Can't find the damned travel thread again, so ... Boston?

Try Quincy. It has access to the T. I can't think of a hotel close to the line, though. Medford is the same.

AirBnB might be a possibility in Newton. There are big apartment complexes next to T station stops, Riverside and Woodland.

 

Whatever you do, do NOT bank on staying somewhere near a subway stop. The subway system is a mess. The equipment is past its sell-by date. The tracks for most lines are substandard. Multiple "slow zones" mean a trip that used to take 25 minutes is now taking an hour or more.

Despite the advice above, Quincy, Riverside and Woodland would be shitty options. I do the Quincy ride semi-regularly, and it's an hour into Boston without fail. Keep in mind, it's a nine-mile trip.

Two suggestions:

1. Get an AirBnB that's close to the commuter rail (purple lines on map), where service is much better than the subway, but be prepared to work around infrequent weekend commuter rail schedules. If not that, get an AirBnB in a neighborhood with somewhat frequent bus service to downtown (South Boston, Jamaica Plain, Newton, Watertown).
2. Staying at the airport might not be the worst idea and might be worth the $$$. The Blue Line, which serves the airport, is in the least worst shape compared to the rest of the subway system, and it's a short shuttle ride from the airport hotels. There are also other ways (Silver Line buses, dedicated shuttles, occasional ferries) to get into the city from the airport, so you're not entirely reliant on the subway.

Good thing: Once you're in the city, you're about a 30-minute walk, at most, from everything.

Happy to help if you have other questions.

 

Brighton would be a good place for AirBnB. It has a bus that goes straight to Kenmore Square.

I don't know about the commuter rail. It runs on a schedule. You can't just jump on it.

 

Watertown also has a bus that runs into the city

 

It has a schedule, but in the past, I've found it comes often enough that it's not that hard to plan your day or trip around it. Then again, I haven't ridden either in about 5 years, so I don't know if its gotten substantially worse in that time. Driving around Boston is such a god damn clusterfuck of anxiety that I pretty much avoided it at all costs.

 

Commuter rail lines generally now run on hourly schedules or close to it, with some lines every two hours on weekends. It’s suboptimal and it’s expensive, but it’s a helluva lot better than being stuck in a hot, crowded subway car that crawls.

 

Revere or East Boston are on the T. Blue Line isn't the most reliable, though.

 

Playing a long shot here. Tulsa/Eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas along I-40. Anything? Anything at all?

 

Bumping this to ask for suggestions/advice on Boston. Booked a trip for the first week of June, and we're staying a full week.
Got Red Sox tickets against the Braves (splurged for first row just down the right field line). We're also looking at taking a day trip to Brattleboro to cross Vermont off my 50 states list, and would like to go to Plymouth and Salem/Gloucester, but might skip those if it's more trouble than it's worth to rent a car. We're not on a tight budget, but don't want to spend close to $1,000 for a car and parking for the full week, either, if we're staying in the city most of the time.
Other than that we're just generally interested in walking around and seeing stuff. Our hotel is right next to Faneuil Hall.

So is that a generally good, safe area to meander around? Any places to avoid at certain times of day?

I'll need to figure out the transit system, so any tips on navigating it? Do they have weekly passes for a reasonable price? We went to Chicago about 10 years ago and got a three- or four-day pass for about $15 that was a godsend. Wondering if Boston has something similar.
In a similar vein, how walkable is the city?

Any must-sees? This is our first trip to Boston, and might well be the last since we don't take big trips like this very often.

I'll hang up and listen. Thanks.

 

Inky is your authority here, but I thought Tahlequah was pretty cool.

 

I'll try to unpack as best as possible.

Seats down the right field line are good.

I haven't rented a car in a while here but even at inflated prices during tourist season, you shouldn't pay that much. I'd suggest knocking out Brattleboro at the front end of the trip, so you can rent/return car to the airport.

All those places are safe. I'm partial to Salem myself. There's a lot of stuff there, including the Peabody-Essex Museum. If you do Gloucester, I'd suggest spending just as much time in Rockport, a small town up the road. Plymouth is good. Plymouth Rock is about the size of your back deck if that, keep that in mind. For Plymouth you would need a car. Salem and Rockport can be accessed by the commuter/regional rail.

The MBTA subway system is simple to use, but please note that they're in the middle of doing a major overhaul. Some lines are going to be closed while you're here. There is a seven-day pass for the subway and *local* buses (that won't cover the train to Salem or Rockport). I think it's about $20. The city is immensely walkable. You can walk from Fenway Park to Faneuil Hall in 45 minutes.

The Freedom Trail is touristy but stops at the major historic sites. If you don't want to do a lot of walking, there are trolley tours that hit the sites and let you hop on and off. Quincy Market next to Faneuil Hall is overrated, it's just a giant shopping mall trying to suck in tourists. I can probably think of some off-the-beaten-path sites later, when I've had more sleep.

Ask here or feel free to drop a line if you have any more questions.

Edit: If you know anyone who has a Boston Public Library card, they might be able to connect you with free/discounted passes to the museums depending on the day, etc.

 

I agree with pretty much all of Wicked's suggestions. You'll need a car to get to Vermont, but otherwise, you could rely on walking, the subway and Uber for your our planned stops. Also, parking in Boston can be expensive by itself. There is limited street parking, almost none of it free, and the garages can be $10 to $40 anyway, depending on where you're going. Sometimes, rentals will be cheaper if you get them for a day or two outside of the airport sites. You can fill up a week in Boston, so you probably don't need to venture out into the suburbs that much unless you want to.

If you have kids, the children's museum and the museum of science are both fun. (The latter can be fun without them, if you're into that.) Regina Pizzeria is delicious, but make sure you go to the old, original location, vs. the pop-up ones they have at Fenway and other places now.

I don't think Boston is particularly unsafe as compared to other major cities. The bad areas are pretty obviously bad, but anything "nice" you'd want to visit isn't really near there anyway. Just don't be walking around in the pitch dark in areas you don't know, and always make sure your phone and wallet are secure.