My parents are visiting the East Coast in a couple weeks, and we’re going to spend the first day in Boston, since they’ve never been. I plan to take them along the Freedom Trail; sure, it’s touristy, but it hits all the major historical spots, and we will be tourists. I figure we’ll stop for lunch in the North End along the way.
Then I was thinking of maybe taking them to Harvard, if they’re interested.
So, with aging parents in tow, that might be plenty, but I’m curious if there’s anything off the beaten path that we should check out with our extra time, especially if we decide to skip Harvard. I’m particularly curious about the areas south and west of Boston Common, since that’s pretty unfamiliar to me.
Bonus question: The following day, we’ll be renting a car and driving around Cape Cod. Haven’t researched it yet, so I’m not sure of an exact destination. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!
South of Boston Common is the Theater District(mostly following Trenton Street) You could look into shows that might be happening. After the Theater District is the south end gay ghetto. Personally I don’t find wandering that direction very interesting. Some good architecture to look at but unless you have a specific destination it isn’t that much fun the shops are more spread out and it tends to be a lot of walking.
West you have Newbury street and Boylston street both have tons of shops and restaurants to check out and are heading in the direction of the Boston public Library and the Prudential Center. Both are on Boyston but if your walking Newbury is one street over and the better one to stroll down.
For the Cape it might be more comfortable for all to take a ferry out of Boston to P-town or Martha’s Vineyard instead of making a day of driving out there. It really depends on what you’d like to see.
Looks like that is correct the high speed service has shut down till spring. There may be independent services available but for the most part I guess you’ll have to drive.
You need to stop in Faneuil Hall for lunch and or dinner … and the shopping!
My absolute favorite place to eat is Durgin Park [warning, their website has embedded cheesy Sinatra music] and if you go there, you HAVE to have indian pudding [cornmeal based, served hot with vanilla ice cream] though they also have a maple cake that is good.
Been a while since I was there, but the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is quite nice as I recall, and usually comes highly recommended by people I talk to. It’s not exactly off the beaten path, but it seems likely that not quite as many tourists make it out that way. It’s on the Fenway, which apart from this and the Museum of Fine Arts is mostly occupied by colleges and isn’t terribly exciting, though pleasant. So I probably wouldn’t recommend it as a reason to go soak in the neighborhood (at least not on a one-day trip), but if you feel like sinking a couple of hours into a museum it might be worthwhile.
As far as I’m concerned you can see about as much of Harvard as you need to in half an hour, so you could probably find time to do Harvard as well as something else, though it’d be a pretty full day. The Garder museum is my only specific suggestion, but depending on your mode of transportation and/or tolerance for walking, there are plenty of charming parts of town that are nice just to look at.
Here’s some ideas. My own personal favorite is just a stroll, in good fall weather, down the mall on Comm. Ave. , through the heart of Back Bay from downtown to Kenmore Square.
– Walk down Newbury Street and look in all the expensive stores and boutique shops. Don’t forget to look in Sweet and Nasty on Mass Ave at the enbd – they’ve got chocolates in erotic shapes.
– Walk Around Harvard Square and look at all the interesting boutique shops and bookstores.
–Walk the Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Hill
–Go to the Brattle Book Store on West Street off the Common. It’s one of the few remaining used book stores in a city that used to be filled with them.
– Walk around MIT and look at the buildings. Walk down The Infinite Corridor (Buildings 7 to 8). Go in the Stata Center and marvel at the architecture (or deplore it, depending on your taste) and see the exhibits of past MIT hacks, and the weird photos on cloth they’ve got set up. Go see the Nautical Museum at the Hart School of Naval Architecture, go to the third floor of Building 6 and see Doc Edgerton’s Strobe stuff. Go to the small exhibit space in Building 10 and the exhibit space in the Hayden Library. It’s all free. Nerdwatch.
– Stroll down the park strip on Comm Ave and see the weird sculpture (including Leif Ericson in a stubby little Viking Ship). Walk along the Charles River Esplanade and do the same (see the Sphinx-like head of Arthur Fiedler. Or look at General George Patton using his binoculars at the Hatch Memorial Band Shell.)