Day Trips from Boston, Please
 

Need recommended day trips within two hours of Boston, next week.

Thanks....

PLENTY of choices - BUT, what are you interested in? Do you want beach? or mountains/hiking? or cute towns? or cities? or history?

Just off the top of my head:
Portland Maine & the Southern Maine coastal towns
Portsmouth NH
Concord NH
Monadnock area NH
Cape Ann area MA
Lowell MA
Berkshires area MA
New Bedford MA
Providence RI
Newport RI
Hartford CT
the possibilites go on...

Be more specific of what you're looking for and we can make more specific suggestions.

Salem, MA
Plymouth, MA
Lexington and Concord, MA
Sturbridge Village, MA

etc. Where do you want to go and what do you want to see? How many days do you have in Boston?

P.S. Apart from knowing your interests, what are the ages of your group? Senior citizens? Young children? All of the above?

Will you have a car or will you be relying on public transportation?

If you aren't already planning to visit Cambridge I would include time there.

I agree it's hard to make recommendations without knowing more about your interests. Some possibilities:

Concord MA
Cape Ann, MA
Plymouth, MA
Provincetown, MA by ferry

There have been a lot of threads on this lately, and a search for "Boston" will identify them without responders having to repeat the same material.

Rockport, MA and Salem, MA. You will get more detail if you provide more detail.

OK, sorry, I guess I should have given more info: This is not for me, actually, but for my friends, 4 women, age 50-55, renting a car. They're there for a senior basketball training camp, staying a couple more days to enjoy the area....

Good suggestions all. They may want to consider the days of the week they would be traveling - week day vs. weekend. This will make a big difference in travel time. Weekdays should be fine anywhere, whereas weekends would be difficult going towards the Cape or NH/ME. You didn't mention where they'd be staying. There is also lots to do and see in the city itself. Everything depends on their interests.

Renting a car versus relying on daily tours, or the rail out of Boston, really opens up the possibilities.

Cape Ann is a great suggestion. It's only an hour or so north of the city, and has some fantastic coastal towns. I doubt they could do all of Cape Ann in a day, but they could definitely get a nice flavor.

I'll suggest Rockport. Rockport is a small, very quaint, very vibrant town, with a cool "New Englandy" coastal feel to it.

Plenty of shops, galleries, restaurants, and scenery to keep them occupied. And when I say plenty, I mean P

Unless things have changed since I was last there, you can only be served alcoholic beverages if you order food. But, I doubt they would be drinking very much on a daytrip anyways.

Bearskin Neck is fantastic, and very popular with Artists who like to paint what they're looking at. Maybe your friends could purchase a keepsake painting from their visit?

Also on Bearskin Neck is a gem in Roy Moore Lobsters. It doubles as a takeout market (super fresh seafood/restaurant, but don't think sit down restaurant with full service. It's an eat in the rough spot with delicious lobsters, and other delicacies from the sea. They can plop their butts down on a lobster pot like the rest of us and tear into a caught that day lobster, fish, oysters, etc.

There's a small beach on Front Street that I'm sure they would run into if they visited Rockport.