Trip Report and Thanks to All

We just got back Friday evening from a trip to the Boston area and I wanted to thank all of you who answered my many, many pre-trip questions about your area. The info that I received from this forum helped us immensely!

We arrived in Plymouth on Saturday, April 7 and checked in at the Radisson Plymouth Harbor. This hotel gets mixed reviews here on TA, so I was a bit apprehensive, but it was a wonderful hotel and we loved it. Even though we used Priceline, they gave us a beautiful, spacious corner room with a sitting area and sleep number beds. The indoor pool area is great, and the lobby and common areas are very upscale and attractive. If anyone has any concerns about staying in Boston because of the cost, I would highly recommend Plymouth. The waterfront is so pretty and relaxing, and there is a broad array of restaurants all over town. Sam Diego%26#39;s was our personal favorite--great Mexican food!

We drove into Boston on Easter Sunday and parked in the Boston Common parking garage. We were able to find it very easily because someone on this forum gave me very detailed directions--thank you, thank you, thank you!!! We walked the Freedom Trail and took a trolley tour. The sites on the Freedom Trail are awesome and should be on anyone%26#39;s itinerary who is planning on visiting Boston--not to mention that most of them are free. The trolley tour was fun, but to be honest, we felt that the driver was in too much of a hurry and drove and talked very, very quickly. You are allowed one trip around the trolley%26#39;s circuit for about $29/person, but you are allowed to hop off at various stops along the way and hop on the next trolley when you are finished there. It was fun and informative, but a bit pricey to us. I loved the Quincy Market. Even though the food court there is crowded and touristy, we still enjoyed it a lot. Faneuil Hall was also really cool. The weather was unseasonably cold, but at least it was sunny and dry while we were in Boston. The only day that it rained, ironically, was the day that we had tickets for the Red Sox/Mariners game at Fenway and it was rained out. We now have four tickets for right field upper bleacher section 38 for the makeup game on Thursday, May 3. We won%26#39;t be in Boston that day, obviously, so I%26#39;ll probably try to sell them on Ebay, unless that%26#39;s illegal or something. Does anyone know if that is considered scalping?

Fenway was really awesome. We took the tour two days before opening day and got some great pictures.

I wanted to mention briefly about riding the T. Many of you on this forum gave me great advice on riding the T as opposed to driving in Boston, and I really, really appreciate it. We figured it out pretty quickly, except for when we were trying to enter the parking garage at Braintree station and ended up circling it about five times before giving up and driving up to Quincy Adams instead. The parking garage there is huge and we had no problem getting a parking spot. The people working in the stations were very nice and helpful, and we didn%26#39;t run into any other problems except for accidentally getting on the outgoing Ashmont train when we wanted the Braintree train. We got off in an iffey neighborhood and got back on, and a local girl who was traveling in the same direction that we wanted to go took us under her wing and showed us where to go. She was truly an angel when we needed one!

We also visited Newport, RI to see the Newport Mansions which were awesome. Newport is such a beautiful city! From there we drove up to Providence to visit the Roger Williams Zoo. It was a pretty good zoo, but I can imagine that it would be better during the summer season. It was really cold the day that we went there so we didn%26#39;t stick around a long time.

This may seem odd, but we didn%26#39;t really care that much for Cape Cod. The beaches that we visited were gorgeous, and the towns of Barnstable and Sandwich were quaint and pretty, but as far as the rest of the Cape, it just didn%26#39;t do it for us. Maybe it was because so many restaurants, shops, etc. were still closed for the season, but we didn%26#39;t really see much there that interested us. We were really disappointed with Provincetown--it was nothing at all like what we thought it would be. It was just so congested and claustrophobic! I know I will probably take some heat for that comment, but that is how it seemed to us.

I don%26#39;t want to bore you guys to death, so I will end here. I just wanted to thank all of you again for all of your great advice and directions. You really made the trip easier and more enjoyable for us and I really appreciate it!!

Trip Report and Thanks to All

Great TR glad we could help,glad you really enjoyed your stay here in Boston.I see you navigated the city very well and you did do a lot of sightseeing despite the cold weather,we welcome you back hopefully one year you could come in the summer or early fall when the weather is much better.

Trip Report and Thanks to All

I read every word! Thanks for reporting. Do you recall which trolley company you used (or the color of the trolley)? So sorry you couldn%26#39;t see the Red Sox game after all that planning. Be happy you didn%26#39;t come yesterday and today. We have a spring noreaster with lots of rain (yesterday%26#39;s game postponed). Perhaps someone on this site will contact you or you could do ebay (just don%26#39;t be specific on your seat numbers). Hope you visit us again.

Thanks! We just really loved Boston and the entire New England experience. I am trying to think of the name of the trolley company that we used. I think it was called Intercity or something like that, and the trolleys were a tan color. Actually, the more I think about it, it may not be that the drivers were in such a hurry as much as the fact that Boston is not geographically all that large compared to some other cities that we have toured. The drivers were very informative. I noticed a lot of foreign tourists in Boston, more so than in many other large cities that we have visited in the U.S. and it has been my experience that cities that attract international visitors seem to be a bit more expensive in terms of attractions, tours, etc. Orlando, FL is one that comes to mind. However, there were several attractions in Boston that were free, so we were very happy with that. I especially like the Old Granary Burial Ground and Faneuil Hall.

I also want to comment on all of the nice people that we met in Boston and in the entire area in general. Everyone was so helpful and friendly, and we never once felt unsafe or uncomfortable, even when we took the wrong outgoing red train and had to get off at the Fields Corner stop and get back on and a local told us that we were in a rough area. You guys should be proud of your city and I%26#39;m sure that you are. It%26#39;s a great place to visit and we definitely want to come back, hopefully when the weather is better for a Red Sox game!

I really enjoyed your trip report. We visited Provincetown recently for the first time and it was off season and it was still crowded. I can%26#39;t imagine what it%26#39;s like in season! And, again it was off season, but the stores were kind of disappointing. Rockport (on Cape Ann) and Newburyport (almost to NH) have much cuter stores. I was expecting more like that on Provincetown.

Did you ever sell your Red Sox tickets? If not, I%26#39;ve got a friend coming in from PA this week and could buy them from you.

Hi,

I ended up selling my Red Sox tix on ebay and what a mess! Ebay sold them to two people for the same bid price, and both of them paid me right away through Paypal, so I had to refund one of the buyers and apologize to him for ebay%26#39;s mistake. Now, the person that I sent them to just emailed me today and told me he hasn%26#39;t received them yet, even though I sent them priority mail (2-3 days, supposedly) on April 24! Had I known all of this was going to happen, I would have sold them to someone while we were still in the Boston area. However, at the time that we left Boston, there was no date scheduled yet for the make up game, so we couldn%26#39;t do that.

I%26#39;ve heard a lot about Rockport and that is one place that I want to visit if we ever get back over that way. There is just so much to do that six days can%26#39;t begin to cover it all!

I had a similiar nightmare with ebay. When it works, it%26#39;s great but when it goes wrong....

Thanks again for your trip report.

You%26#39;re welcome : ) Thankfully, my buyer in Sudbury, MA contacted me a little while ago and the tickets arrived today. I sold them for the same price that I paid, $12/apiece. Obviously, they aren%26#39;t great seats, but it%26#39;s worth it just to get the Fenway experience, especially the way the Sox have been playing this year. I just wanted to recover what I had in them, not be a scalper, lol.