Frist trip to Boston---need some suggestions!
 

It will be hubby, myself, and our 13 year old son. We will arrive in Boston on August 12 for four or five nights. How will the weather be? The crowds? Tell me the 'must dos' in Boston---we enjoy lots of things, nature, history and of course I love shopping!

Tell me a nice hotel to stay in that won't cost a small fortune. Also, tell me where to eat, we love seafood--not fried seafood, but really good seafood, and lobster is at the top of my list! Any other tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Freedom Trail, Duck Boat, Harvard Square, Beacon Hill, Boston Common and the Public Garden are some of the usual tourist sights.

Almost all restaurants will have lobster, but most people go to Legal Seafood. there are better places, but Legal is solid.

The weather can vary. It may b e really hot, but you might get lucky and it may be in the 70's.

If you like Museums, the Museum of Fine Arts is very good and the Gardner Museum is special.

BTW, if you like Thai Food, there is a very good restaurant in Cambridge called Similans. It's on First Street near the Cambridgeside Galleria.

iluvmyrott - we just got back from a family trip to Boston and I was in the process of posting my trip report here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35023364 which may give you some ideas.

Museum of Science, including an Omni Imiax movie.

The Harbor Islands are worth a visit, particulary George's Island with remants of a fort.

Harvard Natural History museum can be interesting also - not a spectacular building, but some interesting displays.

Lobster is anywhere, as mentioned. The Barking Crab has a good casual ambiance on the water - may wish to try there.

Absolutely take a duck tour - you'll need advance reservations though.

Visit the Constitution in Charlestown.

As for hotels, just look for a bargain - anywhere in Back Bay, waterfront, downtown or even parts of Cambridge should be fine. Just make sure you are near the T if you choose Cambridge.

For Shopping - Quincy Market, Harvard Square, the South End, Beacon Hill, Prudential Center.

Add Newbury Street (Back Bay) to your list of shopping destinations - although it's not the most "affordable" place in Boston! :)

All great recommendations. However, no trip to Boston can be REALLY complete without a trip to see Fenway...whether it's to see a game or just take the T to the area and walk around. If there's a game and you can't score any tickets, just take the T over there, have some brats and mingle around with the crowd. If there's not a game, go there anyway and see the stadium and area.

I'd also highly recommend eating in and walking around the North End...great Italian and desert.

I just booked for September at the Westin Bayfront Boston for $229 a night and that is a new hotel and 4* on Expedia..
Just checked dates that you gave and Jurys Boston or Lenox are around $225 a night 4* located in Back Bay..looks lovely.
Good luck since things are very expensive in Boston.
I have heard that Legal Seafoods is pretty good and look forward to eating there.
Give us a brief trip report when you get back and have fun!

The weather will be warm, but it will likely cool off at nights. Bring a sweater.

We like to stay in the Holiday Inn in Brookline -- rooms for less than $200/night (woo hoo)! It is across the street from the trolley line, and in a nice residential area.

Legal Seafoods is a good bet. You would probably enjoy schmoozing the shops in Fanieul Hall

You can sometimes get a good deal at the Marriot in Cambridge (right across the river from Boston and at a T-stop) that will include breakfast and parking. Be sure to ask what ever hotel you end up about parking if you will have a car, as it can be expensive.

Take the trolly - it gives you on-off at a lot of sights.

Have fun!

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

If you can't get tickets to a game you can take a tour of Fenway Park. And by the way, they don't sell 'brats&quot; at Fenway - just Italian sausages - sweet or hot.

Also check boston.com or other information sites to see if there are any free concert or movies on the Esplanade (park along the banks of the Charles River).

As far as weather is concerned, it can be fairly unpredictable. It may be 95 with high humidity or 80 and clear. Impossible to predict.

Many locals (myself included) hestitate to recommend Durgin Park for lunch or dinner if you are at Quincy Market but I've eaten there twice relatively recently and the food really is pretty good for the price. The North End is a must for Italian food.

Have a great time.

We spent a leisurely day on the Freedom Trail, staring at Boston Common. It was a great way to walk through different areas of the city, including the North End.

After the USS Constitution and Beacon Hill, take a water taxi back to the Fanueil Hall area. The water taxi turned out to be a highlight for our kids. We caught it near the Constitution.

Thanks for the recommendation about the water taxi. We'll be in Boston in a couple of weeks, and I wasn't relishing the idea of backtracking. Can you remember how much the water taxi cost? Was it cash only?

I was once a little disappointed to learn that the most-visited tourist attraction in Boston is the Bull and Finch Pub, which used to bill itself as &quot;the inspiration for the television show 'Cheers.'&quot; In fact, the only relationship is that the place was used for the exterior shots in &quot;Cheers.&quot; The inside is now a bar/restaurant that looks nothing like the set of the show, and is probably the most egregious tourist trap I've ever seen. They even have a miniature souvenir shop that you have to walk through to get to the restaurant's bathroom!

I was heartened to see that nobody mentioned the Cheers Bar as a possible destination, but I felt compelled to warn the OP anyway... by all means walk by the Cheers Bar when you're seeing Beacon Hill and the Public Garden, and snap your picture in front of the place, but don't bother going inside. If you want to buy a T-shirt or something, there's a separate souvenir shop upstairs somewhere that doesn't require you to buy a &quot;Norm Burger&quot; or a &quot;Ma Clavin's Chowder&quot; or whatever.

I lived on Beacon Hill during the years that &quot;Cheers&quot; was on TV, and I assure you that the Bull &amp; Finch was never a neighborhood pub. (The name, a play on the name of the architect Bulfinch, was too cute already!) That honor belongs to &quot;The Sevens&quot; which was at 77 Charles Street. But it didn't have that lovely big bar, which has apparently been removed to make room for more tourists. We do have to hand the owner a commendation for entrepreneurship, though: How many other copied interiors become famous?

Missypie:

Last week we took the water shuttle to the USS Constitution from Long Wharf, which is where the Aquarium is located. The shuttle uses the dock directly behind the little Nation Park Ranger kiosk and is run by the MBTA (the &quot;T&quot;). The fare is $1.70/person one-way. You can buy tickets once you get on board. They don't take the Charlie subway tickets, but they do honor monthly passes.

The water taxis are privately operated and charge $10/person.

Thanks!

Sorry, we must have taken the water shuttle, because it was very inexpensive. It saved a lot of walking and was a nice ride through the harbor.

Look on the MBTA web site for a visitor pass that covers 1 - 15 days. Easy to get around the city via the &quot;T&quot;. Here is the link:

www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/purchase_programs/

There is a really nice aquarium in Boston. It is a little pricey but they have a four story tall circular tank that holds fish I have never seen before. Your son is 11 years older than mine but he really enjoyed it. Is there really that big of a difference between a toddler and a teenager some times?

Another question, is there anyway to stay right outside of Boston and get a hotel that is less expensive? How is the public transportation? We will have our car, but we'd prefer to take public transportation if possible.

I live in Boston and I love it. In fact, we often do the touristy thing in our own city.

I second the recommendation of the Aquarium. It's really great and I go as an adult for fun. There's also an IMAX there and it's right by the harbor. In fact, it's rather close to Fanueil Hall which most visitors love.

I don't think Legals is all that great. It's a chain just like a Chilis somewhere else. But there sure is a lot of seafood here - I would ask your concierge about it. I usually eat sushi so unless sushi is your thing, my recommendations wouldn't do you much good. We do have some really good sushi here though - some of our local fish is highly prized by the Japanese and they look forward to coming here and eating it fresh.

A great place to do window shopping and outdoor walking would be to get off at Charles/MGH and walk through Beacon Hill (Charles Street), then through the park (with its swan boat rides - very classic Boston). The park is gorgeous and I love walking through it. Then you could head up Newbury Street and Boylton Street - both good for shopping. If it's raining, shop at the Pru and Copley Place.

Nature - someone mentioned Harbor Islands (leaves from Aquarium dock) and there's also the Blue Hills reservation, but you'd need a car to get there. a nice hike though with a castle at the top.

The weather may be in the seventies or the nineties. Usually August is hot, but bring layers just in case.

Our North End is really great too, with revolutionary history as well as great food and it's just realy pretty there. This is also close to Aquarium. Hmm, seems like all great things cluster together!

In fact, I think the Freedom Trail might connect most of these things together! this is a red line running through the city - you can pick it up at Park Street station.

For the original revolutionary history, head out to Lexington. If you could rent bikes and go up the bike path from Arlington to Lexington, that would be awesome. I'm not sure how accessibvle this all is for visitors. Lexington Green is a great place for a picnic. Nice art galleries there too.

Someone mentioned the Duck Tours - they're great. An alternative is the Trolley Tour; it's guided and the guides usually have some great stories and you can hop on/off at a ton of stops. With the Duck Tour - you can't get off (if I remember correctly) but you do get to go down the Charles. You don't need a reservation for the Trolley tours.
Have fun!

if you like charming,enchanting art museums ,go the the Gardner,right in back of the big Museum of Fine Art.I find that a smaller museum is much better with a reluctant 13 year old,something you can see in a couple of hours as opposed to a couple of days.
I don't know where you are from but if you absolutely must get to the beach if it is incredibly hot there are city beaches that you can get to by subway-that might cure a hot complaining husband and son in an afternoon-however if you can go by bus to Plymouth(see the pilgrims)or even better rent a car for a day and drive south to plymouth then go for swim-it is only about 50 minutes by car but only go on a weekday otherwise traffic to cape cod is horendous.

Thanks for the link to the MBTA. What a pleasant surprise that my 11 year old will be free and that the other kids will be half price!

Do the ticket machines take credit cards?