Hi all, Im going to Boston and New York on holiday this year and am after fun suggestions of places to visit/cool shops to see/good places to eat, anything fun to do. I asked here last year and got some excellent ideas so here I go again! Cheers guys!
A couple of questions first before I give you some suggestions for Boston. 1. When are you going to be here? 2. How long are you going to be here? 3. Is there anything you like to do in particular? 4. What kind of budget are you on?
1. mid august - about the 18th for about a week 2. open minded - all suggestions welcome! 3. hey name it and ill consider it! not a bad year at work so budget isnt too much of a problem! thanks again
As a southerner who has been to NY once, go to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Empire State Building. Also go to Times square and Rockafeller Center and marvel at how small it is relative to what you see on TV. And go visit Lance in Boston.
man, theres so much to do in boston! of course theres the tourist historical stuff downtown but you can't really escape good sight-seeing and pack a lot of into a day if you really wanted to. whenever family comes to visit me we're usually in the back bay so what we always do (like the first time my sisters came and the first time my brother came) are go from back bay and walk to the north end. you can take newbury street which is all the trendy shops and cool stores, definitely hit up newbury comics for great music, movies, comics, you can even get some TF Encore if you're willing to pay import prices. There's Johnny Cupcakes too which is a cool little place to shop for clothes. If you want a more scenic route, you can take commonwealth avenue which is full of pretty buildings (where i used to live!) and a nice wooded path down the middle with statues etc, which will take you straight through the gardens and the commons. there's also a lot of nice stuff on boylston too, but that will take you down into chinatown (as opposed to the north end) then you can kind of walk around downtown follow the freedom trail to see all the old stuff faneuil hall, and you could walk across the bridge into charlestown and see the USS Constitution. Around there is the north end which is like little italy, lot of great moderately priced italian restaurants, i wish i could remember the names of some really good ones, but you can't really go wrong. theres also beacon st(assuming you're gonna follow a path like this) you can walk through beacon hill (very rich, hilly neighborhood) walk off the italian then cross over to the esplanade and walk by the river (one of my fave hangouts, but i also got mugged there at late late at night haha) then that will take you to the mass ave bridge which will take you into cambridge, bunch of stuff to do, especially up in harvard square. theres a shop called tokyo pop i think in the garage in harvard square which has some import transfomers. then of course if you take boylston to the west you'll end up at fenway park. theres a lots of other stuff to see but thats a good starter i think!
If you like history, Boston is known as the Cradle of Democracy, and you can follow the Freedom Trail http://www.thefreedomtrail.org, a 2.5 mile walking trail that leads you to 16 nationally historic sites that tell the tale of the American Revolution. Unfortunately the Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum is closed for renovations until summer 09. If museums are your thing, there's the Museum of Science/Hayden Planetarium/Mugar Omni Theater, the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art just to name a few. Many more can be found at http://www.museumsofboston.org. If you're looking for lush green spaces, there's the Boston Common, the Public Garden, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which, interestingly takes the place of an old elevated highway which has recently been put underground, the Charles River Basin and Esplanade, or even the Mount Auburn Cemetery http://mountauburn.org, straddling nearby Cambridge and Watertown. I also highly recommend, almost insist upon, taking the 45-minute ferry trip from the New England Aquarium to nearby Salem, MA, focal point of the 1692 Witchcraft Hysteria, and not just because your tourist dollars keep my property taxes low. Apart from all things witchy, Salem is home to the House of The Seven Gables, birthplace of prolific American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Peabody Essex Museum, the oldest continually-operated museum in the U.S., which, among other things, houses the world's largest collection of Asian import goods http://www.pem.org.
I've lived in NYC my whole life, so this is a VERY hard question because there's so much to do! Do you have any specific interests? What's your budget? Also, you mean New York City, right? Not upstate? Some small tips: 1. Don't go to Little Italy. Tourist trap and the food sucks compared to other places in Manhattan. 2. Bronx Zoo is nice, but don't go on a Wed. 3. Normal Manhattan Attractions: Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, etc. How long are you in NYC?
About a week, at a hotel just off the edge of central park apparently, i've been to ny before and its fun just to walk around. Any suggestions welcome, and anywhere for transformers/comics as im sure my girlfriend will cut me a bit of slack on holiday! Budget isn't a problem unless you suggest lobster and caviar all day thanks again guys
hey but if you did want lobster and caviar, abe and louie's on boylston is top notch food and service.
I live in New York! lmao that is so true! The guys stand outside the shops throwing menu's in your face. If you are looking for bootlegs of pocketbooks, DVDs, belts, designer clothes try Canal St. and Fulton St. down by the South Street Seaport, the seaport is also a good place to go, it is a historical district with a cool giant old fashioned boat, guys performing magic and dance in the street. The brooklyn Bridge is there. Pretty big tourist location.
