Boston Uncommon: Stay, sample, savor and sightsee without breaking the bank

June 8, 8:06 PMPittsburgh Stage and Screen ExaminerAlan Petrucelli

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They call it the “Cradle of Liberty.”

We call it a great city.

We like to say that Boston is just like Madhattan . . . without the anger and stench of subway urine.

We needed a Boston fix, so we recently went for a week-long visit, revisiting the old and new, quite surprised that such a trip was quite affordable.

We’re here to explain.

Rule # 1: Do not try and see it all. It’s impossible, unless you plan on staying a good month or two.

Rule #2: Do your homework before you go.

History lovers will relish following the Freedom Trail (thefreedomtrail.org), a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that will lead you to 16 nationally significant historic sites, a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship and historic markers that recreate the American Revolution. Yes, the Old North Church’s eight steeple bells are the original ones, the very ones that a 15-year-old Paul Revere rang when he served as a church ringer in 1749. And yes, this was the very steeple made famous years later during Mr. Revere’s famous ride.

Theater fiend? Boston is home to some of the most famous and glorious theaters in America; you can see great show (Follies and A Little Night Music are two of the myriad of shows that had their pre-Broadway tryouts here) and get to gawk at the inside of some of the city’s notable theaters. Try the Colonial (bostonscolonialtheatre.com), Boston’s premiere showplace since 1900---Richard Rodgers once wrote a song on the onyx table in the ladies’ lounge for a troubled show called Away We Go!---that song was "Oklahoma!", the title song for the show that changed the course of America musical comedy theatre; or the Opera House (bostonoperahouse.com), which opened in 1928 and after many near-death experiences underwent a $30 million facelift, reopening in 2004.
Art lovers and gallery gallopers and museum mavens must head straight o the world-famous Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the new Institute of Contemporary Art, then stroll op (or down) Newbury Street.

Just want a taste of Beantown? A museum here, a trolley tour there, a great meal or three, some shopping at Filene’s? It can all be done, save for shopping at Filene’s. The store so identified with Boston---think Wanamaker's and Philly---permanently closed in 2007, and no, the “new” Filene’s Basement on Boylston Street is not the same thing. It’s like comparing Liza to Judy.

Our trip was a sundry selection of things during which we visited and “examined” this and that just for examiner.com readers.

It was made affordable by the incredible low rates Jet Blue (jetblue.com) offers from Pittsburgh to Boston, and now we love flying the friendlier skies even more so. The service was impeccable, the staff was super friendly, the planes clean, clean, clean (yes, even the bathrooms) and the seats roomy and comfortable. We spent the extra $10 to experience the extra leg room of an emergency exit window seat---extra room? A (small) family of four could have called the space under and around the seat home---that’s how much room there was. And that $10 could have been spent on a few more Sam Adams.

When we stay in Boston, we always stay at the Boston Park Plaza (bostonparkplaza.com). A designated National Historic Landmark, it’s centrally located in Boston’s Back Bay. Since 1927, every U.S. president has stayed here. (Barack hasn't dropped by . . . yet). The hotel sits on a triangular piece of land that can be easily cordoned off by police and Secret Service. It’s exciting being in Boston when the Big Ones are in town . . . it’s like being on a movie set except that the guns and security are real.

This time around we stayed in the Concierge Tower of the hotel. There’s a separate elevator that rushes guests to their 15th floor rooms. Our room was awfully teeny, but hey, it was home for a few nights and included a great free breakfast.
More importantly, the price was right; Park Plaza rates start at just $139!

If you don’t stay here, at least visit. The lobby is considered a “city within a city,” as it welcomes guests with elegant columns, sparkling chandeliers and textured ceilings.

The hotel is also famous for its afternoon tea, served with tasty finger sandwiches, in the cozy, comfy lobby Swans Cafe. This is one ordinary tea but an event helmed by one of the world’s few female tea sommeliers. Close your eyes, sip and you might just hear Mr. Revere’s horse galloping by. It’s a genteel, sentimental experience that comes with or without caffeine.

The Park Plaza is home to many fine restaurants, the newest being The Melting Pot (meltingpot.com), a franchised fondue restaurant that is, well, interesting would fit the bill. The menu is confusing (even our waitress had trouble explaining it) and the at-table preparation is sloppy (shredded cheese flew out of the pot and landed on our shirts). It’s messy cooking raw meats as you’re trying to carry on a conversation. All in all, the meal was pretty decent and very expensive. Our suggestion for fondue fans: Just order a cheese fondue after a long day on the town. It’ll be simple and much less expensive.

We crammed a lot in that daze of days. Yes, we were pooped, but we did it all for you to, so that all the information you need to plan a visit is a mere click away.

First Up: Getting Around
The subways are referred to as the T. They are quick, safe and pretty much clean (mbta.com). Fares are $2 per trip, but CharlieCards and CharlieTickets make rides easier and cheaper. Cards and tickets store value for single or multiple rides, or you can load a T-Pass on your CharlieCard or CharlieTicket and travel as much and as often as you like.

Taking the T is great way to get from here to there quickly . . . assuming you know where here and there are. Frankly, unless you must ride underground, skip the tunnel and take the trolley.

There are several companies from which to choose. Do not take the Gray Line’s “red” trolley line. We did on our recent trip and made a huge mistake.

Actually, we didn’t make the mistake, the driver did. He sent us to the Mapparium on a day it was closed, then dropped us off at the Museum of Fine Arts with a promise of picking us up. An hour went by . . . as did the trolley. The driver didn’t stop. It was 93 degrees that day---hot even sitting in the shade---and we were forced to take a taxi back to the hotel.

Next time we are sticking to reliable orange and green Old Town Trolley (trolleytours.com). The conductors are friendly, the tour narration a fascinating and fun mix of trivia and humor. Hop on, hop off; they cover the entire city with frequent pickups, making this the best way to see the town. We suggest the money-saving multi-day ticket---buying online is easier and cheaper!


The trolley ticket comes with a complimentary guide to Boston. This is a great tool; one of the best ways of avoid missing any must-sees on your list is to peruse the points of interest listed in the brochure and choose what you would like to do before you board the trolley. (The guide provides you with information on what there is to do and see at each stop and gives an approximate time to spend there as well. )

Another nifty way of getting around town is by walking. Boston is truly a walking city, it’s hard to get lost and if you do, Bostonians are (generally) super friendly and will steer you back in the right direction. Keep in mind that the cross main streets are smartly laid out in alphabetical order: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield . . .

A great introduction to the city is to walk down Boylston (beginning at Arlington), strolling past the numerous stores and restaurants. Walk to Gloucester, where the Prudential Center (fondly called the Pru) stands before you. At 752 feet, it’s the tallest building in town. Inside is an upscale mall and an observatory deck. 

When all is said and done, walk one block over to Newbury Street and reverse your walk. Newbury Street is home to expensive shops, expensive art galleries and really good expensive restaurants and outside cafes, perfect for people watching.

Wanna go green? Take a ride on a PediCab (bostonpedicab.com). Since its debut in March 2005, Boston PediCabs have become the city’s #1 pedal-powered transportation service.

It’s exactly what you think: a redesigned bicycle of sorts, pedaled by a driver. The bikes are equipped with lights, reflectors, shock-absorbed seating, bells and hydraulic brakes; for those cool nights, stay warm with one of the fleece blankets.

Here are our picks for the Best of Boston, those attractions, sights and sites worth your time and money.

Boston Duck Tours (www.bostonducktours.com)
We quacked up the first time we took the Boston Duck Tours. There’s no way to duck the fun. As you board the World War II-style amphibious landing vehicle, you’ll be greeted by a tour “conDUCKtors,” before heading off to see Boston in quite a different way.
The first half is a standard sightseeing sampler. Look! The gold-domed state house! Look! The Make Way For Ducklings statues! Look! Ritzy Beacon Hill! Once that cruising is done, the real cruising begins as the Duck Mobile splashes smack (and safely) into the Charles River. Prepare for a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines. Tours depart from the Museum of Science in Cambridge and the Prudential Center; abbreviated evening tours leave from the New England Aquarium.

Boston Public Garden (cityofboston.gov/parks/emerald/Public_Garden.asp)
Meandering through the first botanical garden in the United States---also home to America’s first public tulip display---is a must. Tucked away in this vast oasis of all things green are the legendary Swan Boats (www.swanboats.com), the only boats of their kind in the world. (They’ve been offering visitors rides since the 1870's!) It’s a brief and idyllic but rather unimpressive trip as passengers enjoy the natural splendor provided by the 24 acres of the Public Garden. Past riders have included Jackie O, Lucille Ball, Shirley Temple and Princess Grace of Monaco. (By the way, don’t even try and ignore their warnings of not using your cell phones during the trip.)
Look for the crowds and you’ll know just where the Make Way for Ducklings statues are. Made of bronze and sitting on old Boston cobblestones, the ducks were installed on October 4, 1987, and honor Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s book, in which a family of ducks walks across a highway to get to the Garden.

In April, 2009, the duckling named Pack was snapped off at his webbed feet. It’s not the first time a brazen thief committed such a fowl act. The duck was later found nesting on the steps of a Beacon Hill house, and is noe firmly planted back where it belongs in the Public Garden.
By the way: The squirrels living in the Public Garden are very friendly. Kneel and offer them a peanut or other snack, and more often than not, they will feed from your fingers.

Cambridge (www.cambridge-usa.org)
ounded in 1630 as the first seat of government for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Cambridge is called Boston’s “Left Bank” because it really is a world apart. (Julia Child was not kidding around about how much she loved the place; having lived here for more than 40 years.) Famous for its neighboring “squares,” Cambridge is worth exploring. It’s home to Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of technology and lots of great restaurants and shops.

At the Harvard Museum of Natural History (hmnh.harvard.edu) explore 12,000 specimens from around the globe, including dinosaurs, meteorites, gemstones and hundreds of stuffed animals. Two must-sees: the 1,642-pound amethyst geode and the world-famous exhibit of 3,000 flowers made from glass. Here;'s a glimpse. Yes, glass.

The models were made by father and son Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, 19th-century glass artisans who "shaped"   the flowers after the glass was softened by heat. Some models were blown. Colored glass was used for many; others were "cold painted" with a thin wash of colored ground glass or metal oxide(s) and heated until the material fused to the model.

The Old Town trolley roams through the streets; we strongly suggest hopping off and exploring.

Cambridge is home to the Museum of Science (mos.org). There’s an IMAX theater, a nifty planetarium and enough hands-on exhibitions to keep baby Einsteins on edge. We spent a good part of the day in the Butterfly Garden---overlooking the Charles River, this tropical oasis allowed us to get thisclose to a variety of living butterflies from New England and across the globe.

If you're lucky, you’ll see a new butterfly crawl out of its casing or a recently emerged adult pump fluid into its wings. (It’s not pretty.) Other displays and activities take you through the radically different stages of a butterfly’s life cycle. You won’t exit the exhibit but soar.

Cheers (www.cheersboston.com)
Beer buffs, TV fans and Ted Danson devotees (yes, they exist) will want to visit what has become known as the "Cheers Bar.” Founded in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, the bar is the original inspiration for the setting of the TV show. In the summer of ’81, a screenwriting couple from Hollywood were searching Boston for a neighborhood bar to copy for their new TV series.
They enjoyed the warm, cozy atmosphere that the Beacon Hill neighborhood pub provided and they decided to take pictures of the interior and exterior to take back to Hollywood. Upon their return, they gave the pictures to a set designer who utilized all of the architectural elements of the Bull & Finch and designed the set that was built on Paramount’s lot on Stage 25.
Expect crowds. Lots of crowds. And, of course, more souvenirs than Normisms.

Faneuil Hall (faneuilhallmarketplace.com)
Today most people visit to shop and eat, but there’s important history to be learned here. The original two-story Georgian-style brick building was funded by wealthy Boston merchant, Peter Faneuil, and completed in 1742. It burned to the ground 19 years later. It was rebuilt following the original design in 1763. The first floor served as a market place; the second floor contained a large meeting hall which was first used for town meetings in 1764. Look up and to see the grasshopper weather vane; created by silversmith Shem Drowne in 1742, it’s copper vane is gilded with gold leaf, weighs 80 pounds and is four feet long.
The Hall was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis and fellow revolutionary colonists who sought independence from Britain and protested the “taxation without representation.“ American patriots held so many meeting here that Faneuil Hall was dubbed the “Cradle of Liberty.”

It was expanded throughout the years and continued to be used as a commercial center of the city. It fell into disrepair and was renovated in the 1970's.
Today, the area is known as Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and consists of Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, the 1826 marketplace originally built by Mayor Josiah Quincy. From here, it’s an easy walk to North End, Beantown‘s famous “Little Italy,” (northendboston.com) a maze of streets crammed with incredible eateries, and cheese and pastry shops.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (www.icaboston.org)
The ICA has been around for a while, but not in such a classy building, a glass structure that juts out over the water. This is not your grandmother’s art; if not else, the building itself is a work of art, as demanding of exploration as the art and video installation it houses.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (gardnermuseum.org)
Our friend Joan Rivers loves this place, the former home of one of Boston’s most famous and most wealthy women. Built to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace, the museum is Isabelle’s former home. In 1917, ISG said that she decided “the greatest need in our country was art. We were a very young country and had very few opportunities of seeing beautiful things. So I determined to make it my life’s work if I could.” She succeeded.

Isabella (no one said she was a looker) became a pack rat whose possessions remain priceless---the collection is comprised of more than 2,500 objects; paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles, drawings, silver, ceramics, illuminated manuscripts, rare books, photographs and letters, from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world and 19th-century France and America.

Mapparium (mbelibrary.org)
Since 1935, more than 10 million people have stopped at the 30-foot glass bridge that spans the Mapparium taking visitors (for a few minutes) to the middle of the world. This three-story, stained-glass globe---made of 608 stained-glass panels and depicted the world as it was in 1935---is one of the key attractions at the Mary Baker Library, named in honor of the woman who founded Christian Science.
The Mapparium’s three-dimensional perspective is enhanced by A World of Ideas, an original presentation that features a rich orchestration of words, music and LED lights to illustrate how ideas have traversed time and geography and changed the world.

Before your world travel, stop by the breathtaking Hall of Ideas, a compelling meld of art and technology in which more than 800 quotes from all the great thinkers appear to “bubble” from the fountain and spill onto the floor. We strongly suggest also visiting (for free) a tour of the Mother Church, an American Romanesque wonder built in 1894. Some will call these religious experiences. We call them heavenly.

Museum of Fine Arts (mfa.org)
To call the MFA (as everyone calls it) just a museum is like calling Picasso just a painter. Outside of New York City, this is, undoubtedly, the most important art collection in the country. The original MFA opened its doors to the public on July 4, 1876, in Copley Square. In 1909 the museum moved to its current home on Huntington Avenue; it’s collection boasts more than 450,000 works of art. Don't be a baby and skip the sculptures that riddle the outside lawns.

Skipping a visit to the museum is a cardinal---no, make that mortal---sin. We spent four days here, and barely skimmed the surface. Stay for the Concerts in the Courtyard; every Wednesday evening from June 24 to August 26, the Calderwood Courtyard turns into an outside (and quite intimate) setting for performances by some of the best area musicians. (If it rains, concerts move indoors to the Remis Auditorium.) There’s a great gift shop on the first level (check out the clearance areas) adjacent to a nice cafe; the cafeteria downstairs is a hidden cheaper and better deal. The current major exhibit (a separate admission ticket is required), Rivals in Renaissance Venice, runs through August 16 and pays homage to Titan, Tintoretto and Veronese. With all the other masters and masterpieces on hand in other galleries, frankly, we found this a bore. As one Cambridge-type said as she and we exited at the same time: “I’d be hard pressed to find those three on anyone’s favorites list.” 

New England Aquarium (neaq.org)
Here, you could call some residents jackasses and not get reprimanded. (African penguins are known “jackass penguins“ because they make a sound that is very similar to a donkey's bray.) The aquarium’s giant ocean tank is a towering, four-story coral reef exhibit smack-dab in the middle of the main exhibit galleries. The tank is 23 feet deep, 40 feet wide and holds 200,000 gallons of salt water heated to approximately 74°F, which is the perfect temperature for this tropical exhibit. (The tank is so big that it was built first, and then the rest of the aquarium was built around it.)
Simply follow the ramp around and explore this Caribbean coral reef top to bottom and from all sides. Don’t miss the top floor where you can look down into the water from above and watch divers feed the animals. Sushi for dinner? Don’t miss the “Amazing Jellies” display. Sea jellies have no brains or bones, but they are great survivors. The world of slime, stingers and brainless, gelatinous goo has never been so transparent.

Skywalk Observatory (prudentialcenter.com)
It makes sense that Boston’s tallest tower also offers the most sweeping 360-degree views from the glassed-in 51st-floor observatory. It’s getting high. Legally. On the day we visited the Prudential Center, it was so clear we could see forever . . . or at least to Vermont. Or was it Spain? Maine? Cape Cod? New Hampshire? Canada? You can take an audio tour, but we suggest simply wandering, reading the information plaques and oohing and aahing. Visit at night for really stunning views.

SEE MORE, SPEND LE$$
Budget traveling has never been so cheap: There are two great ways to see and save. The Boston City Pass (citypass.com) gives you admission to Boston’s most popular, most famous attractions at 45% less than the cost of tickets purchased separately. Each CityPass is valid for nine days. Inside each Boston CityPass booklet are five actual admission tickets, each with a tip revealing a CityPass secret to skip main ticket lines. Also included: coupons for a Faneuil Hall VIP welcome package (with a free chocolate covered pretzel) and discounts for Old Town Trolley Tours and Union Oyster House Restaurant. A steal at $44 for adults; $22 for ages 3-11.

The Go Card Boston (gobostoncard.com) is an incredible deal: It provides admission to 70 (!) of Boston's top attractions and tours for a single low price. (You'll save about 55% over the cost of individual tickets.) Cards can be bought for one through seven days; be forewarned that once activated, hours and days are ticking away. Plan ahead and start sightseeing early. Using your card late in the day like we did was, frankly, dumb.

For more information, free planning advice, brochures and surprises, visit bostonusa.com/greatdeals. Visiting August 9-14 and/or August 16-21? It’s Restaurant Week Boston; check up what’s being dished out at bostonusa.com/restaurantweek