Boston places to stay? Please help

[newnana]

Hi guys,
I still haven't booked our hotel for our August Boston vacation. We've never been there and are doing kid-centric touristy things. No car. Plan to ride the T/buses everywhere.

When we were in Chicago we stayed at the marvelous Seneca per the recommendations on this board and could not have been more thrilled with location and amenities (bedroom with a door so DD could go to bed on time and DH could stay up and hang out). Having the kitchen was nice so DD and I could do cereal and milk without waking up DH, but not a necessity, esp if there is a free continental breakfast or someplace we could walk to.

So our keys are:
clean
bedroom with a door
location close to transportation easy so DD can walk and get us to all the major touristy stuff like kids museums, USS Constitution, Freedom Trail, etc.

Any other Boston recommendations you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to you guys our Chicago vacation rocked and convinced us to do this. I saw another thread about riding the swans and frog pond, so we'll do that. DD loves American Girl, so we'd like to do that, but I don't know if we'd need a car for that. Help please!

What about the Boston Hotel Buckminster? It looks like it might meet my recs, but I would love suggestions and am not familiar with locations there. Thanks!

http://www.bostonhotelbuckminster.com/easyaccess2.html

[Swimfreak78]

Here's a link to Frommer's that might help (http://www.frommers.com/destinations...004026921.html)

The Hotel Buckminster is near Fenway park - very close to the T (just down the street), but beware that if there is a Red Sox game you may hear the crowd and that resturants in the general area will be busy. That being said - it's a really nice area there. I really like the french resturant just around the corner from there. Hotel Commonwealth is fairly near there as well, but not sure if they do suites.

[scriptkitten]

Westin Copley Square

[elbert]

A car is pretty necessary for the American Girl, which is located in Natick, a suburb of Boston.

[mariza]

For the activities you describe I would stay in the waterfront area. Marriott Long Wharf is right next door to the Aquarium and on the other side has a nice little park with a small enclosed playground, it's right across the street from Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall and adjacent to the Blue line subway. There are Trolley Tour Companies outside of the hotel that offer tours of the city in which you can get on and off all day. Great way to see the city instead of walking the whole freedom trail in the heat of August. I used to work for 2 of the companies there, I would recommend the silver trolley, "Cityview trolley tours". I know they have built lots of new hotels in the area since my trolley driving days (12 years ago!) so if you search "Boston waterfront hotels". You'll come up with lots more options. PP is right about the American Girl store not being easily accessible, maybe pull up the website for the Natick Collection Mall and see if they offer public transportation suggestions. I grew up in the city but live wayyyy out in the burbs now, will try to help with any other questions you might have though. Have fun

[cckwmh]

I agree with PP about the waterfront area. The green line sucks IMO. The fenway area is on the green line. my DD who loves riding the T, begs us to walk instead of going on the green line. She often gets motion sick on it, and depending if there is a game - it is wall to wall people. if we are going to Kenmore, we will walk from back Bay on Orange Line (which is a long walk depending on your kids ages).

I would also check out the hotels that are closer to the public gardens, too.

If you feel like going to a game, we usually try to get tickets from scalpers during the 2nd inning, much cheaper.

Depending on the ages, interests of your kids, there is a tour of fenway that is pretty cool. you get to go into the green monster and see all the autographs inside the wall (only on a non game day).

[pb&j]

A car is pretty necessary for the American Girl, which is located in Natick, a suburb of Boston.

You could take commuter rail + taxi to the Natick Mall. It would be a lot cheaper than renting a car just for that one outing. Having a car in Boston is a huge pain, and parking will run about $40/day.

[Swimfreak78]

You could take commuter rail + taxi to the Natick Mall. It would be a lot cheaper than renting a car just for that one outing. Having a car in Boston is a huge pain, and parking will run about $40/day.

There's always Zip Car - if you have a car seat that might work out for you. Having worked in the Fenway area they are great. Essentially, you rent the car for X hours and then return it. Here's the link - http://www.zipcar.com/boston/check-rates I know of several people who have gotten them to waive the intial fee.

[AnnieW625]

HIGHLY recommend looking on VRBO. We stayed in this 1 bedroom apartment rental in Jamaica Plain (it's the downstairs portion of a house) in 2008. The owners were awesome (they live above) and we barely saw them. The couch was a fold out couch, but since DD1 was 2/1/2 at the time they ended up providing a cot for her to sleep in in the main bedroom. They required a deposit to book, and then I paid the remainder when we arrived. I was picky and wanted a location that had street parking so that pretty much limited us to Jamaica Plain, and South Boston. We had a rental car which was nice and needed to get to and from the airport (plus we were going to wedding near Fairhaven, an hour+ away), but one day when we did the Duck Boat tour and walked around the Boston Common we took the T train, which was less than a 10 minute walk from the rental in Jamaica Plain. Seriously the worst thing about it was that you could hear the T train from the bedroom, but for less than the $150 a night we paid it was the best deal we could find. The only other slight bummer was that when we were there there was only a VCR and a limited amount of movies (I think DD watched Babe, and Charlotte's Web) so you might want to bring a DVD player. The owner had said that they were planning on replacing the stove after we left, but the photos are exactly the same as they were of what it looked like when we stayed. There was a little food coop up the street, and a CVS, Dunkin Donuts, and some other shops (including the rental owners antique shop a few minutes away). I also highly recommend bringing your GPS, we would've been lost without in Boston (however print out directions on how to get to the airport to where ever you end up staying because GPS won't work in some of the tunnels near the airport).

I also emailed the owner of this 2 bedroom rental in South Boston, and she was really friendly, but it ended up being booked before we could finalize our trip plans.

We also drove to the area near the Boston Childrens' Musuem (which I highly recommend!), and a parking lot was $10, which I didn't think was that bad.

Here is a link to the Best Western hotel that we thought about staying at and it got good reviews on Trip Advisor, but overall I was super happy with the Jamaica Plain rental we choose, and even though it was in one of the more well known hip areas like Back Bay or Fenway Park areas I always felt very safe there and the people in general seemed very friendly.

[newnana]

Thank you all soooooooo much! And sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Work has been.... work.

so, avoid the greenline. Check!


Annie, thanks for the VRBO link! i had completely forgotten about that! Unfortunately it looks like everything on there for Boston other than houseboats is booked for the first week of August. That would have been amazing. I even saw some with bunk beds, which DD would have been over the moon for.

So then I started looking at hotels on the waterfront near the aquarium as mentioned below. Holy moly those are expensive. I do have a few marriott points that might cover a night or 2.

Still looking. if you guys see any screaming deals on a great place, I'd love to hear it!

I'm following the list provided here by other for our guide: the swan boats and frog pond, USS Constitution, Children's Mueseum, freedom trail (thanks for the tip on the silver trolley hop on/hop off tour, that will be a huge help!!!)

So I'm debatingthe citypass vs. the other pass offered in Boston.

Keep 'em coming, and thank you, thank you, thank you!