Downton Boston Advice

Hi Boston Guru%26#39;s,

I%26#39;m going to be in Boston in the middle of May and am staying at the Sheraton for a conference. I%26#39;ll have one day free with no car. Can anyone recommend the must see items in downtown Boston within walking distance? I%26#39;d like to see the historic sites.

Also a list of the best places to eat downtown for lunch and dinner would be great. Anything under $100 a meal. Thanks in advance.

Tom

Downton Boston Advice

I would check out the sights along the Freedom Trail...they include all the historical sights that you%26#39;re interested in (Old North Church, Paul Revere%26#39;s House, Old South Meeting House, etc). Boston%26#39;s a very compact city so you can easily do the Freedom Trail in one day walking.

As for food, I%26#39;m partial to the North End -- you can get some good Italian eats.

Let me know if you need more info!

Downton Boston Advice

Hi,

The Fredom Trail is what you want to do. Start at the Visitor%26#39;s center on Boston Common near Park St., and that will give you a good tour of the city and it%26#39;s history.

As for food, you%26#39;d have to give us some information? What type of food? What type of atmosphere? There%26#39;s so many good places, I can%26#39;t list them all.

However, there%26#39;s one place I can recommend, because it%26#39;s a great ';Boston'; place for tourists. Durgin Park at Quincy Market. It%26#39;s a Boston institution, and the best place to try some of the local specialities:

http://www.durgin-park.com

You might want to consider taking an Old Town Trolley tour, they have a stop at the Sheraton. You can purchase a ticket online at www.oldtowntrolley.com. They have on and off privaledges and stop at all the popular historical sights including the North End and USS Constitution.

You might see if the RedSox are playing that day...

And it will be easy to get downtown from the Sheraton,you can catch the Green Line at the Prudential Station and get off at Park Street right at the Boston common to start the Freedom Trail.Have a great time.

We also had only one day to see Boston and we found the Freedom Trail was a great way to do it! All walking, got to see lots of different parts of Boston. We scouted out eating places along the way and returned to the ones we wanted for lunch then dinner that night!

It was raining, and we considered either the Trolley Tour or the Duck tour, which both come highly recommended, but we really enjoyed taking in the sites at our own pace and travelling off the beaten path at times.

The Sheraton, as someone pointed out, is right by the T---and there%26#39;s lots around: Copley Square, the Pru mall, Newbury Street, etc. If you%26#39;re a walker, you can walk all the way to the Public Garden and Common (one of my favorite walks), but if you want to see the historic sites, I%26#39;d pay the price for one of those trolley tours. You%26#39;ll cover a lot of ground and see the highlights and it%26#39;s transportation.

One fun walk from the sheraton is down Mass Ave towards Cambridge (you%26#39;ll cross Comm Ave) and you%26#39;ll come to the ';Smoot'; bridge, which crosses over to MIT. It%26#39;s a great walk and you can snap cool photos from the bridge. Google ';Smoot'; and MIT and you%26#39;ll get the lore behind the bridge...

Thanks to all who have wrote in so far. I%26#39;m also looking for some fine dining downtown preferrably near the Sheraton. Seafood, Italian, steak, and pretty much anything else that is a Boston tradition.

Tam

Tom,

How many people are eating with you? If it%26#39;s just you, then there are a lot of places in the area you can go to for less than $100. Anyway, there are five high-end steakhouses within walking distance of your hotel. I%26#39;ll list them in no specific order:

1.Capital Grille on Newbury Street

2. Morton%26#39;s on Boylston St

3. Abe %26amp; Louie%26#39;s on Boylston

4. Grill 23 on the corner of Stuart and Berkeley Sts

5. Smith and Wollensky on the corner of Columbus and Arlington St

For lunch you may try the inimitable Bukowski%26#39;s right near your hotel off of Dalton Street. Enormous selection of beer and great pub-style food. Or if you want to class it up a bit, go to the other end of Boylston Street in between Berkeley and Arlington and try the Parish Cafe. Creative sandwiches and nice outdoor seating.

The Freedom Trail sites are (mostly?) Revolutionary War history--they provide more than enough for a day%26#39;s sightseeing but at the risk of giving you TMI, it%26#39;s worth pointing out that Boston offers other histories too, like African American National Historical Site (about the Underground Railroad and Abolitionism), with a small museum and guided walking tour, on Beacon Hill; the wonderful 54th Regiment Memorial sculpture opposite the State House on Beacon Street (this is probably a Freedom Trail spot) and the evocative Civil War memorial in the main staircase of the Boston Public Library, lots of religious history (statues of once-famous Unitarian ministers in the Public Garden, Phillips Brooks outside Trinity Church, and the whole Christian Science/Mary Baker Eddy phenomenon; also the John F. Kennedy Library (and museum) in Dorchester. Another curio is the Ether Monument, also in the Public Garden. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on the Fenway is another kind of history, of Victorian age art collecting, and a really lovely place to visit especially if it%26#39;s raining. There are historic houses open to the public-- Nichols house on Mt Vernon Street, Gibson House on Beacon St--both showcasing 19th century townhouse interiors--Kennedy%26#39;s boyhood home in Brookline, Frederick Law Olmsted%26#39;s home and office, marvelously preserved, also in Brookline; and the H. W. Longfellow house and garden on Brattle Street in Cambridge. And William Dean Howells called Mt. Auburn Cemetery the Westminster Abbey of New England--that%26#39;s another historic site and a beautiful one.