First time in Boston, Ma.
 

My husband and I will spend 10 days in Boston next September, from the 21st. We've
already booked the Newsbury Guest House, on the Newbury Street. We are not renting a car. Only if 10 days just in Boston is too much, then we would rent for the weekend for a side trip. What do you think? Any suggestion will be welcome!
Any tip on restaurants, what to see, etc, will be welcome! Is it mid September already fall?
THANKS
LERY

Go to Salem, Mass, the site of the colonial witch trails. It's is about 30 miles east of Boston. Take a walking tour. Get your cards read. Have your aura photographed. Hunt ghosts.

Late September is a great time for Boston, weatherwise. By the end of your stay, the fall foliage will be getting close to peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont. In N.H., which is closest, Franconia Notch, North Conway, and the fabulously scenic Kankamagus Highway between them will give you a spectacular foliage tour for a couple of days. If you're not into fall colors, the Newport, Rhode Island area is special, with the seacoast settings, coastal B&Bs, summer mansions of the late 1800s robber barons on the 10 mile oceanfront drive.

10 days is a lot, I think I would rent a car but NOT FOR THE WEEKEND. If you are going to do a side trip to Newport, or New Hampshire, or the Berkshires, you will get far better rates and availability of lodgings midweek. Stay in Boston on the weekend, when hotel rates tend to be lower because there are no business travellers.

A day trip up to Salem would be fun, and you could do that by car. And it is also the home of the Peabody Essex Museum which is one of the nicest small museums in the area.

I've made tons of restaurant recommendations in the past, so I'm not going to rehash here, unless you have something specific in mind. You can click on my name and look for my other Boston postings.

what other sorts of things do you want to do? the Museum of Fine arts and the Gardner museum are both very nice. I recommend taking the tour of Old Ironsides, its pretty interesting. You can spend some time in Harvard square walking around, shopping, admiring the campus, and visiting the Harvard museums (I forget which one has the glass flowers, but they are pretty cool).

Weather in mid September can be pretty nice. The leaves may have started to turn, but it will still be mostly green. You would find more color in New Hampshire, I think. There are lots of places to take scenic hikes, or ride ski lifts to mountain tops in the White mountains if you decide to go up there, ti would be very pretty.

Its the best time of year to visit New England.

Depending on what you want to do, you may fill 10 days in Boston. There are plenty of museums tucked away here and there if you really want to get deep into Boston itself. Ten days definitely allows you to get out of town, however, and you can do that even if you don't rent a car. The commuter rail will get you to Salem, Newburyport, Ipswich (there is a shuttle that will take you from the train station to the beach if you want to do that - not sure whether it will be running in September, but worth checking out), Plymouth, Gloucester, Marblehead, and Concord, as well as many other spots. You could also take the Amtrak from here to Portland, Maine for a daytrip if you wish. You could also take the ferry from Boston to Provincetown on the Cape, which could be fun. Whale watching might still be o.k. that time of year, although it could be too late. Just not sure about that.

In mid-September you start to see a bit of color in the leaves, but no guarantees. You would really have to go north or west for that.

Restaurants, hmmm. What do you like? I'll be happy to share my picks. If you like Indian, Tamarind Bay in Harvard Square is a must. It supposedly has the highest Zagat rating of any Indian restaurant in the country. I have not verified this, but do not doubt it. It is really a special Indian place. Try the okra, even if you think you don't like okra.

What are some of your interests? That would help us make some recommendations.

Thank you for all the tips!
I think we'll go to Salem. Which way would be easier and cheaper, train or renting a car?
You asked me what type of food we like. We love mostly seafood, Italian and American food.
Things we love to do when travelling: walk around, visiting the different nieghborhoods; visit one or two museums; sit in an open cafe people watching; and finally, we love go shopping!!!
One thing we would love to see is a beautiful fall landscape with lots of colors. Where could we go to see it?
We do not live in the US., here in Brazil, the leaves do not change color at all!!
Thank you again!
LERY

If you are just going to Salem for a day trip, it is easier to take the train. But if you decide to leave the city to go see some foliage, you could rent a car, visit Salem, and then perhaps head towards New Hampshire from there. Since you also like to shop, you should head up to North Conway. You can sightsee inthe White Mountains, see some great scenery, and also shop in the many outlet stores.

Glad you are coming to visit - and at such a great time of year !

First, about fall foliage in New England - one never knows this far ahead, so much depends on day/night temperatures - you might get lucky at the very end of your trip dpending on weather -
a good place to check (not that you would go with this tour company, but I've used it in the past as an approximate for personal planning) is to go to the web site for caravan tours -

www.caravan.com : then click on the tour under US Tours for "New England Fall Colors" - a map pulls up with their 'routes' - dates, areas - and this might help you narrow down where you might want to head.

There are also other foliage sites on gonewengland.com and vermontfallfoliage.com, and for Maine on the state web page main.gov/doc/foliage.

You may also want to investigate Vermont, the mid vermont area at midvermont.com - sometimes the foliage comes quicker/earlier there - in the Middlebury/towards Burlington area before hitting the southern areas closer to Boston.

You might want to look at these sites and see if something appeals to you -

Xkenx gave you a good route thru New Hampshire, which won't be too far for you and you would see great landscape, with or without peak foliage and hopefully some foliage !

Otherwise, you could consider driving the route from Boston thru White River Junction, over the mountain road to the Middlebury/Woodstock/Burlington area and back down.

If you wanted to see varying landscape of New England - moutains, shore, etc the NH route might serve you best but I would personally want to have a solid 3-4 dys for this and avoid a weekend if you can.

Favorite Boston restaurants:
For eating outside/people watching and good food:
Stephanie's on Newbury Street (for lunch or dinner)
Parish Cafe on Boylston Street
Sonsie's on Newbury Street

For seafood:
McCormich & Schmick
If you want great seafood, and don't mind a really truly casual atmosphere that some would call a "dive" try the Barking Crab (near J Hook Lobster)
and sit in or out.

Also, Jasper White's Summer Shack on Dalton St near the Sheraton Hotel in the Back Bay area.

North End : Sage, Rabia's, Piccolo Nido, Neptune -which is good for seafood and small but worth a try) - and do go early enough to see the Paul Revere House, Old North Church and walk around the North End after dinner

Fun restaurant: Les Zygomates (winebar.com)
great food, music all at one place. You can take cab or T from where you are staying.

Hamersley's Bistro (Hamersleysbistro.com) one of my all time favorite Boston restaurants on Tremont/Clarendon St.

What to see?
I wouldn't miss the Isabella Stewart gardner Museum ( gardnermuseum.org) - musuem, gorgeous courtyard, beautiful flowers, etc and nice cafe for lunch) and the MFA which is diagonally across.

The new ICA should be open on the waterfront.
(icaboston.org)

Walk the Boston Public Garden, Boston Common, Charles Street over to the Charles River.

See if anything on the Freedom Trail intersts you.
(thefreedomtrail.org)

see the view from the top of the Prudential Center Skywalk ( a nice overview -sometimes a nice 'first thing' to do some morning, then walk the Newbury/Boylston/Charles st (lots of shopping on these streets)/BPL/Commons

A tour on Boston Harbor and the Islands is always lovely that time of year if they are still running
(bostonislands.com and bostonharborcruises.com)

See the Boston Public Library and Trinity Church

Go to Harvard Square

Check out the web site
www.gobostoncard.com - even if purchasing the card doesn't make sense for you or your intersts, it's a good web page for seeing what is available as far as tours, sites, etc.

also - cityofboston.gov and go to the visitors section for lots of info !

have a blast !

If you decide to travel outside of Boston, I usually rent a car and get the best deals for Thursday thru Sunday rentals. I try all the car rental websites to check prices, but lately National and Alamo have had the best deals when I've been in Boston.

If you do find yourself in the Harvard Square area, a great place for lunch is Bartley's Burger Cottage. Very casual and reasonably priced with delicious food. Also nearby is Toscanini's for ice cream, good for a quick stop.

If you do go to essex, you must visit PEM-the Peobody Essex Museum. Too bad the exhibit Summer in New England will end early in September but the Chineese house and permanent exhibits are worth it.
The MFA exhibit of "Americans in Paris, a wonderful group of painting will be on til Seo 24th.
all the restos mentioned are good but I'll also include Legal seafoods, still the best freshest in spite of now a chain and the best oysters, chowder.
Oleander in Cambridge,
Hamersly remains a favorite, Dali's in Cambridge for Spanish tapas,

Ten days is way too much for Boston.We were in Boston in 2004 September for 3 full days and visited everything.The first day you should book a tour with Historic tours of America.Great guides and you can get on/off the whole day.The other days you use for visiting in depth the things that particularly interest you.A harbour tour is included and it's best to book and pay your tickets via internet.It's cheaper.I then would rent a car and drive to Jackson N.Hampshire, in the centre of the White mountains.Covered bridge motel is great.The surroundings are unforgettable what with the folliage. Greetings from Belgium Paul

Only you can decide how many days you would need in Boston, based on the things that interest you. Having lived here all my life, I find it amazing that someone was able to visit everything in 3 days - in that time you can absolutely do a nice overview, but again it depends on what 'everything' means to each individual person.

I do think while you have come this far, all the way from Brazil if I remember from your other post, you should do a side trip to Rhode Island or New Hampshire - and it also depends on what pace you like -
for example,
if one day after breakfast you did the Prudential Skywalk, saw the view and learned a bit about history; then walked (since you also mentioned in other post about shopping) Newbury, Boylston, Charles St, walk over to the Charles River Esplanade area, have a lovely lunch outside at one of the cafes, and on to parts of the Freedom Trail or Boston Public gardens/Commons - could you keep going or would you want to return to hotel for rest?

If you can keep going, I'd loop around to the Boston Public Library, Copley Place area - have an afternoon break and do dinner in the North End.

That's only one day, and there's about a zillion other things to see that have been listed before and ones not included.

A day at the Gardner Museum, lunch and time at the MFA is another whole day.

You need to go through guide books, see what appeals to you, only you can say how much time you'd spend on shopping (that's a whole day right there in downtown Boston not including the Copley/Prudential Malls), and refine your list and then people can make suggestions.

We live on the West Coast so the Bostonians can tell you what to do.I can
only tell you what we WOULDN'T do
again...drive a car in the city of Boston.By the time we added up the
parking, gas, rental, headaches, aruguing, and time spent lost we could of
rental a limo for less money and hassle.
Loved Boston,tho'! Walk the Freedom Trail.

You could easily fill all your days and nights with activities in Boston for 10 days. Check out

https://tickets.artsboston.org/peo/default.asp?r=1024

This will give you a list of what is going on in the arts as well as discounts.

Some things to think about that are not mentioned often:
The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard

The improv comedy scene, the best being imrprovasylum.com

JFK library/museum

Jazz Clubs: Wallys, Regattabar, Scullers.

As the previous writer stated, it depends on how you define everything, for a whirwind tour, 3 days is fine.

Schoong is correct, try to avoid driving here.

Sorry thats improvasylum.com

My goodness!! Three days saw everything?
I live here and haven't seen everything.
The Natural museum with its glass flowers at Harvard, the Children's Museum, the museum at MIT, the Science museum, the Glass globe at the Chritian Science Center, The Aquarium, The famous old houses tours, The many art gallaries, The Decordava museum in Lincoln, The Audubon farm there.
Hmmm , what to do today?

Thanks everybody!! You can't imagine how I love to read all your messages!

What I haven't mentioned before is that I like to know a new city "deeply", if that is possible. I like to wander in all neighborhoods aimlessly after visiting the "must sees", like museums, historical sites, etc. That's why I'm not sure about renting a car for 2 days. One we would visit Salem, and on the other one, somewhere in New Hampshire (foliage...). I'm afraid 2 days out of Boston will be too much. What do you think? What we are very sure about is New Hampshire landscape, with or without the foliage thing. If anyone could give me the best places in New Hampshire to enjoy nature, a one day trip, I'd appreciate.

THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY!!!
LERY