Boston or Seattle for one week?

[FuckingFreezing]

It will be in October if Boston because I absolutely love autumn. It's my favourite season and if I go at this time I would really like to visit Salem too. Would hope it's still nice enough to go to Cape Cod if you can do a day trip from Boston? However I would also love to be by the Pacific ocean and have wanted to visit the West Coast for years, would love to go whale watching (orcas) and potentially visit Oregon via train for a day. I know it's a 6 hour round trip. I do NOT want to hire a car. If I visit Seattle it will more than likely be early September. For one week.

I'm interested in nature walks and scenery, shopping, nice parks to explore, food and drink and museums. Definitely love markets. Being by the ocean and just generally soaking up the atmosphere.

Thoughts please? Oh… I do NOT like hot weather. I did NYC in winter and I loved it but I did strike gold with crispy skies and no blizzards.

One final thing. As much as I loved NYC I didn't always feel safe on the subway especially on the one from the airport. So this is the most important thing.

Is Boston / Seattle reasonably safe?

Thank you!

I'm just back from Boston. It's really lovely. It's a two-ish hour drive to Cape Cod so not sure a day trip would be feasible. Cape Cod is gorgeous though. You could do there for a week? Not sure what the public transport is like though and stuff might close in the low season.

Seattle is also lovely. Big city. When you say go to Oregon do you mean a train to Portland?

Boston

Especially if you didn't always feel safe in NYC

Settle is a pretty scary city. When I visited I was overwhelmed by the homeless camps and mentally unwell in the centre. It was upsetting and unsettling.

I've been to Boston many times, let me know if you want any specific recommendations. It's a great time of year to visit too.

Portland is lovely too. I travelled between there and seattle by train and its doable as a day trip but better as an overnight trip.

Boston is closer as well

Personally love it. Pretty safe. Expensive.

Really want to do seattle as well but for 2 / 3 weeks

I only know Boston of these two. I absolutely love it.

Cape Cod is really a holiday destination, they may close down a lot after Labour Day which is beginning of September and kind of the official end of holiday season in lot of places which aren't geared for all year round tourists.
And you would need a car.

Thanks so far guys

Boston is a gorgeous city. Walkable and friendly I found. Also, New England in the fall?……definitely

I'd vote Boston over Portland. Cape Cod will be difficult without a car, how about booking a 2-3 night guided tour? It's beautiful.

There is a ferry from Boston to Provincetown in Cape Cod, so that area is perfectly doable as a day trip.

Provincetown is a charming place - a seaside resort - with plenty of typical American housing and white picket fences. It was our best day !

We didn't event catch the first ferry of the day from Boston and had enough time in Provincetown. (Although I would recommend you do try and catch the earlier one to give yourself more scope for visiting places by taxi in Cape Cod).

It was summer when we visited so the sea and the sea was calm. There were fantastic views of nighttime Boston on the way back.

I've done both and would 100% go for Boston. Seattle was quite rough, lots of homelessness and drug problems even right in the centre by all the 'posh' shops. Not a huge amount to do and we were bored after 3 days (although we didn't venture out of the city for day trips which would open your options up). It's by the sea but it doesn't really have a nice 'sea front' as such.

Boston on the other hand we loved, great harbour and Cape Cod is well worth a mini break too as well.