

You don't need reservations for the MFA cafe.

Whether or not a pass makes sense for you depends on how much you want to do and how good you are at sticking to that schedule to make something like, say, the GoBoston Card, worth it -

You really need to go to the site, see what activities/etc you would do, what the costs would be, and then see that vs. the cost if you paid for each thing -

if it's not a huge difference, also take into account if you ever choose to skip something, or want to stay longer one place than another, get tired, etc