Personally, I wouldn't say in Chelsea, but if you don't plan to see/do anything in Boston then I think you might find it easier to stay somewhere like Saugus or Revere than to try to navigate getting out of downtown Boston during the morning commuting time.

Travelgourmet says
"Do not stay in Revere. Drive to New Hampshire before you stay in Revere. The only reason to ever go to Revere is to go to the original Kelly's. Don't be tempted by the "airport hotels" in Chelsea either."

Pay attention, do what he says. Do not stay in Revere/Chelsea.

Travelgourmet says
"1) Book a room in one of the hotels in the "South Boston Waterfront" if you can get a decent deal. The Silver Line (basically a long bus with some dedicated lanes) offers free service from the airport to the area."

This is also a very good suggestion, and is in fact what I am doing later this year. Got a good rate at the Westin Waterfront which is right at the Silver Line stop for the Convention centre.

Check with your car rental company, many have the Easy Pass transponder for a small extra cost. It is well worth the expense for driving on any of the toll roads in the east.

Hi everyone,

I'll try and adress some of the issues raised from our point of view.

Firstly food. I'm hoping to fly Air France. I live in France, French cuisine is incredible
and, I believe, Air France offers the best food above the Atlantic.

It's an 8 hour flight. I have 3 hours travelling to get to Heathrow Airport and they require me to be there 2 hours before take off, because of US formalities. Add at least another hour after landing in Boston and it means I'll have been travelling for getting on for 15 hours. I'll also have a body clock that is 6 hours ahead of local time. If we eat about 8pm, it'll feel like 2 am to me. I'm not saying we won't want to do anything, but it probably won't be anything much more than getting changed in the room and walking to find a restaurant that serves something fairly light.

Oh, the date is probably the second week in December, so I'm also guessing it'll feel very cold to me. I'll have left daytime temperatures around 20C (68F) behind me.

I want to thank everyone for taking part. The discussion has been lively but incredibly valuable to me. It has helped me form some firm ideas about how, why and where to stop in Boston.

Because we are staying in the US until the end of January, it is still a little early to get good deals on flights, but I will almost certainly be booking the flights in the next few weeks. Once the flights are finalised everything else will follow.

Thanks again

<i>It's an 8 hour flight. I have 3 hours travelling to get to Heathrow Airport and they require me to be there 2 hours before take off, because of US formalities. Add at least another hour after landing in Boston and it means I'll have been travelling for getting on for 15 hours.</i>

It will be even longer if you want to take Air France. As best I can tell, the shortest possible flight with Air France would leave LHR at 12:15pm, connecting in CDG and getting you in at 5:45pm. Using the other travel times you mention, you are looking at closer to 17 hours, though you won't do US formalities in London, so you only need to meet the intra-EU thresholds.

A nonstop flight would shave 3 hours off that time, as (barring very strong headwinds) it is usually closer to 7 hours than 8 for the nonstop. I would not trade the extra time traveling just for Air France's food, especially in coach. Don't get me wrong, the food on BA is bad, but I would just bring some sandwiches and save the time. If you really wanted, you could bring a tin of foie gras and pretty much replicate what you would get in Air France business class.

If you are seeing a nonstop Air France flight, note that this will be operated by Delta, not Air France.

<i>Oh, the date is probably the second week in December, so I'm also guessing it'll feel very cold to me.</i>

You should expect daytime temps around freezing. You might get lucky (or unlucky), but bring a good jacket.

Thanks once aagain travelgourmet.

You're right of course. I was remembering that last time I flew into Boston I flew on an Air France service but had forgotten that, on that occasion, I did indeed fly out of CDG Paris. I'm not a great lover of British Airways so will probably choose the Virgin Atlantic service, although I am told that BA has dramatically improved over the past couple of years.

Thanks for the temperature information. It will be colder than I had thought.

You appear to be a very sensible and intelligent person, one who retests his theories as the available information changes. It is all too rare here, and it makes you a good person to work with.

Have a good trip and don't hesitate to return as time goes on.

Thanks Ackislander.

I certainly came to the forum with an open mind and am pleased that it was appreciated.

I have now, with the amazing support of everyone on here, more or less made my decisions about travelling. Although nothing is booked yet, I intend flying Virgin Atlantic, LHR to Logan. The flight gets in about 5:30pm and I expect an hour or so clearing through the airport. I shall then go off airport to a hotel and find a light meal. The following morning I'll head north to Camden.

I will certainly be returning in the next few months with other questions as I plan my whole trip. I've now settled on dates with the family in the USA and will be there for 7 weeks, based in Camden ME. Obviously, there will be family things to do around the holiday season but I'm hoping to get some trips in during January before I fly back to Europe.

I'd love to come to Maine in the fall, but the family really enjoys all being together over the Christmas/ New Year holiday season. Maybe next time!

Thanks to everyone for being so incredibly supportive and riding with me as I bumbled along.

<i>I'm not a great lover of British Airways so will probably choose the Virgin Atlantic service, although I am told that BA has dramatically improved over the past couple of years.</i>

I have no particular problems with BA and find them roughly on par with Air France in coach (AF wins for premium economy, and BA wins in biz due to the far better seat). The one downside might be that, IIRC, BA may not let you choose seats in advance without some sort of fee or elite status. I haven't flown Virgin in ages, so can't comment too much there.

In the plus column for BA is that T5 is the best terminal at Heathrow by far (and my favorite "airport" in Europe). Given the extra time you will want to build in coming from Portsmouth, that can make a pretty big difference. If the flight times are better (BA offers a lot more options to BOS than anyone else) or the price lower, then I wouldn't hesitate to fly BA.

Thanks travelgourmet,

I went off BA a few years ago after a couple of bad experiences. It was at a time when BA were in dispute with their cabin crews but, as a passenger, that is outside my control. I've not flown with them for several years now.

I'm being offered identical fares from both Virgin Atlantic and BA and my own experiences with Virgin have been good.

I accept your comments about T5, although Virgin have created a dedicated section of T3 for all their services. Heathrow themselves are now advising arrival three hours ahead of departure for all Intercontinental flights.

The Virgin flight takes off at 14:40 which gives me a rather better ultimate departure time of about 7:00 allowing for the connection.

The BA departure is at 11:15 and it's not easy for me to get to LHR by 8:15 am and may involve another hotel!

I will be flying coach so appreciate there is very little to choose other than a schedule that suits me and price.

I've also just discovered that if I book the hotel in Boston at the same time as the flights I can save upto about £50.00 which is also a help!