Help For a Driving Wimp (Boston, Quincy: how much, hotels, transfer)

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Hello! My kids and I will be visiting the Boston area next month. I am totally a driving wimp, and I don't want to drive into the actual city. Is there a place that is close to I95 that I can get off, park, and take the T or a bus in, without having to navigate scary one-way streets or anything else confusing?

[miu]

Where are you coming in from? There is the Riverside T stop in Newton that is very close to I-95 that might be perfect for you.

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

We'll be coming up from Connecticut. Do you know what exit that is, off hand?

Oh, and are there any reasonably-priced hotels in that area? What we'd like to do is drive in in the morning, park, take the T into the city, go to Quincy Market and whatever other historicalish things in the area, then possibly go to Smith College for my teenager, stay overnight in the vicinity (but not pay an arm and a leg for a hotel), go to Harvard Square in the morning, then head up to Maine to visit friends the next day.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by AnotherTouchOfWhimsy

We'll be coming up from Connecticut. Do you know what exit that is, off hand?

Oh, and are there any reasonably-priced hotels in that area? What we'd like to do is drive in in the morning, park, take the T into the city, go to Quincy Market and whatever other historicalish things in the area, then possibly go to Smith College for my teenager, stay overnight in the vicinity (but not pay an arm and a leg for a hotel), go to Harvard Square in the morning, then head up to Maine to visit friends the next day.

You can get off the highway at any of many places and take the train in such as Riverside as Miu pointed out, but I find the Riverside stop to actually be kinda hard to find. I've been there a dozen times and still have to google it. Riverside assumes you come via 91/84/90. If you take 95 all the way in, well ...

Use http://www.mbta.com to find stations with parking if you like.

If you come into BOS like between 10am - and 3pm, you can drive right into town and get off at the Prudential exit and get parking right there at the PRU or Copley or under Boston Common.

Smith College is nowhere near Boston, it's 100 miles west in Northampton. So from CT, you need to go to Smith first, then BOS, then ME. And given that route, there's really no sense leaving your car at Riverside cuz yer gonna have to take it though town to get to Rt1 North to go to ME, unless you want to take 128 which I personally hate. That's the most insane highway in BOS and one of the most aggressive in the USA. It's the only highway I've ever been on where driving in the breakdown lane is legal at rush hour. Route 1 to 95 north is far more pleasant, although no highways in BOS are pleasant at rush hour.

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Ohhh, I had no idea about Smith college, LOL. She asked if it was in Boston, and I said "I think so." She'll settle for seeing Harvard, I'm sure.

I did not even realize that you could take I90 in... I have some homework to do, apparently. Thanks for the advice and help!

[ogre]

I agree with Bostonian08 that if you're going to visit Smith you'll do best to go there first and then head east to Boston. You may want to still consider that possibility, depending on how much time you have for your trip. A visit to Smith and then getting to the vicinity of Boston would be a full day in itself, but you could do this in a day from much of CT if you left early in the morning.. Whether you want to check out Smith could also depend on where you'll be coming from in CT. From Hartford or New Haven west you can get to Northampton, the town where Smith is located, by a straightforward drive up I-91. From farther east in CT, however, you'd have to travel a pretty good distance to the west to reach Northampton, then double back a couple of hours to get to Boston.

Whether you approach Boston from the south via I-95 or from the west via I-90, Riverside is not hard to find. Riverside is located off of the section of I-95 that runs concurrently with rt. 128, the innermost outer belt highway. You take the Grove St. exit off of 95/128, then take Grove St. east about a quarter mile or a third of a mile. If you're coming in from the south on I-95, this is simple enough, as long as you're aware that there is an interchange where 95 continues north along the same road as 128. If you're coming in from the west on I-90, you take the 128/I-95 exit off of the Mass. Pike (I-90), head south on 95 just a short distance, like a mile or less I think, two at the most, and you get to the Grove St. exit.

I'd recommend using Riverside. 128 is a zoo at rush hours, but not as bad as what Bostonian describes as long as you travel during the middle of the day. If you wanted to take the leisurely, scenic route north to Maine via rt. 1, I'd still suggest going in the middle of the day and taking 128 north to catch rt. 1. You said you wanted to avoid driving in the city, and 128 will take you around Boston and its inner suburbs, and you wouldn't miss much scenery, because the scenery along rt. 1 in the close-in suburbs is not so great anyway. Rt. 1 doesn't get close to the coast until you get farther north, and there is a stretch of rt. 1 just north of Boston that is tacky suburbia, cheap motels, strip malls, etc., kind of territory.

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Okay, new plan: What if we forgot about Smith College (she will settle for seeing Harvard) and stayed in Framingham? Could we take the train/bus/T into Boston from there? It looks like we'd transfer at South Station? Is this feasible and easy to do?

Thanks!

[holden125]

There is a commuter rail station in Framingham, but it's in the center and there's not much parking. The schedule is limited and Framingham Center gets a fair bit of traffic too.

Riverside's easy to find and easy to drive to. I'd go with that.

[ogre]

I agree with Holden, though you would want to wait until mid morning to drive from Framingham to Riverside, so as to avoid rush-hour traffic heading in toward Boston.

[DreamworksSKG]

If coming from Metro West, try route 2 East from 128 to the Alewife Garage
Alewife Red line into the city

If South Shore park at either Braintree (Red Line) or
Riverside (off 128) - Green Line "D" train
Remember the letter system on the Green line for return trip

B,C,D, go to Kenmore, then you need to change @ Kenmore to get on the "D"
You can take an "E" all the way to Copley but then you'd have to wait for a "D" @ Copley. You can always change to all the letters @ Park St.

Also some of the trains on the Green line end @ Govt. Center. others Say Lechemere and continue up all the way into Somerville by the museum of science stop etc. and to the lechemere galleria mall.

If coming from 93 you could try Sullivan Square or Wellington Garage.
Oak Grove is another possibility but more residential area, about a 10 min drive from the highway.
You'd get on the orange line Forest hills train into Boston
and the Oak Grove train coming back

get a visitor 7 day charlie ticket to use your entire trip
I think they ahve 3 or 5 day and 1 day tickets too
aside from the typical 1 ride fare. Each trip is around $2.00 so round trip is $4.00