Boston Things to See & Do

So I've been pouring over travel books and putting together lists of things to do in each of my cities. To give other travelers ideas and to keep my own stuff organized, I'll be posting all my collected info in this blog.

BOSTON:

Random Facts:
• Logan Int’l Airport is 1 hr long bus ride from city, $2 gets you downtown via MBTA subway, MOST SCENCI route is the City Water Taxi which takes you from airport to Central & Long wharves for $10
• Hotel Tax—12.45%
• Restaurant & purchases meals tax—5%
• NO TAX on clothing unless purchase is over $175!!!!!!
• Cheapest places to stay – Boston Int’l Youth Hostel, Days Inn (suburbs)
• Food to try: New England Clam Chowder, Blueberry pancakes, lobster, swordfish, scrod, haddock, ice cream (“Bostonians eat more ice cream, per person, year round, than anyone else in America”)

TRANSPORTATION:
• MBTA Subway & Trolley Buses (aka ‘The Boston “T”)
o Mon-Sat 5am-12:45am, Sun 6am-12:45am
o Weekday service is every 15 min, weekends = less frequent; there are 5 lines
o Admission into subway stations is via turnstiles into which you insert a paper “Charlie” ticket ($2) or a plastic “Charlie” card ($1.70). Day or week-long Link passes ($9/$15) for unlimited travel can be purchased at Downtown Crossing, South Station, Back Bay, Gov’t Center, North Station, and Airport “T” stops.
• FYI: Buses cover more ground than subways but are often crowded and schedules can be hard to obtain.
o Two useful routes for sight-seeing are:> Charlestown-Haymarket (from Haymarket, near Quincy Market, to Bunker Hill) & Harvard-Dudley (from Harvard Sq via Mass Ave, through Back Bay and the South End, to Dudley Sq in Roxbury)
• GREAT WALKING CITY!

PLACES TO GO:
• Fenway Park
• The Gypsy Bar – has Latin night; Roxy in Theatre District has a vast dance floor
• IRISH BARS:
o The Phoenix Landing Bar and Restaurant (512 Mass. Ave, Cambridge/617-576-62600, a mock Irish pub in Central square w/ Celtic and rock performances on weekend nights
o The Buren (247 Elm St, Somerville/617-776-6896) features some of the finest musicians
o smal Druid (1357 Cambridge St, Cambridge/ 497-0965) where, as the evening wears on, crowds of young professionals give way to recent Irish immigrants
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum –Matisse, Titian’s “Rape of Europa”, notable colelction of old masters ww.gardner museum.org
• Museum of Fine Arts—largest art museum in New England www.mfa.org
o Egyptian & Nubian collections unparalleled outside of African and derive from primarily Harvard-led excavations. Features: Egyptian mummies
o Impressionists – “Dance at Bougival” by Renoir, “Waterlilies” by Claude Monet, plus van Gogh, Manet, and Degas!!!
• Cambridge, aka Harvard
o Fogg Art & Busch-Reisinger Museums – BERNINI clay model of an angel, “Skating” by Manet
 Closed until 2013 for renovations but some pieces at Sackler Museum 

• Black Bay & South End
o Black Bay= one of most exclusive neighborhoods;
o South End= more bohemian, home to many artists, and Boston’s gay community
 3rd largest Irish-American community in America
o Trinity Church – architectural masterpeice and one of most important churches in US (a Henry Hobson Richardson’s Romanesque Revival masterpeice) www.trinitychurchboston.org
o Boston Public Library
o
• Chinatown & Theatre District
o 3rd largest (after SanFran & NYC) Chinatown (pop=8,000)
o “Caution should be excercised but moving increasingly upscale”
o Brattle Book shop – 250,00 rare books and magazines

• North End & Waterfront
o Boston’s 1st neighborhood, heavily Italian now
o Paul Revere House & Mall
o St. Stephen’s Church
o Boston Tea Part ships & Museum
o New England Aquarium
o Old N Church- Paul Revere link & Boston’s oldest church www.oldorth.com
o Hanover Street – most Italian st
o Whale Watching ships!

• Old Boston & Fin District
o King’s Chapel & Burying Ground – est. 1688, many important US history figures buried here. www.kings-chapel.org
o South Meeting House (speeches here led to Tea Party!) – reenactments of debates! www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org
o Old Corner Bookstore – est 1718. People who’ve been here – Harrie Beecher Stowe, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau, Longfellow, Hawthorner, Emerson
o Irish Famine Memorial
o Post Office Square
o Verizon BuildingQuincy Market – Shepherd’s Pie! 10-10M-S, Sun 12-6
o Old State House 9-5pm daily
 Site of the Boston Massacre, near Old State House
 Dec of Ind read from the balcony here!
• Beacon Hill & West End
o Nichols House Museum
o Beacon Street – urban mansions
o Boston Common & Public Garden
 GW statue
o Park Street Church – Sun 8:30,11,4,6
o MA State House – 10am – 3:30pm M-Fri, rez rec’d

• Concord (outside Boston)
o Sleepy Hollow Cemtary –graves of Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, & Ralph Waldo Emerson


EVENTS:
• (2nd Weekend of Sept) Feasts of Saints Comsa & Damiano – East Cambridge – Italian festival w/ parade
• Boston Blues Festival
• Beantown Jazz Festival (with salsa!)


***CITATION*** Eyewitness Travel – Boston ($20.00) and Wikipedia provided this information