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Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: somunny on November 28, 2006, 12:48:34 pm
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My wife and I are heading to Boston for the weekend Friday. She's six months pregnant so we won't be doing the bar/club scene this time.
History/art suggestions? We're staying at the Westin - Copley Place.
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Lets see this time of year:
The Boston Aquarium
Boston Common / Public Garden
Boston Pops / BSO
Museam of Science
Museam of Fine Arts
Boston Bruins
Faneuil Hall - Shops
Boston Ballet
North End / Restaurants - Italian / Pastries *** Highly reccomended
Back Bay Finer Dining
Around Copley and the Common are higher end / designer stores esp around Newbury st. You are also close to the prude / john hancock bldg. which you can get some great views of Boston
Theres a ton of stuff depending on what you want to do. My wife and I went into the city for the pumpkin festival lighting and our newborn dug it.
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Good suggestions. I second the North End restaurants. You'll find Italian restaurants there that rival any in the US.
I'd also consider the USS Constitution or a Celtics game. The Patriots play an hour south of Boston (and about 5 minutes from my house).
One of my favorite things to do in Boston, and hella inexpensive, was to catch a Northeastern University hockey game. World class college talent in a tiny arena for only a few bucks a seat.
Faneuil Hall is a great place to eat, too. One of the best all around spots in Boston, great food, great shops. One of the oldest restaurants in the US is there.
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North End / Restaurants - Italian / Pastries *** Highly reccomended
Back Bay Finer Dining
This sounds a lot like North Beach in San Francisco. We'll put it at the top of the list.
Faneuil Hall is a great place to eat, too. One of the best all around spots in Boston, great food, great shops. One of the oldest restaurants in the US is there.
Yes, local dining is always poular on our trips. :) The Constitution also sounds interesting. I believe we'll definitely hitting at least one museum, as well.
What about the Heritage/History (??) walk? We don't mind hoofing it and the cold doesn't bother us either. Just as long as it's not pouring outside.
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Heres a nice site that covers a lot of restaurants in the NE area but the do a really good job of rating those in the Boston area depending on your tastes
http://www.phantomgourmet.com/ (http://www.phantomgourmet.com/)
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Phantomgourmet is great for finding places outside of Boston. Inside of Boston it's mostly for whoever paid them the most that month.
I wouldn't bother with those "history walks" either. They'll trek you around to lots of places and say "250 years ago something else was here" 25 times and charge you more than it was worth.
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I wouldn't bother with those "history walks" either. They'll trek you around to lots of places and say "250 years ago something else was here" 25 times and charge you more than it was worth.
Hmmm... I was hoping it was something that we could do by ourselves. We're definitely not the group tour types. Much more anti-social. ;)
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We don't mind hoofing it . . .
At six months this ain't gonna last much longer :)
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How about an NBA game? The Celtics are there.
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Then everyone will know you're a tourst. People from Boston don't go to Celtics games anymore. :laugh2:
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History/art suggestions? We're staying at the Westin - Copley Place.
Not my favorite place in the world. I've been a couple times, never want to go back.
So you were that guy :P ... for me I couldn't call any other place home.
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Thanks for the suggestions, guys. My wife and I don't really follow sports (though I'll admit I enjoy the experience of going to an event once in a while) so we probably won't be doing a game.
Dining is a different story. We're big fans of food.
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This site (http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/) will help quite a bit... Faneuil Hall is probably the best bang for the buck tourist spot in Boston that isn't a total tourist ripoff spot. Great shopping and food there. Lots of history, especially if you eat at Durgin Park.
My personal favorites in Boston are the New England Aquarium (http://www.neaq.org/index.nonFlash.html) and the Boston Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/). The MOS in particular has an IMAX and Planetarium (http://www.mos.org/doc/1001) that I consider must do items. Their Pink Floyd laser show is awesome. Avoid the Star Wars themed Planetarium show, it's lame.
A lot of people love the Duck Tours (http://www.bostonducktours.com/) and they're okay but IMO the cost/fun ratio just isn't worth it. YMMV.
BTW, the Aquarium is within reasonable walking distance of Faneuil Hall and also has an IMAX now. That's my best recommendation. Hit Faneuil Hall for good food and to satisfy your wife's shopping needs and walk over to the Aquarium for an IMAX show and the Aquarium itself.
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Hey, thanks for the nice write-up. I believe my wife had mentioned Faneuil Hall (though in my head, I heard "Nathaniel Hall" :dunno) so I'm sure we'll be heading over there.
The science museum sounds cool. Something we'd both dig. Throw in IMAX and Floyd shows and we've killed a whole day right there. :)
Too bad about the Star Wars show. Thanks for the warning. However, I can totally see my wife pushing for us to check it out as I'm a huge SW fan.
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No problem. The SW show is barely SW... it talks about the possibility of life on other planets and uses the concepts of life on Tatooine and Hoth as examples of how it could survive in extreme locations. Doesn't show much more than stills of the SW stuff and doesn't tie it in very well. It just uses the SW license to get people to come see something less entertaining than the other shows.
The MOS is gigantic. You could easily spend your whole day there and not pay proper attention to everything. One thing I forgot to mention, they have the world's largest Van De Graaf generator there. The demonstration of its abilities is not to be missed.
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The Computer Museum has been closed since 1999. The hardware was moved to California. Their organization joined the Museum of Science staff and built the Virtual Fish Tank. It's kind of cool but usually full of unattended 8 year olds running around under zero control.
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WPI is a decent school but you're right, a lot of rich kids there.
Just like any other major University and there are tons of them in Boston.
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Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
We did *a lot* on walking (the first day). Went from the Back Bay area to the North end and back on foot. The next day we decided to experience the joy of mass transit. The "T" is probably the fastest and easiest to use transit system my wife and I have ever used.
We checked out Quincy Market, spent an afternoon at the Museum Of Science and saw numerous historical landmarks. Even got a little snow on Monday! Great city. Clean. Not Seattle clean but not San Francisco or New York, either. We love all those cities so it really doesn't matter anyway...
One thing that stood out to us was the sheer number of young (<35) people there. Everyone was young! All in all, a great trip.
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Boston is a huge college city. Many many colleges and universities, many of them the most prestigious in the country. So you see a lot of young folks around this time of year, especially if you're near one of those schools.
The T has improved dramatically over the last 15 years. It's still scary at night at the wrong stops but with the newer trains it's much more pleasant than it used to be.
Did you hit the Planetarium or the Van De Graaf show at the MoS?
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Boston is a huge college city. Many many colleges and universities, many of them the most prestigious in the country. So you see a lot of young folks around this time of year, especially if you're near one of those schools.
The T has improved dramatically over the last 15 years. It's still scary at night at the wrong stops but with the newer trains it's much more pleasant than it used to be.
Did you hit the Planetarium or the Van De Graaf show at the MoS?
Now I feel dumb. Of course, colleges. As for the Planetarium and the VDG generator - yes and yes. The Van De Graaf show was amazing!
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Which Planeterium show did you see? Hopefully you talked the wife out of the Star Wars show. Their lectures are always awesome but hard to catch. Of the laser shows, I'd say Pink Floyd is the best (and oldest), but the Metallica one was pretty good too. The Beatles laser show gets a bit dull after a while. I haven't seen the Nirvana or Led Zeppelin shows yet. It's a hard trip now that I have kids and don't live in Boston proper.