Direction

Hi can anyone help us with direction in Boston? We plan to stay in Boston for 3 days 2 nights in June. The places we plan to visit are Faneuil Market, Chinatown, North End-Little Italy and Newbury street. How should I arrange the route so that the trip can run smoothly and that we are not wasting our time on travelling unnecessarily. Is it true that Fanueil Market and Chinatown are within walking distance of each other? How about the other destinations? Thank you very much for your help.

Direction

Sorry I left out Beacon Hill. Thanks

Direction

Boston is very compact and easy to navigate by foot. I recommend you check out the maps on walkboston.org to give you an idea timewise on how long it takes to get to places.

To piece things together...you can stroll down Newbury Street head in to the Public Garden and then Boston Common. Head over to Chinatown. On another day you could do the Faneuil Hall area followed by the North End and the harbor or head over to the USS Constitution in Charlestown. There are a multitude of options!

If you get tired of walking you can always take the the subway, or ';the T.'; Visit www.mbta.com for all fare info and route maps.

All the sites you mention are within reasonable walking distance. Chinatown to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market is less than 1 mile, even if you take the ';scenic'; route along Boston Common. (that%26#39;s an easy 20 minute walk).

How you organize your three days depends somewhat on where you are staying, and things like: are you planning to buy stuff on Newbury Street or just stroll through it, where do you want to eat, and do you want to return to your hotel before dinner, etc.

You can measure walking distances with google pedometer:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

just zoom into Boston, ';start recording'; and double-click on each spot along your route.

I think tourists in general sometimes rely too much on subways to get around. I know that it was only after I had visited Paris many times and spent months there that I realized I could walk to many of the major sites and didn%26#39;t need to take the metro. The same is true of using the Green Line in Boston: from North Station to Copley the stops are only two blocks apart.

The city is all very walkable, depending on your level of fitness and how much you like walking. It depends on what you like to do. If you want to fit in lots of activities, you can hop on the T and get from one place to another quickly---or you can enjoy the walks. You can look at a map and plot a route that makes sense to you: Chinatown is walkable from Faneuil Hall but it%26#39;s closer to the Common and Public Garden, so maybe those should be grouped together. Copley, the Public Garden, and River are close. Beacon Hill could be in that grouping or grouped with Chinatown. Faneuil Hall and the Aquarium and North End are (to me) another cluster. A very fun walk (one I recommend) is Mass Ave from Newbury ST across the River into Cambridge and up into Central Square...Harvard Square if you have the energy to go that far.

Walking down Newbury will put you into The Boston Public Garden. From here you have a few different ways to approach Beacon Hill. You can walk down Charles and take either Mt. Vernon or Pickney on the right. I like walking up Beacon and to The State House. After checking out the State House, I usually wander thru Beacon Hill with no plan of attack.

From here I would head over ot Fanueil Market then onto The North End.

On another day I would do Chinatown, The Theatre District, then back to The Public Garden for a ride on the Swan Boats. Bring your best walking shoes.

Dear Mahj, Healey04, thomas144, QueensLace %26amp; eileengs2 thank you all for the input. I should be able to come up with a good plan for touring Boston with all these informations provided.

The city is VERY walkable. All the places you mentioned are around the %26#39;downtown%26#39; are around the downtown area. I too learned the city as an older teen first by subway stops and then by streets .. it took me a while to be able to connect one subway stop to another above ground.

That said, sometimes the subway is convenient, especially if you%26#39;ve been walking a lot. But North Station to Copley is significantly more than %26#39;two blocks%26#39;, perhaps the previous poster meant to say North Station to Haymarket or Gov%26#39;t Center.