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My family and I will be visiting Boston for about a week at the end of August. This will be our first time in Boston. My husband will be attending a conference and my daughter and I are tagging along.
My daughter is 1 year old, so I am looking for some baby-friendly things to do while my husband is at the conference. So far, we plan on visiting the New England Aquarium and the Boston Children’s Museum. I also would like to walk the Freedom Trail, but I am not sure if it will be too hot with the baby (we plan on bringing a stroller).
Any advice on great child-friendly places to eat (especially seafood) or visit would be much appreciated.
Also, we would like to avoid driving, as much as possible. But, I haven’t used a subway or metro since before my daughter was born (and since we live in Houston now it’s not really an option). Are the subways difficult to use with a baby? I’ll mostly be on my own with my daughter and toting a stroller and diaper bag, so I am also concerned about safety.
Thanks!
Angela
Last edited by AOLiga; 07-10-2010 at 10:28 AM..
Reason: fix formatting
Since you live in Houston, even though Boston is warm now, it's still cooler than your current weather. Usually the hottest weather here is in early August.
If the weather is nice, a stroller walk around the Boston Commons can be relaxing. There are the bronze ducklings of Make Way For Ducklings fame, plus the swan boat rides. From there, you can continue to walk down Newbury St to see the shops. There are some outdoor cafes and restaurants there too.
The first thing you need to do is take the duck tour to get yourself familiar with downtown Boston, it only goes along the Charles River and there's only a bunch of sailboats along the Charles River no barges or anything like that so it's extremely safe when the duck boats are cruising along the river:
There's also the Beantown Trolley where you hop on or off if you like or stay on to hear all about Boston's history, the guides are extremely knowledgeable.
After checking out the City either via the duck boat OR the trolley tour you could then stay the next day in the Back Bay area of the City like you could first stroll along Newbury Street then check out the Pru shops & Copley Place then walk along Boylston Street. Look for the "Parish Cafe" along Boylston Street! It's awesome here, it's at 361 Boylston further down, well the chefs from all over Boston & Cambridge create the sandwiches here, they're out of this world. They have an outdoor patio area and inside would be good too, it'll at least be nice and cool if it's hot out, you would love this Cafe for lunch, here's their site to check it out:
Another day stroll thru the Public Garden and definitely get on those Swan Boats! That's a MUST & absolutely get over to see the Make Way For Ducklings statues, that's a MUST too as was suggested to you by Miu! Afterwards walk down to "Charles Street" & stroll thru their neat shops & walk further down it to see the Liberty Hotel's lobby it's absolutely awesome what they did to this building, it used to be the home of the Charles Street Jail, well, wait till you see what was done to it, look up as you take the escalator inside this lobby and you'll see the 'cat walk', it's pretty impressive to see the transformation to a lot of us Bostonians. Walk out to their "Yard" to chill out or even to have a soda or something, just to relax there, you'll have to see their website to see what I mean, it's quite a patio! In the summer months, the Liberty Bar extends to the outdoor patio, called “The Yard.” It has plush sofas, low cocktail tables and secluded ambiance, The Yard is an urban oasis for drinking and dining!
Another AM or early PM you could walk down to the North End as it's "feast" time. Check this site for their dates & scroll down to "Summer Feasts" for the schedule:
Just so you know very quickly, August 27th-29th is St. Anthony's which is their biggest feast so remember the dates, as it's a really good one to go to. The Fisherman's Feast August 12-15th is quite good too as well as St. Lucy's which is August 30th.
In the North End look for "Gelateria" it's located at 272 Hanover Street, it's "Italian Gelato" (ice cream) that's a huge hit these days, check their site for all their flavors, it's quite good here:
If you want a really good pizza, then head to Thatcher Street and the "Pizzeria Regina" will be on that street! It's fantastic there just ask any one how to get there, they'll tell you, believe me, every one knows where that place is.
There's all kinds of bakeries in the North End, one of them that is a huge hit lately is "Lyndell's Bakery" for their cupcakes, so put that one on your list. It's a smaller version of their Somerville, MA bakery, but they have all the all time favorite treats in their North End bakery. There's also the famous "Mike's Pastry" also on Hanover Street AND then there's "Modern Pastry" further down Hanover Street, we always go to Modern because Mike's is packed with all the tourists, I'm talking lines out the door and down the street, it's crazy! So my friends & I will go to Modern for their cannoli's after dinner, they're the best, so hold on to this idea, it's a good one!
Bova's Bakery located at 134 Salem Street has delicious calzone & cream puffs. Then there's Cafe Vittoria located at 290-296 Hanover Street and Cafe Graffiti located at 64 Cross Street. The Cafe's are places that you would go after dinner or after lunch when you're visiting in the North End. You'd go there for their latte's, coffee's, expresso's & their pastries. We will usually head straight for Cafe Graffiti's, they have tables usually, well they always used to, the tourists are out now, lol, so may be not, you just have to time it right I guess. They're fun to people watch here, they have it set up like Europe now with the piazza setting, no windows in the front, so you feel as if you're in Italy when you're in this Cafe Graffiti's.
Look for "Maria's Pastry Shop" too it's at 46 Cross Steet this is where we usually get the "Italian Ice"! For your daughter, you could get her one of their famous "Umberti's" (cookie of the King!) you know, those flat vanilla baby biscuits the little ones love....
***When you go to the Children's Museum afterwards come out and go around the corner to 12 Farnsworth Street, it's "Flour Bakery & Cafe". You would love it here for lunch or even to stop in for a coffee & pastry, don't miss it:
One day you could take the subway (the red line) to Harvard Square. Stroll thru Harvard Yard and there's a couple of neat museums there, one of them has the glass flowers, check that one out, it's incredible. You could also walk thru the Square to check out the shops. GO to Mr. Bartley's for a burger, now that's a MUST when in Harvard Square:
***One day plan on taking your daughter to Castle Island/Pleasure Bay, there's a playground there & a beautiful walk along the Harbor. ALSO a very good snack bar called "Sullivan's" for hot dog, hamburgers, ice cream & coffee. It's at the beginning of the Harbor walk. Here's a good site with pictures, directions by the MBTA
***Another morning or early afternoon as you get yourself familiar with Boston's history along the Freedom Trail you could bring your daughter to Charlestown's waterfront as there's an awesome playground there for her at Paul Revere's park not too far from the USS Constitution which is FREE by the way, so remember that, you could walk from North Station over the foot bridge along the Freedom Trail to visit the USS Constitution then walk over to Paul Revere's park. Here's info on it:
Another thing that you could do is take the MBTA subway to the JFK Library some morning. It's got direction on their site, they have a shuttle bus that would pick you up at the train station and drop you off at the Library. It's one day that you would enjoy, bring your camera, it's scenic where this Library is located:
***For Seafood with your daughter remember "the Barking Crab" it's located at 88 Sleeper Street in the Financial District, in fact, it's not too far from the Children's Museum at all. They have a really good kids menu, they give them a sundae too:
If you are a real walker, there's this OTHER place that is awesome for seafood called the Dry Dock Cafe located at 7 Drydock Avenue right where the Black Falcon Terminal is located. Ya, it's a little walk along Northern Avenue & from the Financial District & that Barking Crab location! You would walk all the way past all of that, even past Boston's World Trade Center, go past the Seaport Hotel & The Marriott Renaissance Hotel, all the way past "Salvatore's" & "Legal's Test Kitchen" & past the Yankee Lobster Company which is extremely good too so remember that well you keep going past the Boston Pavilion where the summer concerts are held along the waterfront, keep going straight past all of this till you pass a parking garage complex on the right, keep going till you see the STOP sign, well you turn right here and look across the street, there's the Dry Dock Cafe you can't miss it. It's quite the rage lately in Southie & it's the type of place that you'll see a lot of politicians, firemen & police in here having lunch and/or dinner, it's called the "DryDock Cafe". It's open every day during the week for breakfast & lunch, BUT at night it's strictly open on Thursday & Friday nights only so remember that, you can bring a bottle of wine in here though, it's BYOB! ALSO they have $10 seafood specials that are out of this world good here. It's quite good, here's their menu, scroll down to see what you're going to get IF you end up going here, BUT when you walk in to this place they will have a chalkboard with their daily seafood specials on it, you can't beat this place with a stick, it's quite a place lately for seafood lovers:
I'll have you all over the City won't I! You'll be busy! It's not only Faneuil Hall Marketplace & the Back Bay's Pru shops & Newbury Street that will keep you busy, it's the neighborhoods like Charlestown, you'll love walking thru this place. The waterfront area this time of year is beautiful to be there any way. You could take the water taxi to get back in to Boston right from the pier along here. You could bring her to the NE Aquarium via water taxi whatever you want to do. Try to remember to get a "Charlie" pass for the week for the subway:
It'll be cheaper to buy one of those for the week rather than for the day, so keep that tip, it's another good one to remember.
Have a wonderful time! If you like modern art, there's the fairly new Museum of Contemporary Art along the waterfront that you could check out, Wolfgang Puck's Cafe has a birds eye view of the harbor from here and you can go along their steps outside too at this complex, it's a perfect spot to chill out/time out along here.
Last edited by CityGirl52; 07-11-2010 at 07:47 AM..
I thought of something else. You could go to the Museum of Science in Cambridge to see the various exhibits. One of them is the Harry Potter Exhibition, I haven't seen it, but I'm hearing about it all the time. I guess it's quite good. The IMAX shows are always really good here and if your daughter is too young for them, you can walk around the Museum inside and check out everything, there's a bunch of things for kids that would entertain her. You would really like the Cafe inside the Museum, it overlooks the Charles River, it's pretty nice. Afterwards you could walk right around the corner from the Museum heading north, so if you were facing the Charles River as you're looking at it from that Cafe, you want to be on the right of the Charles River. GO to the Cambridgeside Galleria, it's a great Mall to hang out in, especially good if you end up with rainy weather, so keep it on the back burner, just in case! There's a Cheesecake Factory there among other spots to stop in if you want to and of course there's all kinds of neat stores that we all HAVE to have near us! Well the reason why I'm telling you about this Mall is because there's a FREE SHUTTLE to the MBTA's Kendall Station (the red line) here. You can use it to get back to your hotel or back in to downtown Boston, so remember that, here's the scoop on it:
Another thing that you could do is walk thru the Cambridgeside Galleria's Food Court and you'll see a set of doors there down back, go thru them and you'll come out to the river bank. Here you'll see the Charles River Boat company. You could cruise the Charles River for a few hours, if anything it's entertaining and fun:
Lots of great suggestions above! I would only add...Don't bring the fancy stroller. Bring a light weight umbrella stroller that folds easily. Your diaper bag can hang by the straps on the back of the stroller when baby is sitting and slide it around into the seat when baby is out for counterweight. The subway is no problem, you just really want a "small" quick and easy compact folding stroller for any of your options be it...cab, bus, trolley or subway.
That would be my best suggestion. You should really enjoy yourself. There is SO much to do and see in Boston. Have a great trip!!
Good suggestion from Deef1 about the umbrella stroller. You might also want to avoid the subway during rush hours. That's when it's most likely to be really packed, which usually won't be the case at most other times. The one other situation where it can be especially crowded would be that the green line can get pretty packed an hour or two before a Red Sox game, and for a while after the game.
It's difficult to say for sure how the weather will be in late August. It's possible that it could still be sort of hot. If you'll be here right at the end of Aug., chances are the weather will be very pleasant. Most years, the summer weather starts to break a week or so before the end of Aug., and becomes really nice, pleasantly warm, bright and sunny, with low humidity. There can always be those exceptions, though, so be prepared to adjust your schedule to avoid long walks outside in the middle of the day if you wouldn't want to do that in hot weather, because there's some chance that it could be hot. Most likely it will be very pleasant at that time of year.
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Vacationing in Boston w/Baby
