Boston with Luggage?
 

First of all, I want to thank those who helped with suggestions for our trip. I was able to find alot of good ideas in other postings too! I DO have one problem that seems difficult to resolve. We will take a red eye flight from San Francisco to Boston, arriving around 5:30 am. Since we cannot check in to our hotel in a suburb until 2 in the afternoon.... What can we do with the luggage? Is there a place to check it? I know at Penn Station in New York there is such a service, but I think you have to have an Amtrak ticket. Any suggestions? Perhaps someone from Boston has another idea?

My suggestion would be to call the hotel that you're staying at and ask them for suggestions. Most hotels will hold your luggage for you, but it sounds as if you are planning to stay in the city until check-in time, and if that's the case I don't have any suggestions for you other than to go to the hotel first and drop them off.

Goodness, ask your hotel about an early check-in. That 5:30 AM in Boston will feel like 2:30 AM to folks from the west coast, I don't think you'll be up for much that day!


Which hotel, in suburb? Will you have a rental car?

If it is a chain hotel, I wonder if the Boston hotel of same chain would let you check luggage with them (although some hotels are chains in name but individually owned, so depending on which, may or may not work)

I know this is more complicated than it needs to be. We booked a hotel in Milford MA, just off the 495 loop. It is a long way out there, but makes my sons trip from Vermont to meet us there alot easier. We can use the commuter line to Franklin, then a cab to the hotel... but I don't think we will want to go back into the city after leaving oúr luggage. I know we will be tired. I just hoped we could find a place to leave our luggage, get a good breakfast, then take the train out to the hotel. I sometimes forget how different things are in the US. Here in Germany, nearly every train station has large areas for luggage storage.

It IS fairly complicated - I know of no public storage areas in Boston - train or bus stations or airport. This all has to do with security - our new way of life!

Here in Boston both Amtrak train stations have luggage storage areas, too, and I do not know whether you must have an Amtrak ticket to use them. Perhaps your commuter-rail ticket will be sufficient.

I must say, traveling out to Milford via the commuter rail schedule, exhausted after a cross-country redeye flight and schlepping luggage, and taking a cab is extremely inconvenient and expensive, it will save your son merely 45 minutes of easy highway driving.

I'm not sure the T is running yet when you arrive, so here's a few suggestions:

1- Just LEAVE your bags with the airline while you go for breakfast. You might want to tell the baggage office/counter that you're doing this, so they know why the bags are unclaimed, but they can't make you take them. Maybe take a hotel shuttle that's bringing guest to the airport back to the hotel for breakfast.

2- use same shuttle as above, but bring luggage to hotel -- bellman or driver will probably stow it in safe place while you have breakfast.

3- call hotels & see if you can get a "day rate" for a room for a few hours - get some sleep and tidy up. If you're out by noon, the room is still available for re-cleaning & rental that night, so it's all extra revenue ... they should be able to discount.

I'm sure the Luggage checks at South/North stations require Amtrak tix.

I'm not sure if my info is outdated, but it's worth a shot. Try the bus station on Arlington Street(?). I know the Plymouth and Brockton bus line ran from there, I think Greyhound did too. I used to take the bus home from there when I was a freshman in college (about 15 years ago, yikes!) but they did have luggage lockers. How big, I'm not exactly sure. Hope you have some luck!

First I would not leave your luggage unattended ANYWHERE. The airlines now have strict regulations on travel and if they see unattended luggage, they may consider it a problem and call the police.

I would suggest finding a hotel in Boston instead of going out to Milford, it will probably be easier for you Son to get into Boston than find Milford, since all roads lead to Boston, oh....wait,,,,I think that's Rome, well you get the idea.

There are a couple of hotels near the airport that have shuttle service to both the T and to and from the aiport terminals. I would check to see if any of the hotels in the area can get you an early room, or you can at least drop off the luggage with the doorman and ask it to be stored until you can check in.

There are so many hotels in Boston, you can probably find one that fits your needs easily and have lots of time to do a little site seeings while you are there.

Have a fun time.

<b>klw25</b> - yes, that's a little dated about the bus terminals ... they've all been consolidated and all run from a building connecting to South Station now.

My earlier post was not about &quot;leaving&quot; bags unattended, but instead, checking them at flight origin, but not picking them up at the destination until you're ready to. I've done this may 1/2 dozen times, including post-9/11, realizing some risk that my belongings MIGHT get examined or even destroyed, but at what liklihood.

I too have just walked away from my bags at a US airport. After a while the baggage people take the remaining bags from the belt and store them off to the side of or in their office.

There are legitimate reasons that you would not be their to claim it. It's happened to me where I missed the connection but my baggage didn't at OHare. I waited at the belt in Indy to find that my bag was not on my flight with me. When I walked into the baggage claim office my bag was there waiting for me.

If airlines blew up every misrouted bag because no one showed up to claim it, they'd be in even more financial trouble then they are now. :-)

Ok... I think what we will do is grab something to eat at the airport before we pick up our luggage ( or sit with our luggage) then call the hotel and see if we can check in early. The T does run that early (I think it will be 7 at least, by the time we are ready to leave the airport).

We would have done a hotel closer to the airport, or even downtown Boston, but found them to be very expensive. The ones that were more reasonable in price had some very bad reviews... so...

If we have to wait long at the South Station on our way, we can,hopefully find a place to sit.. have a coffee? I hope.

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I am glad I found this site!

Have you thought about the costs of staying in a distant suburb, in terms of time, hassles, and money?

What is a day of vacation worth to you? By staying in Franklin, you are wasting your whole first day, whereas if you stayed in Boston you could be at your hotel by 7, rest/freshen up, and enjoy the city until bedtime.

Commuter rail fare from South Station to Franklin is $5.25, so that's $21 per day, and it takes an hour each way, so that's 2 hours out of each precious vacation day. You will also have to figure in the time and cost of getting from the airport to South Station and from the station in Franklin to your hotel.

Getting from the Airport to South Station on public transit only costs $2.50 for 2, but requires several changes: Terminal shuttle to the subway, Blue Line to Orange Line, Orange Line to Red Line. With 3 changes, this alone could eat up most of an hour (I know, I live on the Red Line and take it to the airport). I hope you don't have a whole lot of lugggage.

Or, you could take a taxi to South Station. If you were staying in town, you could instead be taking the taxi to your hotel.

I hope you are arriving on a weekday, when the train from South Station to Franklin runs more often -- at 7:50 AM, 9:10 AM, 10:50 AM, and 12:45 PM, or on a Saturday, when there are trains at 7:20, 9:20, 11:20. On Sundays, the earliest is 11:20 AM.

Then when you get to Franklin, how are you going to get a taxi? You will probably have to call one somehow and wait for it. And then pay for the 7-mile ride to the hotel.

Anyway, to answer the question you actually asked: Yes, there are places to sit and grab a coffee or snack in the waiting lobby at South Station. What will you do if your hotel refuses early check-in? Perhaps you should contact them before you actually arrive, so you can plan.

If the purpose of your vacation is to visit Boston, do not stay in Milford. Milford is so far away from Boston, it does not even qualify to be called a suburb. If the hotels in Boston are too expensive, then I suggest staying in a nearby town, one located inside the Rt. 128 highway which circles the city.

There are some decent hotels near Logan Airport. This is outside Boston but is a relatively easy commute to the city. Some of these hotels have a shuttle van service to the airport and subway.

Another option is to consider changing the airline tickets to fly into Vermont and out of Boston. If visiting with family is your main goal, this would make for an much less stressful vacation.

IMHO, unless you have an extaordinarily early flight the next AM, there is no reason to stay at the airport. At least be forewarned that some hotels that put &quot;airport&quot; in their name are really in nearby cities (Revere etc.) and are no closer to the airport than some hotels that are right in the city.

As for the train costs, we plan on purchasing a 3 day visitor pass for 11 or 18 dollars - my AAA book and the transit site quote different prices, but even at 18 it is a good deal. We will still have to pay for the commuter train, but considering the cost of parking downtown, not to mention the driving... it is worth it.

I have to admit that I enjoy the train. I have been living in Germany now for over a year, and the conversations, the people, and sometimes the views are more fun than the destination.

My son is in college and suggested we meet him in Boston, this way we can enjoy a day in Boston together on Saturday. We, my son and I, have been to Boston before, and there is no push to see everything.

Keep in mind that the MBTA commuter trains run at a much-reduced schedule on weekends. On the Franklin line, only 9 trains on Saturday, and 7 on Sunday (and just one train in the morning).

As for fares, definitely trust the information on the MBTA website.

While I have no experience with European trains, I have enough experience with public transportation in Boston to have formed an opinion - I doubt you will find the view, people-watching, experience better than the destination.

During commuter hours, many trains are over-crowded. While I love Boston, you may find people rude at worst, aloof at best. If you enjoy over-hearing cell phone conversations yelled into phones, at least you can eavesdrop on that.

At any hint in inclement weather, all forms of transportation goes downhill fast. I am not talking about a hurricane or a blizzard - I am speaking of a little light rain. Signage is improving, but I think the MBTA likes to keep out-of-towners guessing about correct tracks, schedules, etc. One of the uniquely awful things about the Boston area is that it can take an hour to go ten miles - I can not tell you the number of times I have thought in frustration that it would almost be faster to walk!

You have received much good advice above - please note that no one thinks staying in Milford is an even acceptable plan - much less a good one. Please reconsider. Often what looks sensible on paper is not that in the reality of people who live here. I know hotels in Boston are horribly expensive - they keep building new ones and they don't get any cheaper.

If after your trip you want to tell us all how wrong we were, please do - visitors can often have a very different perspective on a destination than locals.

There are a few B&amp;B's in Cambridge and in Boston that you might look into and of course there are websites that have reduced hotel pricing like www.hotels.com and www.priceline.com. You might check them before you finalize your trip, believe us, you do not want to stay that far out of Boston, because you will be spending most of your time waiting for trains or cabs, and in Boston, you can walk everywhere.

I have heard the Sheraton Back Bay was offering some good rates recently, so you might try there as well.

You have probably heard about &quot;the big dig&quot;, which is a project in Boston, to help traffic flow, and improve driving times, well traffic in Boston is very bad to get through so you might want to rethink your accomodations and look around for better prices.

Hope this helps a bit.