Boston: Westin Waterfront
 

Will be in Boston this month (May) and staying at the Westin Waterfront. I understand this hotel is not in city center Boston but in South Boston. 1. Are there any restaturants close by/walking distance and knowing nothing about the area is it safe for a few females to walk around at night? 2. What is the easiest way to get to the Museum of Fine Art and the Isbella Gardener Museum?

1) Yes - a number of restaurants within 10 mins walk
2) Yes it is safe to walk at night; unless you're talking about in the middle of the night
3) easiest = taxi; economical = Silver Line -> Red Line -> Green Line

Have to run but will post later with more restaurant & transport info.

ttt

Restaurants:

Strega on the waterfront
Aura inside the Boston Harbor Hotel
Atlantic Beer Garden
Whiskey Priest
Sam inside Louis Boston
Legal Test Kitchen
Menton
Barlow's
Flour Bakery

These restaurants are all in the Waterfront area. The area does get QUIET at night, however, I do not believe it's UNsafe.

There are many more choices if you go into the city which is just a short cab ride away.

"QUIET"="boring". :-)

You are a quick taxi ride from Chinatown, the theater district, and the Leather District, a slightly longer ride from the North End and its dozens of Italian restaurants and a major scene.

Sharing a cab, it will be cheap to go to Copley Square or Newbury Street where restaurants and bars and bistros of all sorts will surroung you.

I might take a cab to the museums just to save my energy for touring, but I would take the T back for the experience: Green Line to Park Street, Red Line to South Station, Silver Line to hotel.

Boston is pretty safe. This area, however, is a lot like an office park. It is a new development on old ground that the city hopes will spark an economic revival. As yk notes, it is somewhat empty but fine for a group of women. I would not necessarily be comfortable if I were a woman alone, esp really late, but that isn't backed up by any statistics.

I have driven thru that area at night and unless there was a big event at the Convention Center it felt like a ghost town. Boston has/had big plans for that area for development, but hopes have not yet materialized. Yet it has not appeared in news stories about being unsafe - so not sure about that.

If it were me I would consider taking a taxi back to hotel if after 8-9 PM - but again based only on emotion since I also have no statistics.

MBTA.com is an excellent website for all public transit - and has a feature where you can enter origination and destination and it will give you several transit choices, including walking time and directions to/from MBTA stop. (includes subway, bus, "Silver Line" - which is really a bus)

The hotel is not far from the new block of restaurants in the former Jimmy's Harborside location. Unfortunately these are mostly chains and not very local, but they will have a nice view. There's a brand new Legal Seafood, much larger than the others, with a great harbor view. Plus there is Jerry Remy's sports bar, a Mexican place I know nothing about, and a Del Frisco's Steakhouse.

Slight correction to YK's post above...Aura is the restaurant in the Seaport Hotel. I think Meritage is still the name of the place in the Boston Harbor hotel which is a touch further away.

Also you are quite close to the Institute of Contemporary Art, which has an interesting exhibit this summer celebrating vinyl records. Might be worth checking out since you are in the neighborhood.

Any idea how much a taxi ride from this hotel to the Museum of Fine Art and the North End would be? How easy is it to hail a cab to return from those areas?

ttt

A taxi to the North End would be about $10. You could even walk if it's a nice day. A taxi to the MFA would be considerably more expensive, probably more like $25. It's not too hard to find a cab at either the MFA or the North End.

Here's the official taxi rate:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/police/h...taxi_rates.asp

Distance btw Westin Waterfront & MFA is 3.4 miles. Based on the rate I posted above, it will cost about $12-13 IF no traffic and no stopping at lights. In reality, my guess is it'd be around $20 at normal traffic. However, if you run into traffic (eg, around Red Sox game time, or a college's commencement), it can be much more.

There are usually cabs waiting at the Huntington entrance of the MFA, so you shouldn't have much trouble getting one.