Boston: Many posts

I've been back from Boston a couple weeks now and really want to blog about everything. I've got lots of pictures around the city, the Freedom Trail, the parks, what I brought with me and what to pack. Let's start with hotel and travel information for Boston.

1. I flew JetBlue. I cannot recommend JetBlue enough. They are a fantastic airline. I try to fly them or Virgin America as often as I can. They have friendly service people, good prices, and their flights are enjoyable. Plus they have a lot of locations. I can get pretty much anywhere in the US from Seattle on one of their places. (Internationally, I prefer Virgin Atlantic--although I had a really good experience flying Iceland Air to London). Anyway, JetBlue, great airline. And good prices. I found a RT ticket from Seattle (SEATAC) to Boston (LOGAN) from March 27-April 1 for $485 including travel insurance. This was the absolute best deal I could find; i booked at the end of January. The first flight left at 11pm on Wednesday March 27th; a red eye. It wasn't too bad actually. It was nice to have a quiet plane and to get some rest before landing in Boston. The flight home left at 7pm on Monday April 1st and was a good flight too. Both flights were completely booked...I guess there is a lot of people traveling from Seattle to Boston quite frequently. The flight is about 5 hours and we landed at Boston Logan smoothly and over the water with a great few; it was about 8am.

2. PREP. Seriously, know the city before you land. At least know how to get to your hotel from the airport. Even if that means writing the address down and putting in your purse or carry on to tell the cab driver. And have your debit card/cash ready for payment. But for me, a cab would be too expensive. I was planning on taking the metro to my hotel. So I looked at the airport info and also the metro/bus lines to figure out the best way. Luckily Boston is VERY easy to get around using public transportation. I felt at home on it right away (given my time in London-It was nice to be in a city with good public transportation again.) So from Logan when you exit the airport you can take the free metro shuttle to the Airport metro station. It was super easy to find everything is VERY WELL LABELED. I got off at the Airport station and bought a CHARLIE TICKET for the metro system (good on buses and the subway). I put $20 on it which ended up being just perfect for the 5 days although I ventured out of the city a bit and needed a different ticket for the commute rail-more on that later.

3. At Airport Station which is on the BLUE LINE. All the lines are different colors. Pretty simple. And you can find maps everywhere, to carry along and to check along the way. And a fare in the city is $2 anywhere-pretty easy to remember and keep track of. Although one of my favorite things about Boston (see my twitter feed @SarahtoLondon and check out #favthingsBoston was when you got your ticket back on the metro it would display your balance...PERFECT). I took the Blue line INBOUND (INBOUND refers to heading INTO the city center and OUTBAND heading AWAY from the city center). I got off at GOVERNMENT CENTER (very busy) and transferred to the GREEN LINE OUTBOUND and got off on Boylston.

4. When I got off the subway I was officially in Boston! I could see buildings, the Boston Common, and brrr it was windy! I had a map of the area of my hotel which was about 6 blocks from the subway station. It was pretty easy to navigate (I'm also good with directions) and walked into my hotel at 9am-about an hour start to finish from landing at Logan. I had checked ahead and the hotel offered luggage storage, so I dropped off my bad, fixed my crazy plane/wind hair, put in my contacts (wore glasses bc of the red eye flight) and headed out to explore the city!


Hotel Information and Review:
Everywhere I looked was expensive. I ended up using the TRAVEL SITE: booking.com to find the best price. I recommend it, it's very easy to use and has clear steps and information.

For 2 nights (Thursday night AND Sunday night) I stayed at the Milner Hotel at 78 Charles in Boston near the Boylston subway station. It was close to the metro, fit in my budget, and was a nice hotel. I had a hard time finding a reasonably priced hotel in Boston. I booked a single bed. It was a small room for sure but also very charming. The hotel is old, established in 1877 or something like that. But definitely adorable. I paid $107 a night which was good for the area in the South End with easy access to subway, restaurants, and the start of the Freedom Trail at the Boston Common nearby. HOTEL LOCATION IS SO IMPORTANT. It really cuts into your vacation time to stay far from the city center to save a little money but sit on the train for an hour or more to get into what you really want to do. The hotel staff was friendly and had maps for me, and answered my questions. They also had a great free breakfast; good variety and also free...works for me.

For two nights (Friday and Saturday) I stayed outside of the city in Dedham, MA. I stayed at the Hilton in Dedham. This was the main reason for my trip-to see my friend from graduate school in London get married! I was so happy to be there to celebrate with them. The room was $188 per night and had a breakfast in the morning for about $16. It was really good hot food and it was fun to see my friend and her family, plus meet a lot of people! The hotel was VERY nice and clean. The staff was excellent, the bed SUPER comfortable, and easy to find my way around. Because it was the suburbs and I didn't have transportation it was a little harder to get around but since the wedding was at the hotel I didn't do a lot of site seeing except for a walk. The rest of the time was at my friends parents house for wedding activities. I did take a commuter rail out to Dedham. That meant taking the subway to South Station and going upstairs to the train level, from there i bought a commuter rail ticket that was $6.00 and waited for the next train, about an hour. Once again everything was very well labeled and easy to find, the announcer made clear the track number and only a few cars were open, so I knew right where to go. I ended up walking from the Dedham Corporation Center station to the Hilton but it was maybe half a mile. That was convenient.

I highly recommend both hotels, the Hilton if you are staying in or around Dedham, and the Milner for a charming little hotel with friendly staff when you are staying in central Boston and want to be near the Commons, museums, shops, and Freedom Trail.

I promise more soon on packing, activities, museums, and more!