Amy

My nieces and I are going to Prince Edward Island for a week in early July, and we'll be meeting up in the Boston area to start our pre-PEI "road" week--probably be in Boston area June 28-30 (Saturday through Monday.)

We want to visit Orchard House (this is a very "classic chick lit" oriented trip!) as well as the rest of historic Concord and want to have a day or two in Boston, as well, but don't want to drive into Boston if we can avoid it.

From what I understand, we can get a commuter rail train into Boston if we stay in Concord, or we could stay in a town closer to Boston and get the subway in and out, then drive to Concord.

Any recommendations/suggestions/"never thought of that" ideas? This will actually be my first time in the area, and I know Boston deserves much more than one day, but we do want to make a few more stopovers on our way to PEI.

Any recommendations for places to stay; there will be four of us and we prefer a moderate budget (maybe ca. $150 a night?) but I do realize that the area and season are high.

china_cat

I don't have a specific hotel to recommend, but I think you could stay in Concord or Lexington with a rental car, then drive to the Alewife T station, and take the red line into Boston. There is loads of parking at Alewife, and you'll be fine getting in and out of there on the weekend. If your "in Boston" day is Monday well....just don't make it Monday

Commuter rail kind of sucks when you are not commuting. Its infrequent, and missing a train could cost you hours. The t is much better. And its not a hard drive.

Amy

Thanks!

My niece will actually have her own car, or otherwise I'd just wait until we got out of Boston to get a rental car. So staying in Concord and driving to the "T" for a Sunday in Boston might be best? I'm assuming we'll do the Freedom Trail and I want to go to Fanueil Hall--is Sunday a good choice for those?

Ozarksbill

Have a nice trip to PEI which we visited last year along with other Maritimes Provinces. Can't quite answer your query though live in Watertown near Boston. True enough there are commmuter rail connections into Boston from Concord as well as bus routes. I am curious about where you depart for PEI, i.e., why not stay in Boston which has many hotels and commute out to Concord or other places. Yes, we've been to Orchard House and other such sites. Of course much to see in the Boston area (we moved here four years ago). E. G. recently I took bus-subway to Charlestown for a guided tour of Bunker Hill.

china_cat

sure, Sunday is a fine choice for those. The various sites on the freedom trail will be open. and traffic and parking at the t will be easy. Red line to Downtown Crossing gets you out quite close to Boston Common, where the freedom trail starts. if you get there by 10AM or so, you can be at Faneuil Hall around lunchtime, and follow the Freedom trail to the North end, and of course, coffee and a cannoli at Mike's or the Modern. Then take the T from North Station (green line to Park street, change to the Red line out to alewife). Or plan to stay in the North End for a nice Italian dinner and head back afterwards. It should make for a nice day.

Ozarksbill

Oh so you do have a car...well then parking at Alewife and taking Red Line into Boston might work. Well yes, Freedom Trail is a good idea. The rest likely depends on nieces.

bennnie

"Red line to Downtown Crossing gets you out quite close to Boston Common, where the freedom trail starts"

Red Line stops at Park St which is on the Common - so Alewife to Park St. would be one stop closer than Downtown Crossing.

bennnie

Anothe option on a Sunday is to just drive in and park under in the garage under the common. If you get an early start, traffic won't be bad at all.

HKP

We often stay at the Best Western Tria, Fresh Pond/Cambridge. It's not a luxe place and getting in and out of the parking lot at rush hour takes courage and timing. BUT: You can walk to the end of the Red Line (Alewife station) and you are essentially right at Rte. 2 which goes out to Concord.

Another option is to stay at the Indigo "Boston-Riverside" (it's NOT in Boston, it's in Newton) right near both a ramp onto Rte. 128/I-95 and also walking distance to the end of the Green Line (Riverside station). It's longer from there into Boston than from Alewide on the Red Line, but it's more upscale than the Tria. On the other hand, you can walk from the Tria to several restaurants (great seafood at the Summer Shack!), Whole Foods, Trader joes, etc. and there's nothing but the Indigo at the Indigo.

HKP

'Submitted' too soon.

From the Indigo, you'd get to Concord by going north on I-95/128 to Rte. 2 and west from there to Concord.

HKP

BTW the $150/night cap is going to limit you -- it's a very expensive area, hotel-wise (and otherwise). Tria will come closer than the Indigo, but a good time to think about using points, AAA discounts, etc.

dfrostnh

Last september we went to Orchard House and Fruitlands. The Fruitlands website suggested the Residence Inn in Westford. We had a 2 bedroom suite for the four of us. It might fit your budget. Decent free hotel breakfast. You would have to do some driving but you would be more comfrtable. I think we had trouble finding a place near Concord and first hotel screwed up our reservation.

HKP

Not far from Fruitlands is also the Holiday Inn - Boxboro, which is on Rte. 111, which feeds right into Rte. 2 in Concord.

china_cat

I think the Indigo is a lot less convenient for Amy's purposes than other options. (It does contain the decent Bokx 109 steakhouse though) I'd check prices on the Waltham hotels before committing to some place like Boxborough, unless Fruitlands is particularly on the agenda. Minuteman National Monument in Lexington makes a nice combo with Concord.

Thanks Bennie for the redline correction. For some reason I thought Downtown crossing was closer to the start of the trail, but I'm likely wrong. And I agree that driving in on a Sunday is not bad at all, and parking under the common is not too expensive either. But so many hate to even try driving into Boston, I've stopped even suggesting it.

Amy

Thanks again, all!

My niece will be doing the driving (I don't drive) and she is from Podunk, PA, so to speak--not too happy with city driving. As it's just one day in Boston itself, I'm thinking we'll look into the Tria or Residence Inn options.

$150 isn't set in stone, of course, and it looks like about $200 for those options for that weekend which will be fine. As I said, I know it's an expensive area/time...but, alas, it's the time that I have.

Tabernash2

I replied on your Lounge thread.

I recommend staying in Brookline. Here are some restaurants there;
Lineage, 'contemporary American' http://www.lineagerestaurant.com/
Great seared scallops

Rani, Indian. http://www.ranibistro.com/
Wonderful Chicken Tikka

Taberna de Haro, Spanish tapas http://tabernaboston.prohost.mobi/
Good tapas, but a bit overpriced (pitcher of sangria, while good enough, was $34)

Pho Lemongrass, Vietnamese http://pholemongrass.net/
Very good

Khao Sarn, Thai http://www.khaosarnboston.com/
Very good

Crema Cafe, Cambridge, breakfast sandwiches http://cremacambridge.com/
Excellent coffee shop with great bagel breakfast sandwiches

If you'd prefer a B&B, we walked in and looked around this one: http://www.thebeechtreeinn.com/bti_abouttheinn.htm

DonTopaz

Boston is a great place to visit; it's also my home town and my favorite place on Earth. But there's no law that says you have to go into the city if you're nearby, and there are some terrific places to visit nearby. Concord is very definitely one of those places.

You might want to consider staying at the Sheraton Lexington. It's extremely convenient for driving (just off I-95) and a very short drive to Concord. It's within walking distance of the Minute Man National Historical Park, and it's also easy to drive from the hotel to Alewife station and the subway into Boston.

Amy

Thanks, Don! I know one day isn't going to be nearly enough for Boston, but I do want to get just a taste. Usually I travel much more slowly than this, with at least four or five nights at each place, but then again usually that's in someplace like, oh, Lithuania or something.

In Lexington, there's a Sheraton Lexington Inn, and then an "Aloft" and an "Explore" that are Sheraton properties. Do you know which one of these would be the one that's just off of I95?

Ozarksbill

Yeah, Amy, take it from me...having moved four years ago from Missouri the traffic and parking in this Bostonland can be a challenge. So we plan carefully driving in mostly familiar territory and take public transportation when possible. Anyone in Boston ever been at the intersection of Mt. Auburn and Main and Galen and Arsenal in Watertown? So is there a worse intersection?

DonTopaz

Amy, all of those places are in the same location. It used to be called the Sheraton Lexington Inn, and that property now seems to have been divided into Aloft Lexington and Element Lexington -- I don't know what the difference would be between those two.