Hi,

I have read the forums in the past to get information for trips, but I have not posted until now. I have found that one can receive very helpful advice using this forum and I would appreciate your expert help with a trip to Boston in June. We will be there for 9 days. There will be three couples, possibly four and maybe a couple of children, ages 11 and 13. We have been considering renting a 5 bedroom house in Nahant. There are also a couple of houses/condos we have considered in Hull. Could you tell us the advantages or disadvantages of staying in these places? We would be using www.vacationrentals.com or www.vrbo.com. Has anyone had any experience with these sites? Do you have any tips or advice?

We plan to go into Boston and Salem during our stay. We will have cars, but prefer not to drive into Boston. I was told there was a train station about 10 minutes away from Nahant and one not far from Hull.

Do you have any suggestions or advice on the following:
the Go Card
5 Wits
the best way to get to Salem
a good lobster dinner
Whale Watch
the best type of transportation card for our stay

I would appreciate any information or advice concerning our visit. Thanks so much.

Nahant is north of Boston, and thus much closer to Salem (about 10 miles). If you'll have a car, just drive. Nahant is on a spit of land that makes it virtually an island, with just one road in and out.

Hull, south of Boston, was formerly a blue-collar resort town with a huge amusement park. But it is now filled with condos. The beach is miles long, but very very narrow some years.

Yes, both places are within striking distance of commuter rail train lines, but I'm not sure what sort of parking you'd have access to at the stations. You can research those if necessary at www.mbta.com

Not sure what you mean by the best type of transportation card for your stay. Neither place is on a subway line, you'd be talking about Commuter Rail passes; I think you can get a book of 10 tickets for a discount.

Transport pass options depend a lot on how many trips you'd take.

I don't know that I'd choose either place. Neither are terribly convenient to Boston. As Anon mentioned, Nahant is basically an island with one road in and out so even though it's miles-wise not far from Salem, you'll have to do a lot of driving. And Hull just isn't that nice of a choice IMO.

If you're interested in Salem I'd look at other towns on the North Shore, maybe Rockport, Gloucester or Marblehead.

My mother lived in Hull until recently (or "Hell" as we called it.) It used to be known as the "Irish Riviera" when inner city folks would take the ferry down to Nantasket for the day, or rent a cottage for the summer. It's changed a bit since then.

The beach is awful - a few hurricanes took care of that. Hardly any sand left, and what's left is strewn with trash. Not much in the way of amenities - a crappy hot dog stand, just a couple of sit-down restaurants. It's very inconvenient to get to Boston via public transportation - a long bus ride before you get to any T or commuter rail station. It does have a commuter ferry into Boston, but only at rush hour. The views of Boston Harbor and the ocean are wonderful, but that's hardly worth the inconvenience. For what you're looking for, Hull is not it!

tek, sorry but Scituate is the Irish Riviera.

I can't comment on where to stay but do go on a whale watching trip. We did one from Gloucester and it was fanstastic. We saw 23 in total!

I wouldn't rent in either of these places. Both have great views of Boston, but there is NO good way to get from either into Boston since it is a long crawl to an expressway from both through heavily built up areas. Nahant is more picturesque and much more convenient for Gloucester, Salem, etc.

Gosh, I haven't posted in forever! One benefit to Nahant is that if you will have a car and want to take the T in to town, it is not a long drive to the Wonderland stop on the end of the blue line. The other comments about Nahant being closer for Salem are correct, and the suggestions to check out other towns are also not bad ones. June is early enough that I would think you could find decent deals on homes.

Don't know anything about the Go Card or whether it's worth it. Check out the T's website www.mbta.com for more info on transportation options. There are no discount tickets for commuter rail - only way to get a discount is to buy a monthly pass, which doesn't make sense for a 9 day trip. You can get a 12 ride ticket, but it's only for convenience - not a bargain.

For lobster dinner, it can be done so many ways. And lobster is just so easy to do. If you are renting a house and end up with a lovely deck or view, consider ordering from a local seafood shop and picking them up pre-cooked. If you want to go out, you could do it in whatever town you end up staying in, or hit the old standby Legal Seafoods for some chowder as well. I know, it's a chain, but they do a pretty good job consistently. Also depends on whether you want to do the dinner in Boston or near home. Might be helpful once you decide on a town to post again to get more local suggestions.

To get to Salem, there is a commuter rail stop, but if you stay in a town like Nahant, you will need a car anyway. I would suggest you just drive to Salem. Commuter rail service, especially if you are not going with rush hour patterns, can be extremely inconvenient and infrequent.

Whale watch - you can take them from several places, and they all go to virtually the same areas. You can find whale watch tours from Salem, Gloucester, Boston, Plymouth (if you end up staying south of the city), Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. I'm sure I'm missing places, but point is there are a lot of options and you may want to pick one that is near where you end up staying. It can be surprisingly chilly on the water even in the summer.

Hope this helps!

Agree with those who say not to choose either place, esp Hull. In addition to all other comments, both have horrendous noise from the jets taking off from Logan. Plymouth would be OK if you want to do Cape Cod. If you're more interested in Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead then look in those areas. I would really just drive everywhere except for downtown Boston. For that, you can drive to the nearest train or T stop but some of their lots do fill up early in the AM with commuters. They are fairly empty on weekends.

We have used similar websites to rent condos in other places and always had good luck but I do call the owner just to speak personally and get a "feel".

Have fun.

Hi,

We are following your advice and have decided not to stay in Nahant or Hull. Thanks so much for saving us from a not so good vacation. We had rather be staying in a place where there is more going on, I think.

We are now considering a house in Salem across the street from Nathaniel Hawthorne's statue. Has anyone heard of the Jonathan Archer house? We found it on www.vacationrentals.com.

Thanks.

That's more like it!

Downtown Salem will be a charming place to stay, and probably handy to the commuter rail into Boston.

It's an old and quaint neighborhood, which translates into narrow streets and the ability to listen to the conversations of people walking past your window. Do check about access to parking if you plan to rent a car for outings to the beach.

While I would not have chosen Hull as a first choice for rental outside of Boston, there are a few misconceptions that should be cleared up - I think it must have been some time since some have been there -

the train now runs from Scituate (the town nicknamed the Irish Riviera) and stops in Cohasset and Hull, as well as a few other towns, on the way to Boston - so there is convenient public transportation from Hull to Boston aside from the water shuttle - that is the Greenbush line, which ran for years, was then closed, and has since been reactivated.

There is also a water shuttle from HIngham and from Quincy, both within 20 minutes from Hull - to Boston and Logan Airport.

There are several fabulous restaurants in Hull -
that have consistently been named Best of Boston (south of), Zagats, and other magazines :

including Saporito's - which always gets rave reviews and 'worth the drive' reviews -
www.saporitoscafe.com

As does Bridgemans, which has a great decor, downstairs and up, open/glass kitchen - great chef (Paul Wahlberg) , and outdoor seating in good weather
www.bridgemansrestaurant.com

as does Jake's for seafood -
www.jakesseafood.com

and La Dalat, which has a real following -

The Ocean Club has some ok dishes and some fabulous dishes, (seafood/ribs) but nothing beats the view from an outside table on top of the cliff overlooking Hull beach at sunset - especially at low tide where the flat, clean (no trash) hard sand goes forever -
a great place to walk a dog - and/or let the kids play -

other than that, yes, the rest of the town has spots that are still reminiscent of the 'honky tonk ' paragon park days - and some of the 'fascination' type game rooms remain - and some of it has million dollar condos and homes with amazing views of Boston and seeing an increase in empty nesters from nearby Cohasset/HIngham/Scituate retiring there for the views and beach and renovating the smaller former homes of the 50's and 60s, or the new condos being built.

The main strip also has one of the oldest, renovated Carousels in the country - and a mini golf place that is always crowded - and the Clarion Hotel which bumped up the strip a bit.

It is also 10 minutes from Cohasset and Hingham, two great south shore towns with more fabulous restaurants (Tosca, Square Cafe, Bia Bistro) as well as World's End and HIngham Harbor - some historical sites, hiking and many harbor restaurants with great seafood also.

Some of the cottages often for rent that run along the road from Cohasset into Hull have nice small cove beaches - the others past the main strip, are usually on side roads and depending on which side of the peninsula depends on how great the beach and sand.

The Salem Ferry from Boston is a great way to go to Salem - if you were on the south shore you could take the water shuttles to Boston adn then the Salem Ferry -

NOw, all that being said, I don't know why for 9 days in June (when it could still be cool for beach weather) you would choose to stay in a beach type community if most of your activities were for Boston - unless it is price - and ability to cook in, etc - otherwise I would say to look into hotels/suites/in Braintree or Quincy for easy access to Boston and less expensive lodging and/or kitchenettes

The house in Salem sounds nice and if that works fro you , great - I am not familiar with the exact ins and outs of commuting to Boston from Salem -

aside from mbta.com, use hopstop.com

Also, the Go Card - you would have to go to the site, see how many of the entry /admission/sites you would actually use - add what the admission price would be without the card, and figure out if it is worth it for you to purchase them. Some tourists are good about using them and going to all the sites that make it worth their while, others are not. This is an individual choice based on what you would and would not visit during your stay.

The best type of transporation card question can also not be answered unless you are sure of exactly where you are staying, how often you will be going into Boston, etc. -

and keep in mind if you are going from Salem to Boston, so are tons of daily commuters during certain hours of the day so plan around that -