Boston, Montreal, New York, and red eye survival suggestions!

[California]

DH is Canadian and we're going to Montreal to spend time with his family.

I'm taking the kids early to Boston, meeting DH in Montreal, and then we're spending a few days in NYC. Kris's NYC report mentioned knowing places to eat in advance. This would be such a huge help for us!

For those in Boston- any suggestions for a park or coffee house with reasonably easy parking that's close to the airport? I know we won't find easy parking in the city itself. When we arrive in Boston, it'll be 6 am/3 am our time. (Direct flight, I picked that over a long layover.) My thought is if I need to, I'll just pull over and we'll sleep for an hour, and then I'll get a big cup of coffee. We plan to park the car at the AirBnB (neighborhood parking is available) and switch to using the subway.

Any restaurant recommendations that are kid friendly around the Freedom Trail? Or Plimoth Planation? My youngest DD will be doing the Junior Ranger program, we'll do a self-guided tour, visit the USS Constitution, and then spend a day down at the Plimoth Plantation.

Then we have a night in Lexington for more history stuff there and in Concord, and then drive to Montreal.

Any suggestions for where to stop for lunch on the way to Montreal?

We're well covered in Montreal as DH's got a ton of family there.

NYC, we're using all the suggestion's from Kris' post. So grateful for that!

[nfceagles]

Near the Freedom Trail I would grab lunch at Faneuil Hall.

I’m not sure I understand what you’re looking for wrt parking. Might help us if you tell us where the AirBnB is. Are you looking for something between the airport and the rental in case you need to pull over to sleep? How far away is the rental? Or are you looking for a place to park and grab the T? My favorite parking for sightseeing in Boston is the lot under Boston Commons.


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[westwoodmom04]

There isn’t a ton near Logan in East Boston. Why not just head to your Airbnb? There should be a coffee place and park nearby?

[California]

Thank you for the tip on the lot under the Boston Commons. That must have been quite the building project!

Our AirBnB is about 15 minutes from the airport on south side of Boston- without traffic. Not sure what the neighborhood is called. It's not as far south as Quincy. The predicted traffic for mornings looks really heavy and the drive time more than doubles. A spot to stop is a backup plan. Hopefully it'll be fine. I just never know if I'll actually be able to sleep or not on a plane!

Looking online, the East Boston Memorial Park is right next to the airport, and there's also a big East Boston library. Those could both work for my kids. My oldest two are definitely old enough to keep an eye on my youngest, if I conk out in the minivan.

We've never been to Boston or NYC. So happy that we get to add this and NYC onto our trip!

[Philly Mom]

So for NYC, we love Uncle Nicks. It is Greek but simple. So good and affordable. There are Shake Shacks and 5 Guys around and those are reliable for fast food. Johns Pizza is good. I like the food options on the water near the World Trade Center on the West Side. There is a food hall and you can sit outside and watch the boats. There are lots of good neighborhood places.


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[mom2binsd]

I would plan to stop in Burlington VT, take a few hours, stretch by walking down Church St., there are lots of options there.

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[mom2binsd]

And have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dessert in Burlington.

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[saleenl]

Navigating Boston by car is challenging at best with an adult co-pilot (for example when you end up in a tunnel, your phone/GPS will not work well). Plus you'll be tired and the traffic will be terrible! I also can't picture somewhere that I'd want to pull over with kids to nap in the airport area. It's not that the area is dangerous, it's just very densely populated and I would feel like I'd wake up to someone looking in my window.

That said, here's what I would do. Without knowing what exactly neighborhood you're staying in, I'm assuming that you'll be reasonably close to public transit. I would use public transit or Lyft/Uber to get from Logan to the Airbnb and ditch the luggage there (if that's possible). Not sure if it's an option, but you might consider booking the Airbnb a day earlier so that you can get in as soon as you land and get in a nap.

If you can't store your luggage at your Airbnb in the morning, you could start out with sightseeing. The best way to do this is by taking a water taxi from the airport to downtown - buy a package that includes a day's worth of luggage storage (https://www.roweswharfwatertransport...uggage-storage). Once you've shed your bags, you can find a cafe or park to sit and rest. There's a lot of options along the waterfront.

Once you've checked into your Airbnb, I would use public transit to hit the Freedom Trail and USS Constitution over the next couple days and not rent a car until you need to get to Plymouth and Montreal. If you can't find good dinner options that are walkable from your Airbnb, you can always use Grubhub/Seamless to have food delivered. When it comes time to rent a car, there are a number of non-airport car rental options and they're typically cheaper than the airport.

Boston is awesome! I'm sure you'll have fun!

[westwoodmom04]

Navigating Boston by car is challenging at best with an adult co-pilot (for example when you end up in a tunnel, your phone/GPS will not work well). Plus you'll be tired and the traffic will be terrible! I also can't picture somewhere that I'd want to pull over with kids to nap in the airport area. It's not that the area is dangerous, it's just very densely populated and I would feel like I'd wake up to someone looking in my window.

That said, here's what I would do. Without knowing what exactly neighborhood you're staying in, I'm assuming that you'll be reasonably close to public transit. I would use public transit or Lyft/Uber to get from Logan to the Airbnb and ditch the luggage there (if that's possible). Not sure if it's an option, but you might consider booking the Airbnb a day earlier so that you can get in as soon as you land and get in a nap.

If you can't store your luggage at your Airbnb in the morning, you could start out with sightseeing. The best way to do this is by taking a water taxi from the airport to downtown - buy a package that includes a day's worth of luggage storage (https://www.roweswharfwatertransport...uggage-storage). Once you've shed your bags, you can find a cafe or park to sit and rest. There's a lot of options along the waterfront.

Once you've checked into your Airbnb, I would use public transit to hit the Freedom Trail and USS Constitution over the next couple days and not rent a car until you need to get to Plymouth and Montreal. If you can't find good dinner options that are walkable from your Airbnb, you can always use Grubhub/Seamless to have food delivered. When it comes time to rent a car, there are a number of non-airport car rental options and they're typically cheaper than the airport.

Boston is awesome! I'm sure you'll have fun!

Great advice, I lived in a Boston for six years and rarely took our car out of the parking garage. Be prepared for kids to not love the freedom trail it is a lot of churchs, graveyards, statutes and buildings. My kids never took to it and we tried more than once. Boston commons and the public gardens is a good place to explore— there is a one playground there if your kids are young enough. Fenway is fun if your kids like baseball. As others mentioned, there is always lots of street performers around Faneuil Hall. It is touristy it still fun. Harvard has a Musuem of Natural History that is good for kids.

Other than Faneuil Hall, there are a number of small restaurants on Charles Street in Beacon Hill— Figs is one of my favorites. Charles Street is close to Public Garden/Commons. Your kids might enjoy walking around Beacon Hill (it’s like stepping back several centuries in time) and on the esplanade along the river.

As for New York, if your kids are at all adventurous eaters, you can find great ethnic food and pizza in every neighborhood. So good that it is worth skipping the chains and Dylan’s/Serendipity. I’d just use Yelp to locate food nearby or go into any place where the menu looks good, and is fairly full.

[California]

Thank you all! Faneuil Hall is definitely on our list. Will check out all these recommendations. I reserved a rental car through Costco (very reasonable price!) to make it easier for us to get to Plimouth Plantation. We travel light and can stash the luggage in the rental car. We usually start trips without DH, and when my kids were little I needed to keep luggage as simple as possible. Now it's what we're used to. Definitely easier when we're traveling to a spot with warm weather!

Sounds like we may need some ice cream spots or other incentives along the Freedom Trail to keep my kids walking while I soak in the history ��