Need advice on side trip near boston
 

Hi,
In July of this year, My family and I (3 teenagers) will be arriving in boston from rhode island on a thursday mid-day. As we are camping in foxboro, we plan to spend the afternoon and evening visiting the different sights (any recommendations) and then plan on going to martha's vineyard the next day or salem area- which would you recommend as a priority? We also have Saturday to explore but don't think driving to the cape to catch a boat would be recommended due to traffic. Any suggestions for this 3 day adventure?

Thanks

Well, the area around Foxboro is pretty much suburbs and malls. Its probably an hour's drive to get into Boston proper. (I've been to that campground in Foxboro -- it is close to the highway and noisy, hope you are in an RV.) Hmm.

Why not visit Boston on the Saturday? You would be going against all the traffic heading for the Cape, and would have a good long day to explore.

Thursday afternoon, you could go to Plymouth -- eat a meal overlooking the water, visit the famous rock, take a whale-watching tour (but don't get your hopes up about that rock.)
Or maybe to the nearby part of cape cod, like Falmouth or Sandwich.

If you really want to drive into Boston Thurs afternoon, you could walk part of the Freedom trail or go to Faniuel Hall area, and then get a nice meal in the Italian District (aka North Side). You could drive to the big parking lot at Riverside and take the Green Line (MBTA trolley) into the city.

Martha's Vineyard vs Salem. Hmm. MV: you would spend a long time on the ferry. MV has a quaint village that you could stroll along and window-shop in; and some beaches; and bike rentals. Salem has ticky-tacky Wax Museums and such; a true historic district showing of the sailing heritage; and shops that you could stroll along and window shop in. I don't know if either one would be a priority, but Salem is slightly more ``ordinary,'' I guess.

Do you plan to make it back to Foxboro each night? You might look into camping on Cape Anne (Wingaersheek Beach) and then you could spend Friday night/Saturday up in the Salem/Cape Anne area (Glouchester and Rockport are nice). Or, if you are camping on Cape Cod Friday night, you don't have to worry about Saturday morniing traffic.

Thanks for the advice, we`re planning on staying all 3 nights in foxboro (thurs, fri & sat) It's basically the closest available campground to Boston. Given your knowledge, I was also wondering about block island versus martha`s vineyard while in Rhode island. What do you think, which is best ?

Block Island is a more relaxed place to visit, and more do-able in my opinion.

I think Block Island would be easier to travel to/from. It has proportionally less town/shoppes, and more scenic empty spaces than MV has, but neither would be a bad choice: how do you define ``best''?

They are fairly similar in terms of what you can see and do: rent bikes, walk along beaches, stroll the harbor, eat at outdoor cafes, take a kayak or sailing trip, etc.

You might want to check if there is an outdoor concert in Boston Fri or Sat night. That might be fun.

A fun thing to do in Boston is take the aquarium's whale watching tour. It's a couple of hours. We saw several whales close up, when we did it in August.

Foxboro is now home to Patriot Place - which is essentially a shopping mall albiet a pretty cool one from one I can tell. You may want to check it out if the teens need a shopping fix.

You are also very close to Providence so you may want to check if Waterfire will be going on - I've never seen it but its recommended here often - its a music/fire thing on the river. waterfire.org is the website

For things to do in Boston, there's the Freedom Trail as has been suggested. You can do the Museum of Fine Arts, The Kennedy Library, tour Fenway Park, go sailing on the Charles, tour the USS Constitution. There's a lot to do depending on your interests.

If your kids are at all interested in sciencein Boston, Harvard's Peabody museum or the museum of science in are great and museum of science has its own parking garage and is also close to a T stop. On Block Island you could bring or rent bikes and do the whole island without having to bring a car although I've used taxi's pretty successfully there also, they dropped us off on Coast Guard beach and picked us up three hours later. While you are in RI, just over the CT border are Mystic Seaport and Mystic Aquarium if your kids would find either of those things interesting and the Native American museum at Foxwoods is very good.

Unless you plan to take your car over to the island, you don't need to deal with the Cape traffic to get to Martha's Vineyard. You can take the fast ferry (www.nefastferry.com/)
from New Bedford, which is only about 45 minutes from Foxboro. New Bedford is also home to the Whaling Museum area (www.nps.gov/nebe/), which is now a National Historic Park.

I would recommend Newport, RI over Salem. There are beaches, the mansions (www.newportmansions.org), Cliff Walk (www.cliffwalk.com), Ocean Drive (www.oceandrivenewport.com) along with plenty of restaurants and shops.

Friday traffic ain't gonna be no picnic, either!

Thanks for the great advice, as it stands we will be in RI for 4 days and will certainly take advantage of Newport and Block island. Following our 4 days in RI we will be staying in foxboro campground for 3 nights. Our plan is to perhaps visit Plymouth thursday pm and evening, than spend all of friday in Boston using public transport and Saturday will be spent partially in Salem and Marblehead. Does this seem feasible??

Certainly doable. Do expect traffic to be there even on the weekend. As much as possible, try to be going against the flow during rush hours, relax, and be patient, I've never driven 93 or 95 when there wasn't at least one slow spot, even on Sunday morning.

Considering your destinations, you might want to consider Wompatuck State Park in Hingham or Winter Island in Salem. Why pay for all the extras at Normandy Farms if you're not going to use them?