I'll be going to Boston, MA for this year's St. Patrick's Day with some friends and was wondering if any of you locals had any recommendations for cool things to do in Boston or the eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Maine? We'll be staying close to downtown Boston but were planning on renting a car for any out-of-the-area trips so we'll be pretty mobile. We're into breweries, live music, nature, historical attractions, local's favorite bars and are all foodies.
When in Boston, we always stop at South Street Diner. It's a super old and tiny diner, so carries with it that old vintage vibe. Open 24 hours. It's not glamorous or fancy, more on the gritty side. The food is always awesome as is the coffee, but remember it is diner food. The staff are super cool, as long as you don't mind a little attitude. Sol runs the joint and is usually there. He'll chat you up for an hour if you let him. Last time we were in, he turned us on to a liquor store with a killer bourbon selection. Oh, the chocolate fantasy French toast......get it. I think that's what it's called. -Mike
We spent a week just south of Central Boston two summers back. Salem's a short drive away and was a fun place to visit. We did a tram tour first then a couple of museums. One was a Salem Witch Trial experience and very well done. And agreed on the South St. Diner.
There's certainly scads to do in Boston itself. For the historical stuff, there's the Freedom Trail, which is kind of the standard thing that every school in the region has a field trip to do along with tourists, it meanders around all the Revolutionary sites. For music... I wouldn't even know where to start. Anything from Berklee student recitals to big concerts at the TD Garden, and there are a number of good smaller venues - I like the Middle East in Cambridge, a little rock club tucked in back of a diner. The Public Library is pretty impressive, and the MFA is a good museum, along with the smaller Gardner museum behind it. Lots of shopping... Quincy Market, Copley Place, Newbury Street. And of course, it's Boston on St. Patrick's Day. There will be a parade and every bar in town will be going nuts. If you want to get out into nature, I would head up the coast of Maine for seashore or up here to New Hampshire for mountains. It depends on how outdoors you want to get for a weekend... I'm going to guess you're not going camping in March when you're just in the area for a couple days. Ogunquit, Maine is a nice town and there's a walk called the Marginal Way along the shore that's popular. For a one-day thing to do in NH, maybe get up to Mount Washington and take the Cog Railway to the summit. That's the tallest mountain east of the Rockies and has a major weather station (and pretty major weather, sometimes!) at the peak.
If you are in town on the 19th, you could go see one of the best teams in hockey, Boston Bruins, play.
Not New England, but I made the mistake of forgetting what day it was and going to run an errand in Times Square on St. Patrick's. Wow. I would imagine it's equally to be avoided in Boston.
If you do run up the coast as @hrodbert696 mentioned, check out York and Ogunquit. Oh yeah, Mike's in Wells has great lobster rolls. I haven't had one, not a seafood fan, but every out of town visitor we took there loved it. -Mike
Thanks for the tip! 24 hour diners are always great to "recharge" after a night of fun! Salem does sound cool! I'm thinking we'll probably leave early and make a day trip to Maine, and will stop off in Salem during that time. Quite right, we definitely won't be camping at any point during this trip. Probably more wandering along the coast in Maine and New Hampshire while stopping for food or to walk around. We'll definitely check out the St. Patrick's Day parade but won't spend much more than an hour watching. Thanks for the bar recommendations, we'll likely stop in a few of those!
I'm going to have to head back home to Austin early for some session work, but I'll let the other guys know. I'm a Chicago Blackhawks fan, and while I wouldn't wear any Blackhawks gear in Boston I still most likely wouldn't be safe at a Bruins game! We do kind of want to check out the parade just to say we saw it, but don't plan on spending more than an hour watching it (if even that long). Haha, love it! Funny thing is that I am Scotch-Irish, not that anyone could tell from my pasty white shaved head.
Very true! I guess as Americans we have a tendency to celebrate every holiday to ludicrous extremes...'Merica! Yes! We definitely want to eat as much seafood as we can, being that the seafood down here in Texas and Oklahoma is, well, a bit lacking compared to New England.
