littlejimmy
Registered
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2014
sounds like you have your plan. have fun. sounds like a cool trip. I wont try to tell you what to do when you are in boston. sounds like you already know.
And Danvers is right about where the red line curves next to Salem.Let me see if I can do a map of some sort for you.
Salem. Harvard and Gillette in one day is going to be an absolute nightmare of biblical proportions.
Yes, I live right by NYC, distance isn’t measured by miles, but minutes, miles mean nothing.This is true! So true. I live 10 miles outside of Boston. Getting from the city to Gillette on a concert night is going to be traffic craziness - I have done it many times...and I will be at that Taylor Swift show too. 45 minutes it is not on a weekday .... "45 minutes" to these places must be with no traffic...it can take more than 45 minutes to get from Cambridge to Braintree (where I live) and Gillette is still a decent ride from here. What day of the week is this? If it is a weekday and you are driving between 7 and 10am or 3 and 7pm - add significantly to those 45 min estimates.
Thanks again for all the help, I’ll look into riding the T into the city. As for our other day several people have said it’s too much for one day, but we do typically pack a ton in each day on our trips. Looks like from Danvers to Salem is only about 15 minutes. I thought we’d head there in the morning and look around, check out a few of the witch sites. Then it looks like about a 45 minute drive to the Cambridge area so I figured we could head down there and grab some lunch and walk around Harvard. My daughter is not going there btw, just looking around while we’re in town. Looks like another 45 minutes or so to get to the stadium and the concert is at 7. I’m sure it will be crazy busy getting there so we’d plan to leave a couple of hours early but that should still give us a few hours to walk around Harvard/Cambridge.
I appreciate the suggestion of other places to stay but I’m pretty set on the hotel I found due to it being a reasonably priced suite with 2 bedrooms. We will have already spent a full week on the west coast sharing normal hotel rooms and we have a few more stops after Boston so I’m really looking forward to us getting a bit of space. I didn’t set out to pick Danvers, I just happened to like the hotel there.
This probably does seem like a full day but we are pretty used to doing a lot of driving on trip. Last summer we went out west and did an 18 day road trip that was 6,000 miles. Several days would consist of a few hour drive in the morning to get to a new location, sightseeing, and then driving a few more hours to our next stop for the night. We like to see all that we can.
Again thanks for all the replies, especially for the info on train stations and the T!! We will definitely do one of those options rather than drive into the city. Also thanks for the advice on the freedom trail not being well defined. Do you all suggest one of the official tours?
Maine is not a long ride at all. I live in Southern Maine and I just went to the Opera House Thursday night. From the parking garage exit to home was 1.5 hours. Just getting out of Boston took a good chunk of that time up. Once you are on 95N it's a quick ride. I prefer to take the T in from Revere, but DH wanted to drive that night.I was thinking about their staying somewhere near Newton/Waltham on Rt128(95). They could easily hop on the Green Line (Riverside stop) to go into Boston; shoot up 128N > 95 to go to Maine (which is a long ride!); and shoot right down 128/95 to get to Gillette Stadium. Either Newton or Waltham would be a good central location for all of these things. You would also avoid driving in Boston this way, but you would have to drive on 128/95 which isn't too, too bad.
Green Line Riverside Station: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_station_(MBTA)
One hotel in the area of Riverside @128/95
- Hotel Indigo Newton Riverside
Walk to Riverside Green Line station
More, perhaps better hotels a little further north in Waltham on 128/95
- The Westin Waltham Boston
- Embassy Suites by Hilton Boston Waltham
- Best Western Plus Waltham/Boston
- Hampton Inn and Suites Boston/Waltham
Drive to Riverside Green Line station
Personally, I think staying right in Boston would be best, but since you have these things you want to do while here, I think this might be your best solution. It is a relatively safe area, too.
Let me see if I can do a map of some sort for you.
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Ok it sounds like you guys think we should be able to visit Harvard on out Boston day so I think we’ll try to do that. That will save us from having to drive to Cambridge also. So I’m thinking the new plan will be to spend one full long day exploring Boston as well as Cambridge using public transport. Then the next day we’ll spend the morning/early afternoon in Salem and head back to our hotel for a break and an early dinner (room has a full kitchen) before heading out for the concert. It does look like our hotel is very close to Salem, so I’m thinking that should be pretty doable. I know it’s going to be a long haul sitting in traffic to/from the concert but we’ll be dealing with that the week before in LA too. Thanks for everyone’s input!
I also drive to Maine quite a bit and all around Boston and the Greater Boston area regularly. I was saying it was a good ride from the Newton/Waltham area and squeezed into a day where other things were taking place. That's all I meant, not that Maine is really that far from Boston. Lots here will be dependent on traffic and times, as others have stressed - an hour and a half on paper can somewhat easily turn into two and a half hours (just ask my sibling who lives in NH). Hopefully it won't be too bad, but it just depends. One accident can cause major delays on these roads and in that case, secondary roads will also be clogged.Maine is not a long ride at all. I live in Southern Maine and I just went to the Opera House Thursday night. From the parking garage exit to home was 1.5 hours. Just getting out of Boston took a good chunk of that time up. Once you are on 95N it's a quick ride. I prefer to take the T in from Revere, but DH wanted to drive that night.
Whenever driving in or around Boston, you should plan that the ride will take twice as long and be pleasantly surprised when it's shorter than that. Boston also has a habit of having concerts and games going on at Fenway, the Garden, and Gillette all at the same time, so be mindful of that as well.