My mother (60) and I (35) will have three days in Boston beg. May 24 (Fri-Mon) and are staying at the Park Plaza. We've been to Boston once for just a day and have already done the Freedom Trail and Paul Revere house. We love history, gardens and walking tours but have short attention spans (we never spend more than 2 hours anywhere!) We'd like to rent a car for one day only.

My mother really wants to spend some time at Harvard and surrounding area. I'd like to do Concord and Lexington, but also Plimouth Plantation or Old Sturbridge Village. Here's my draft of an itinerary:

Sat- Go to Harvard and Cambridge via the T. Spend the morning exploring that area, then spend the afternoon on a walking tour of Beacon Hill.

Sun- hit the MFA for a few hours, then the Arboretum and Public Gardens.

Mon- pick up car rental very early, then drive to Concord and Lexington. Spend morning there, then drive to Plymouth to spend a few hours at Plymouth Plantation and the Mayflower. Mapquest says it would take about an hour to drive between Concord and Plymouth.

Is this feasible, esp. Monday? Would you suggest Old Sturbridge Village over Plimouth Plantation? Any other suggestions on things I may be missing? Thank you so much for your help!!

To the best of my recollection, the Beacon Hill walking tour is held only at 11AM on Saturday, so you'd have to plan your day around that (see http://www.spnea.org/things/calendar...s.asp?State=MA). From the Park Plaza, you can walk through the Public Gardens on your way to the walking tour starting point. Then, head to Harvard Square, a terrific place to stroll, explore, shop, have dinner (reservations absolutely essential on a Saturday night).

Near the MFA is another not to be missed museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner. The Arnold Arboretum, though, is in the Jamaica Plain area. You'd need a car or have to take the commuter rail there from downtown Boston.

Lexington/Concord and Plymouth are do-able in one day if you start early and move along quickly. But, most folks (myself included) would probably advise spending the day at one or the other. It's probably closer to an hour and a half driving from Concord to Plymouth.

If it were me, I'd do Lexington/Concord and Plymouth on Sunday, to avoid the weekday traffic.

Monday, May 26 is the observance of Memorial Day, no weekday traffic worries.

Concord/Lexington and Plymouth in one day is very ambitious, either could fill a day. Concord might combine better with Sturbridge, also about an hour away. Sturbridge vs Plimoth Plantation depends on your taste -- they're almost 200 years apart, I think there's more to do and see at Sturbridge.

The Arboretum is a very unusual choice -- it's huge (265 acres) but its appeal to gardeners is unmistakable! You can see the Public Garden walking back to your hotel from Beacon Hill.

Thanks for the input. Based on what you've both said, I'm thinking of renting a car for two days instead of just one so we can fit in the Arboretum. I'd heard that you can bike through the Aboretum but the bike rental places I've found are not close, so I would need a car to transport the bikes.

Hmmm... definitely things to think about. Thank you so much for your input. If anyone else has other suggestions I'd love to hear them!

With the other posters, I would suggest that you not try to fit Concord/Lexington and Plimoth Plantation or Old Sturbridge Village into one day. Both of those areas are very interesting, and have (particularly Concord/Lexington) a variety of things to do. You will probably spend less than 2 hours doing each activity, but it could easily total more than 2 hours!

I would think twice about lots of highway driving on Monday the 26th (Plymouth or Sturbridge) as the end of holiday weekend traffic will be wild. Other spots closer to the Lexington/Concord area which you might enjoy include: a walk around Walden Pond in Concord, a visit to the Garden in the Woods in Framingham (incredible wild flower preserve), The Codman House, Gropius House or the DeCordova Museum (all in Lincoln - very near to Walden). I personally prefer Sturbridge Village over Plimoth Plantation, but both are interesting - just would hate to think of you wasting precious vacation hours in bumper to bumper traffic!

I agree with Elston and meant "holiday" rather than weekday traffic. Memorial Day is traditionally the first huge long weekend after winter, and when most "seasonal" places open for business. The traffic can be a nightmare, particularly with an accident or two.

The Arnold Arboretum is accessible by public transportation, just check their web site for map and directions. No need for an extra day of car rental. Special walking tours on Saturdays.

http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/visitors/visitors.html

The above posters are right about the potential for traffic jams late on Monday, so perhaps it would be better to take your out-of-town trip on Sunday.

When you go to Harvard Square, you might enjoy visiting the Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth) House at 105 Brattle Street. They are open for tours Wednesday - Sunday in season from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM - they also have lovely gardens and grounds that you can walk around in without paying a fee. Harvard has the Peabody Museum of Natural History, with it's amazing glass flowers exhibit, which is worth a visit.

I think that you are being much too ambitious trying to fit a trip to Plimoth Plantation or Sturbridge Village into the same day as a trip to Lexington/Concord. There is so much to see and do in the Lexington/Concord area you could easily spend an entire day and not see everything - and if you'd like to visit any of the historic houses (which I recommend doing) or museums, they don't open until 10 AM at the earliest - by the time you finished your tour, and drove to your next destination it would most likely be mid afternoon (and I assume you'd like to eat lunch at some point) - Sturbridge is an hour's drive from Concord, and Plymouth slightly more (especially with holiday weekend traffic) - both places close at 5:00 PM, and you'd need at leat two hours to see Plimoth Plantation (and the Mayflower II is not within walking distance, you'd have to drive between the two). Sturbridge Village takes at least 3 or 4 hours to see at a minimum, and you have to walk a lot between a lot of the areas, which takes time. I certainly wouldn't go to Plimoth on Memorial Day, as you'll get stuck in all the traffic with the hordes returning to the city from Cape Cod.

Sturbridge Village is great, I love to visit there, but it is a recreation of an 1830's New England Village, not a real place (all of the historic structures were moved there from other places. However, you could see many real historic sites in the Concord/ Lexington area. I fear this post is getting too long, so I will submit it now, and write another one with suggestions for that area.

Well, I did write another post, with lots of info and suggestions for what to do in the Concord area, but it seems to have disappeared into cyberspace - I guess it was too long. I've learned my lesson - from now on, I'll write my replies in a word processing program and paste them into my reply, that way I'll still have it if it fails to post. I'll write up my suggestions again in a seperate post, and then point to it from here, but I don't have time right now - I'll try to do it within the next day or so.

Sara, what a shame! The max allowable post length sems to be 400 - 500 words; any longer than that needs to be divided into multiple replies.

How about a drive north (approx 40 min)to Gloucster/Rockport & Salem. Lots of things to do and see. Nice areas to be out walking, especially if its a warm Memorial Day.

book your car now for that holiday weekend. You can always change or cancel.