Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report

We're just back from a long weekend in Boston and I thought I'd post a trip report since this forum was so helpful to us with our trip planning. I am a 44 year old woman travelling with my 13 year old daughter (her birthday present from me), so it was truly a "girls" weekend.

We stayed three nights in Boston, at a great bed and breakfast in the South End - Encore B and B. When planning this trip, I found the hotels to be very expensive so started researching alternatives like beds and breakfast. Ultimately, I left the decision up to my daughter and she decided that she would prefer to stay at Encore and it lived up to all of her expectations! It was in a lovely neighbourhood, on a shady tree-lined street, close to shops and restaurants on Tremont Street as well as the Prudential Centre and Copley Square. Our room was great and had a large private bath - all modern furnishings and fixtures. The owner, Reinhold, was very nice and the breakfasts were perfect.

The first night, we were tired from our drive so decided to walk up to Jasper White's Summer Shack for lobster. I thought we could stroll over to Boston Common to take in the open-air production of the Taming of the Shrew, but my daughter preferred to take in the view from the Prudential Skywalk at sunset after dinner. We had a great meal - coconut breaded shrimp and steamers as appetizers, and steamed lobster for dinner - all beautifully cooked. By the time we left the restuarant, though, a storm was brewing and it was starting to rain so Shakespeare was out of the question and we decided to skip the Skywalk - the electrical storm might have been spectacular from there, but no view...the evening was not a bust since shopping awaited in the Prudential Centre and, by the time we left, the rain had conveniently stopped and we were able to walk back to our room...

Next day, we walked up to the half price ticket booth across from Copley Square and picked up tickets for the 9 pm Shear Madness show that night. We then admired Trinity Church and picked up a Beantown Trolley Tour - we took the two-day package and used it for transportation around the city the second day. We did the full hour and 45 minute tour, which was very enjoyable - informative and surprisingly cool with the breeze from the large open sides.

We hopped off at the waterfront for lunch and the aquarium in the afternoon. We had clam chowder and lobster rolls at Legal Sea Foods - both very good. After lunch, we found the line-up at the aquarium to be very long, so we changed plans quickly and walked up to Filene's Basement for some shopping. We spent most of the afternoon there and at DSW Shoes, a great discount shoe outlet right across the street from Filene's. My daughter was very shocked at the wide open change space at Filene's, but she adjusted pretty quickly and thought it was worth it in the end...

We finished shopping just in time to catch the last trolley and took it around again to the stop closest to our B and B. We dropped our purchases off, rested a bit, changed and then we were off for the evening! We had dinner that night at Troquet, on Boylston, right across from Boston Public. This is a very nice space and the food was great - we shared a yummy tuna tartare with avocado in a sesame ginger scallion sauce to start, and then seared scallops for me and panko-crusted halibut for my daughter. The meals were so good that we had to try dessert so we shared a very delicious sticky toffee pudding with armagnac ice cream. The portions were not huge here (a good thing!) and it was expensive, but everything was beautifully prepared and presented, and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal here.

After dinner, we walked through Boston Public and saw the swans (both the real ones and the ride!) and the Make Way for Ducklings tribute. The gardens and paths were lovely. Then, we made our way down to the theatre for Shear Madness. While we were there, we picked up tickets for the Blue Man Group 5 pm show for the next day. Shear Madness was a very funny play and we both enjoyed it a lot. We stopped at Ben and Jerry's for a late night cone and then turned in for the night.

Next day, we took a cab straight to the aquarium so we were there right at 9 am when it opened. This strategy worked well as there was no line at that time and we were able to see it all in about 90 minutes. We missed the seal feeding, but caught the penguin feeding which was pretty fun. The jelly fish exhibit was fantastic and we really enjoyed this stop. We then took the trolley to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Maket - shopped a bit and had lunch at the Walrus and the Carpenter. Clam chowder in a bread bowl for my daughter, a lobster roll for me - both pretty good. We shopped a bit, and then took the trolley to the Prudential Centre. We walked up to the far end of Newbury Street and walked all the way up to Boston Public. It was a very hot day and the shopping couldn't really compare to the bargains that we got at Filene's, but it was fun to people watch...

We then walked to the theatre to see Blue Man Group - a well-deserved rest in the cool darkness of the theatre and a very fun show - we both thought it was great! We took a cab back to our room, rested again - briefly! - and then walked up Tremont Street to Hammersley's Bistro for our last meal in Boston. It was a beautiful evening so we sat on the lovely outdoor patio. We shared the prosciutto with melon appetizer - made special with the addition of a mint, chili, and lime dressing. Then my daughter had a fantastic salmon main course while I had a not so fantastic scallop and shrimp dish with curry sauce - the two scallops were very good and the sauce was delicious but the two shrimp were really not up to par, smallish and dry with the heads left on...for the price of the meal and the quality of the restaurant, I really expected two tiger shrimp...My daughter had a lovely lemon souffle for dessert while I had warm blueberry pie with ice cream - yum!

We visited the Museum of Fine Art on our last morning and we both really loved this - the American in Paris exhibit was fantastic, the Buddhist Temple room was spectacular and the Egyptian mummy exhibit was very interesting...and those were just the highlights! We really didn't spend enough time here to do the museum justice, but what we saw was wonderful and I would love to come back to spend more time.

All in all, Boston is a great city and we had a wonderful weekend there. We walked all over and never felt nervous. It was very hot and humid so we were very glad to have air conditioning at our hotel and we interspersed outdoor activities with indoor activities to keep comfortable. The trolley tour was a great way to get a quick overview of the city - its layout and its history. We saw as much as we could in the three days that we had, but there was much that we did not see and we look forward to returning!