I am trying to figure out the best way for our family of four to get to Boston from our hotel in Woburn for 4 days (Saturday to Tuesday). The hotel is close to a commuter rail line (Anderson station) but it will cost more than I thought to take the train even though one of my kids is free (age 11). We will be driving from the Philadelphia area on Saturday and arriving late afternoon. I read that we could park in the financial district on the weekends, but this may even be tough this weekend with the Yankees in town on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. We don't mind walking and would like to see a lot of the city on foot. So what is the best way (weighing both cost and time spent)to get to Boston?

You are highly unlikely to find street parking in the Financial District, and it is metered on Saturdays, forcing you to come back to feed the meter.

Park in the Post Office Square garage in the middle of the Financial District between Franklin, Pearl, Congress and Milk Streets. There are lots of other garages near the Aquarium and Quincy Market. They cost a lot more.

You can easily walk to the T at Aquarium or Park Street. The neighborhood is quiet but safe at night.

I don't think the presence of the Yankees will have a big effect on downtown parking. The Brookline/Fenway area may be full up, but you wouldn't park there anyways. You can park in Post Office square garage, or use the lot under Boston Common which is very central, easy to find, and one of the cheaper ones.

Alternatively, you could park at Alewife station and take the red line into the city. the T is cheaper than commuter rail.

Thanks so much for the info. I did more research on the mbta site and found out our hotel is not too far from the Wellington Station of the T. Do you think we could find parking there on Mon and Tues? We are early risers but I don't think we'd get there until about 8am.

Not sure if the Wellington station fills up early or not. And it's not particularly convenient to Woburn either.

Any chance you can cancel your reservation and get a hotel in Boston? Woburn is not close or convenient and you'll basically be commuting into the city like the tens of thousands of other commuters.

We stayed in Woburn recently and parked at Wellington to take the T. It's easy and I would say its convenient to Woburn-we found it to be. You'll have to ask for directions at your hotel as I can't remember which exit to take (I think its either on Route 16 or 60). We had no problems parking, but it was a weekend. Not sure how weekdays are.

It would be much more convenient to just ride the Commuter Rail from Woburn than to drive to the Wellington station on weekdays. If you're going to join the rush hour traffic, you may as well continue on into Boston, which you'll have to do anyway if the garage is full.

You'd have no problem parking at Post Office Square over the weekend.

Sept-June Wellington is full before 8 AM. Summer is usually lighter, but MBTA commuter numbers has increased 15-20% over last year due to gas prices - so I would not count on getting a space. And then you arrive in Boston at 8:30 when nothing is open.

I know of no hotel within reasonable walking distance to Anderson with a family - where are you staying?

You are presenting the constant problem those of us in Boston discuss here with tourists. Hotel prices in Boston are very high, so one would think it logical to stay slightly out of town and commute in. But distance for Boston commute does not often equal time estimate - it can take an hour to go 10 miles depending on means of transportation. Cost and parking are also issues. And commuter rail runs infrequently outside of M-F rush hours.

I think, if hotel is set, a cab to Wellington might be the best option.

Grew up in Woburn. Always get to Boston by way of Wellington. Does fill up fast on weekday mornings.

If your hotel will offer a free shuttle to Anderson, I'd do that. Very convenient.

Wow, Thanks for lots of good suggestions. We are staying at the Best Western New Englander. Very reasonable with AAA (booked 2 months ago)and they have a pool and free parking. They also have a free shuttle to Anderson but the Wellington station is only 7 miles from the hotel. I don't think I'll mind that drive, but finding no parking at the station would be a big problem. Still not sure which way we'll go but all the suggestions have definitely helped.

Just checked location of your hotel. It is right at entrance to I93. Based on that, for any weekend trips, I would actually drive into Boston. There are weekend parking deals at various places and when you factor in actual cost of RT MBTA fares for the family and infrequent commuter rail service on w/e, that makes sense to me.

Mon and Tues is still a toss-up. Depending on your time of transit, I would use some combination of suggestions above, making sure the shuttle to Anderson, if that is your choice, actually is going to run if you return later in the evening.

Lots of garages in the Government Center area (near Quincy Market and the Common) charge $10 on weekend days. I often park at the Center Plaza lot which is across the street from the Government Center T stop. The garage under the Common is cheap also.

We are back from a wonderful trip to Boston and surrounding area. If I have a chance, I'll post a full trip report, but in the mean time, here is what we did for transportation. We ended up driving to the Wellington station (all 4 days we went into Boston) which was about 15 to 20 minutes from our hotel. We parked there for $3.50 each day and had no trouble finding parking, even at 8:15 on Monday and Tuesday. We purchased a link pass for $15 for the week (per person)for 3 of us, one son was free (we got these ahead of time at a Foodmaster near the Wellington station). The link pass was well worth it as we used the T quite often and could get off and on to get around the city. We did quite a bit (in Boston, Salem, Plymouth and 6 Flags) and just a note that we used the Go Boston Card which for us was a great deal because we did so many different activities and museums.

Can I slightly hijack this? How hair raising would it be to drive into Boston and park on a Saturday or Sunday, arriving around 10AM. What would be the best parking spot for general sightseeing? The Post Office garage?

Like the original poster, I was thinking of taking the train in but just now a I am realizing that the commuter rail's hours may not be convenient for a weekend.

vivi - Traffic shouldn't be bad at all, for Sat or Sun mornings. The most important thing is to have a GPS with you. The difficult part about driving in Boston is

1) aggressive drivers
2) lots and lots of curvy streets which are one-way
3) lack of street signs

Re GPS - I have a GPS, love it, us it - but in any city that has recently completed or has ongoing construction, you have to take it is assistance, not the last word on routing. (My then 8 month old GPS would have had me going in cirlces with a new ramp configuration in Washington area). So just beware.

Only issue with a Sat AM and Sun evening is you may hit some pockets of away-for-the-weekend people - but this is usually not horrible and depends on where you are coming from.

If you can drive in a city, you can drive in Boston - it is just a little tougher to find your way around.

My daughter recently used our Garmin in downtown Boston, including the complicated and changing North Station area, and the only time she had problems was when exiting the "Big Dig" tunnel (AKA Route 93) because it had lost reception while inside the tunnel and didn't get re-oriented in time to tell her which way to go when she emerged.

Great that you found parking at Wellington station at that time of da. Maybe it was due to the summer months with less students travelling.

Right re GPS. I think the best way is to go to Google or Mapquest and print out the directions; with the GPS as a back-up in case of road closure or missing a turn.

Although I have driven in Boston for several years, I still get lost if I don't pay 100% attention. Many of the turns (such as which lane to be in, in order to get on Storrow Drive) are just completely NOT intuitive. And by the time you realize you're in the wrong lane, it's too late to cut through the traffic because the rude Bostonian drivers will never let you cut in. So next thing you know, you're in some curvy one-way street and you have no idea how to get back to where you wanted to go!