Boston Trip Notes
Just back from a terrific long weekend in Boston! My daughter is a student there, and my sister flew up from Florida so that we could have a “girls’ weekend.” What a great time we had talking, catching up, shopping, dining, and a soaking up a little history and culture.
I’ll get to work on organizing some terrific Boston trip-planning info for you, and post it under Travel Planning asap. In the meantime, here are some brief comments:
Boston is a perfect destination for Big City Fun — especially when the weather is fine, as it was this weekend. The city is compact, so that you can easily walk most places, or hop on the “T” (the subway) for a short ride. There’s plenty to do, and somehow the city is stimulating without being overwhelming.
1. Getting from the airport to your hotel: While excellent transportation is available via the subway and commuter rail, you are probably best off just forking over the $30 or so for a taxi to take you straight to the door. That way you won’t have to worry about transfers, hauling your luggage up and down several stairwells, on and off the trains, and down the streets to your hotel.
2. Definitely try to include a guided tour of the Freedom Trail. It sounds trite, but this sort of thing really does bring history to life. Our lively, informative, costumed guide from The Freedom Trail Foundation packed a fascinating 90-minute history course in to our $12 tour. Then after the tour, feeling noble that we had “done” our history bit, we were free to go shopping!
3. Speaking of shopping … Newbury Street is the main shopping drag, and was pulsing with music and thronged with shoppers on this first-nice-spring-day-Saturday. Try to shop here on a weekday; if you have to go on Saturday, just mentally prepare yourself for an intense, thirsty experience, carry a bottle of water, go with the flow, maybe take a break on a side street — you’ll still have fun. We did a little damage here — I’ll write up a section on Newbury Street shopping soon. Other than Newbury Street, we did stop in at Filene’s Basement, but found we were not in the mood for digging; found an an amazing selection of “comfy-yet-cute” shoes at The Tannery, 402 Boylston (parallel to Newbury, between Arlington and Berkeley). Don’t mind the slick and somewhat pushy staff — the quality of the shoes is excellent, and the prices fairly reasonable — especially during the frequent sales.
4. Dining: We enjoyed a variety of terrific dining, and can recommend any of the following: B & G Oysters (South End) for oysters — I had no idea there were so many varieties! — and a small seafood-focused menu with delightful wine pairings; Figs (Beacon Hill), by celebrity chef Todd English, for gourmet thin-crust pizzas, plus inventive appetizers, salads, and entrees (to avoid what can be an insane wait, try to stop for a late lunch — we got right in); Sel de la Terre (Downtown/Waterfront), for wonderful French/Bistro/Provencal cuisine (lunch, afternoon, dinner, late night, and brunch) in an elegant but low-key restaurant/boulangerie; and the fun, casual Parish Cafe and Bar (Back Bay) which serves imaginative sandwiches and entrees inspired by local chefs.
Ok that’s it for now. Like I said, I’ll get to work asap on more detailed Boston info asap, and post it under Travel Planning. But now, back to work on figuring out how to do the newsletter … expecting a call on that this afternoon.
