Half a day in Boston! What to do?

Manuel

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Hi,
I'm looking at a return flight from the US to Dublin which transfers in Boston.
Arrive 10.27, Depart 18.15.

Do you think it would be possible to get some kind of tour of Boston in during all those hours? We are two adults and four kids aged 7 to 13. It's a Thursday in June ...

Just wondering ...

Thanks!
/M.
 
you could visit the Red Socks stadium in Fenwick Park - well worth a visit. I thought the tour of Harvard University was great but I don't think I'd bring kids there!
 
The trolley tours of Boston are good. The guides are very good, and its a hop-on hop-off tour so it can be a short or long as you like.
 
Agree with Geri. I was in Boston once years ago (1999 I think it was) and the trolley tour we took was fantastic. It was one of those hop-on/hop-off ones but we somehow ended up getting the same guide every time we got back on. He was very entertaining. Faneuil Hall (where we started and kept going back to) was also great - huge food court. Had never seen anything like it before.
 
Thanks for the quick replies!

One other question. With the US being the US, would there be any issue with us skipping out of Flight Connections and leaving the airport between our connections?

Thanks again!
 
Thanks for the quick replies!

One other question. With the US being the US, would there be any issue with us skipping out of Flight Connections and leaving the airport between our connections?

Thanks again!

I was just thinking that.
If you do leave you will have to go through security again when you come back. How many hours should you leave for that? Would you really have enough time to leave the airport, do a tour and get back again?
 
With only eight hours between flights you probably don't have time to leave the airport and tour Boston extensively, or go down to Fenway (not Fenwick :) ) park which is a bit of distance from the centre. What you could realistically do is go to Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market, which is a very pleasant area in summer, with an open air market, giant food hall, restaurants, street artists and other attractions.

Take a five minute bus ride from the airport terminal to the airport T (metro) station on the Blue Line. Travel two stops to Aquarium station. Alternatively, you can take a water shuttle from Logan to Long Wharf (the public MBTA shuttle is $3 each way, not sure how frequent it is, or there are more expensive private water taxis). The journey from Logan to Long Wharf is 12 minutes. By water or train you'll end up either end of the unmistakable Long Wharf Marriott hotel. From the Aquarium T stop it's less than a five minute walk to Quincy Market. Cross Atlantic Avenue, walk to your right and it will bring you to the bottom of the market. On the train either of the next two stops on the Blue line -- State Street or Government Centre -- will also give you easy access to Quincy Market. From the latter you can also walk to Boston Common (about ten minutes) or switch to the Red line and go a couple of stops to Park Street in about two minutes, which leaves you right on the edge of Boston Common. That, and the adjacent Boston Gardens are nice too.

The whole Faneuil Hall, State Street, Boston Common area is part of the Boston Freedom Trail -- if you like walking this is a historic walking tour marked out by easy-to-follow red lines on the footpath. It starts near Park Street T stop, but you can join it anywhere you like (including Faneuil Hall at the top end of Quincy Market) -- get an online map and do some research before you go.

For my money this is your easiest and cheapest way of experiencing a bit of Boston while not straying too far from the airport. Obviously there's a lot more to Boston than this, but I've spent many a pleasant day just around this area. (I used to live in the middle of it).
 
dub nerd has a few good suggestions there. You could also consider the 'Duck Tours' as a way to see a bit of Boston. You have about 4 hours to play with. If you land at 10:30 you should easily be able to be in the city centre by 11:30. You would want to be leaving the city again about 3:30pm for your 6:15 flight.
Assuming you are already checked in for the flight home, it can take 30-45 mins to clear airport security at that time of day in Boston. Add another 30 mins if you need to check-in.
 
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