Planning a trip to Boston/Cape Cod at the end of July and we are staying in a RV. Only place we could find a RV opening is Sandwich. How is the best way to travel to both places in a reasonable amount of time. We will probably travel back and forth to Boston four days and the Cape one. Is this something that is reasonable as we understand Sandwich is about an hour away from Boston.

Sandwich is an hour from Boston if you do it at 2am. Given traffic and such, its likely going to be up to 3 hours. I don't think your plan will be very enjoyable. Not even sure where you could park an RV to get into Boston, let alone driving one in Boston.

Forget the RV and get a hotel. You will spend your whole vacation in traffic, and that's about all you will see, is traffic.

There are reasonable hotels in Boston, and then you can rent a car and drive to the Cape, and again there are reasonable hotels on the Cape or just off the Cape.

The Plymouth & Brockton company operates bus service from Cape Cod to Boston, maybe an hour-plus each way. You might be able to find a place to park (the Hyannis bus station has a big parking lot, for example). Also has stops in Barnstable, Sagamore, and Plymouth.

The regional Peter Pan bus stops in Bourne and takes just over an hour to get to Boston. I don't know about parking, though.

Also you might be able to get to the commuter rail station in Plymouth.

Probably you should contact these companies and inquire about which stations are recommended for parking an RV.

The city is easy to get around by public transportation, Cape Cod is much harder. I have seen plenty of RVs parked at the national seashore parking lots so its not out of the question to visit them. The towns with tiny streets might be harder to maneuver.

Debrajene - not to dissapoint, but the advice here on traveling via RV in the Boston to CC corridor in July (or really any time) is valid. That said your best bet may be to re-consider the RV. You will loose a great deal of time and have additional expenses via any other go back and forth every day options. There are reasonably priced hotels/motels outside of Boston (Red Roof Inn in Southborough for example) that you can stay in and take a commuter train into the city. I'd do that for a couple of days, rent a car and then head to the Cape and stay inn a B&B.

If you are absolutly doing the RV, there is another similar thread that has many comments from the past few weeks that may give you some insight on when to do the drive.... just keep in mind getting around in the RV and parking it may not be easy. Or, skip Boston this trip (or stay just one night) and enjoy the Cape - it is a large beautifull place with much to see and do.

Large cities are not conducive for RVs - there simply is no place to park them. Which means - even if you are willing to sit in traffic all that time back and forth - then you will have to find a local train station or similar - that will allow RVs - and take that back and forth to the city center.

While RVs may make sense in large national parks or places where RV parking is both available and allowed - they really just do;t for large cities.

If you do a google search of nearest campground to Boston there's an RV forum with a post by a couple who parked in Salem (north of Boston) and then took a fast ferry to Boston. There's also a resort campground near Foxborough that mentions getting to Boston via commuter rail. I agree with the others, travel by RV from the Cape will be a nightmare. Find a place with commuter transportation.

This is not a plan. Re-think. And as one who advises others on this board that driving in Boston is not quite as bad as its reputation - driving an RV into Boston would be impossible, expensive (after you hit a few parked cars on narrow streets), and would undoubtedly ruin your vacation. Do not do this.

If you decide to park at a commuter rail station, make sure there is parking for the beast. I just spent 5 minutes on MBTA site and can find nothing that says you can or cannot park an RV - and I do not recall if I have ever seen one at the lots I have used, all north of Boston. But available space would be an issue - many of these lots fill with cars prior to 8 AM each weekday - and since an RV would take more space, it would be harder to find opening for that.

Do you own this RV or are you renting it? If the latter, I believe you could find reasonably priced accomodations that would cost no more than, and perhaps less when all is taken into account, the cost of renting and parking the RV.

There are several Boston-area regular posters here who would be happy to help you if you decide to rethink your trip. Otherwise, I featr we will be hearing on the local news of a visitor whose RV is stuck under one of the Charles River bridges.

We have all been assuming you are not towing a car or jeep, which everyone who goes to Florida certainly does.

You can drive from the Cape to Boston after 8:45 in the morning and return after 6:30 in the afternoon with little difficulty, especially in the morning. I do it all the time. If it is crowded going back, much of the traffic will end at Marshfield, assuming there is no accident.

But: you would be out of your mind to drive an RV into Boston. You might find parking in one of the open air lots near the Federal Courthouse, but that leaves you a considerable distance from any sites or public transportation.

A second consideration is the possibility of theft. Boston is a very safe city, but from time to time RV's have been targeted by thieves. Think about it: RV's are easy to spot, they are likely to be full of loot, and you as a tourist are unlikely to come back to prosecute the thieves even if they are caught. They are perfect targets.

But if you are towing a vehicle, none of this applies. If you are not towing, follow the advice above and go to the Park and Ride (ask at the campground) and take the P&B bus.