Boston and Cape Cod, how much?

[M1nesasweetsh3rry]

Looking at Cape Cod and Boston next year(end of June/ early July when DD finishes exams) just trying to work out a budget, and how much we need to allow. We would like to go for around 16 days.

We will be booking flights with Avios in a couple of months via Dublin. Taxes will be around £300 for three return flights and say an extra £100 for an overnight stay in Dublin plus flights to Dublin and back with Ryanair, so all together around £700 to cover all that.

What about accomadation?
Would £2000 be enough? Thinking of a week in .Boston in an apartment, and around nine days in cape Cod renting a house.
Would it be more like £3000?

Thinking around £600 for car hire and. Further £2,500 for spending money for food, activities etc, so around £6000.
Any comments? Anyone done this recently and how much did you spend? Are we vastly underestimating how much we'll need.

Boston is small and has a good, easy to use metro system. Stay further out and you will get more for your money. Our hotel was quite expensive and the most run down of the trip. I think it was about £150/night.
Cambridge is on the other side of the river and technically a different city but very easily connected so may be cheaper.
Saying that we did have an incredible time and there is quite a bit to do.

With a flight to Boston I would fly directly there from the UK rather than having to overnight in Dublin too. It will probably cost less to fly direct and Boston is well served by UK based carriers.

The city of Boston, like New York, has and indeed is wanting to clamp down hard on people who rent out their apartments because many of them break the terms of their lease agreement to do so. I would therefore consider staying in a hotel instead and get around Boston by public transport rather than use a car for that part of your stay.

Thanks for the replies. Mabel We would like to stay pretty central for .Boston, and are happy to use the Metro system to get around. We'd only hire a car when driving to the coast.

atilla We always fly from Dublin when we go to America. We use points to fly Aer lingus. We usually stay overnight with family or get a hotel on the airport. It' s all part of the holiday.

You also clear US immigration in .Dublin which is a massive bonus as you land in the US as a domestic passenger.
Any comments about coasts, car hire spending Money etc?

costs not coasts.

Fair enough re the stopover in Dublin in that case:). I only mentioned it as direct flights from the UK are plentiful and with reasonably priced fares.

I would look at suite based hotels like the Embassy Suites or Homewood Suites as they offer a cooked breakfast too as part of the room rate. They could also be cheaper per day than a non suite standard twin room.

Would not hire a car in Boston, parking costs a small fortune and their traffic wardens are fierce in slapping down fines on unsuspecting motorists. Lots of spaces are residents only. Parking garages are your best bet. Would indeed use a car for the Cape Cod area.

Thanks .atilla I'm going to check out the hotel suites that you suggested. We had a suite with basic booking facilities in New York recently and it worked out really well.

Reading with interest, as we are taking our DS8 and DD6 here this October. Have flights arriving in Providence - only staying for six days. The flights were £650 return for the four of us, and I was hoping to budget the same again for accommodation.

Thinking a night in a hotel in Warwick, where the airport is, then train to Boston, two nights hotel in Boston. Then car hire to Cape Cod for three nights (possibly over two places).

We've looked into car hire and it doesn't seem TOO expensive, so possibly about £150 in the budget for that?

I only booked the flights on a whim last night because they were cheap, so really just starting to come up with ideas.

Thinking my accommodation budget might be rather small, especially for the Boston part of the trip. Will look into Cambridge.

We stayed at the Gryphon house in Boston & loved it being a traditional old brownstone property & its location, it's about $275 a night. Accommodation in central Boston is expensive. Loads to do in Boston, it is a really lovely city. We really enjoyed the Science museum, whale watching, freedom trail, various old boat visits & marine museums. Had some great food too. Make sure you allow enough $$ for entry/doing stuff. Would you want to go to a baseball match? Not sure how many people your £2,500 needs to cover, is it just 2 of you or more?

We also drove down to Cape Cod, enjoyed it there too, very quaint but much more to do/see in Boston itself.

Hi M1, I spent a few months in Boston quite recently and found car hire to be really reasonable - we always rented from one of the Atlantic Avenue offices as it was cheaper than the airport, and has a secure drop-off for after hours. If you use a UK website to book it is way cheaper - approx £20 per day fully insured if I recall correctly.

As a previous poster has said, you definitely don't need a car for your time in Boston, just for your drive to the Cape.

The underground/metro system is called the "T" and I'd suggest you get a 7 day Charlie Card (either paper or plastic - some people will tell you that these are elusive, but really they're not! You just have to ask at the ticket desk ). This will give you unlimited rides for 7 days.

Depending on where you stay, you can also get the Silver Line of the T (a bus) to South Station free of charge when you arrive at Logan. If you don't leave the station, you can continue from South Station to wherever you are staying - you need a ticket to enter stations, not exit.

Enjoy your trip, you're going to an amazing city that I miss very much!

CHEESECAKE FACTORY is a MUST VISIT

There are several branches in and around Boston etc

You can also walk around Boston

Duck tour

Here's a link to the MBTA website for info on the Charlie Card.

Regarding other costs, how do you plan to spend your time in Boston? I found it to be an expensive city - if you're a keen shopper, it might be worth considering 1 less day in Boston and once you've hired the car, doing a drive out to Kittery Outlets (for example). You'll get to see some lovely scenery, as well as bag some cheaper clothes - Boston isn't a massive shopping city - there's a Macys and a Primark but it's nothing compared to the scale of NY.

You may also consider another day drip or two as from my experience, you can easily "do" Boston in a few days - we did the Freedom Trail (plus Boston Common and the Public Garden) in 2 days - that's pretty much the main part of the city completed! We then did MIT and Cambridge as well as few museums and a kayak on the Charles River over the next 2 days.

If you don't mind driving (be warned, they are crazy drivers!) no offence intended to any Bostonians, most will admit it) you could consider the White Mountains, The Mohawk Trail, The North Coast (Manchester by the Sea, Lockport, etc). Or if you fancy another boat trip or train ride, Salem?

I found the Trip Advisor Boston forum really useful for accommodation advice. Any questions you want to know about the city/surrounding areas though, I'm happy to try and help!

*Rockport, sorry - no idea where Lockport is!

It won't be anything like £600 for car hire. We go several times a year- have great big 4 by 4s and it is much less than that.

The new Boston immigration takes about 10 minutes if you have previously entered on that esta- loads of automated kiosks. On a new esta add 5-10 minutes. it was less than 15 minutes from plane to luggage collection in april.

Parking in boston is $30 a day. So we get taxi back to airport car hire lot (less that $30) and do a rental from there.

Just seems these posts. Will read and digest and reply in the morning.

Thanks for all the information everyone. We've decided to go to Boston for 4-5nights rather than a week,- and spend the rest of the time exploring Cape Cod

There are three of us going for those who asked. Me, DH and DD. I think we may need to up,our budget a bit. glad to hear car hire is cheaper than we thought.
I'll take a look at the trip advisor Boston forum as well.