New York, Calgary, Quebec, Halifax Nova Scotia, Boston or Toronto? Which is best for teenage boys?

[Teeh]

Could possibly fly in to one and out the other. I have selected these as they all fly from Edinburgh so are easy travel for us. We won’t have a car . Boys are quite outdoorsy and won’t want to be entirely a city break. Somewhere quieter too, maybe a beach or a whale watching trip. Would anyone have any help for me to decide?

We stayed at Chatham and Falmouth on Cape Cod. I certainly would look at going north from Boston too. In the summer there are whale watching trips from quite a few ports.

My DD was in NY recently and thought the subway dodgy in the late evening, so used Uber afterwards. Some of the stations are pretty yuk too. Boston is very different.

Thanks some great tips. Is Provincetown walkable to beaches?

@Teeh Yes. There’s a good tourist map on the Ptown chamber of commerce web site. It’s not a village though so you need to choose accommodation location wisely.

There is quite a good bus service along the Cape, we’ve used it in the past to be able to drink get around.

Thanks so much. Feeling more informed now

I'd recommend this too, if you're not set on a particular location. We've just done a tour around various bits of Canada, but we particularly loved Banff and would definitely go back there again. We had a car, but decided we'd love a week there and not need to bother with the car - transport is so good, it would be fine.

Also loved Boston though, so that would be my choice of your options.

I presume you are going in the summer?

Boston is great (I live there) especially for outdoors stuff. You can walk everywhere in the city. Train from NY goes from Penn Station to South Station Boston which is right in the centre. Should be fine with luggage.

You can do a whale watch from near the aquarium (fab place). Friends visited us this year and took the ferry to provincetown for the day (not cheap). They saw whales from the ferry. Ptown is lovely and different - you could do a dune tour from the centre of ptown (which is where the ferry arrives). You can also take a train to Salem which the teens might enjoy.

Salem is a bit of a theme park. When dc were younger we actually liked Plimoth plantation. Especially the “character” who came from where DH was born! A bit of fun but informative regarding religious views of the day and why people made those hazardous voyages.

Salem is a bit of a theme park.

Agree, sadly.

If you decide to hire a car, you can go up to the White Mountains from Boston - some great hikes, mountain biking, scenic drives, cable cars, waterfalls, gorges etc.

I was pleseantly surprised by Salem.

Yes, there is a lot of new-age, wiccan, tourist trap-style but we also discovered quite a lot historical accurate information about the witch trials.

The Peabody Essex Museum is great, the Witch House is the former home of one of the judges and set up interestingly. We had a very knowledgeable guide as well who also told a lot about Salem's background.

The memorial is heartbreaking.

We walked quite a lot around, there are some streets with 18th/19th century houses.

I didn't regret going for the day.

I take the train between Boston and NYC occasionally.
It is not remotely dodgy but it is best to book as far in advance as you can as the prices can increase hugely closer to the time.

You can also get inexpensive flights if you book in advance but you have the hassle of getting to and from airports and going through security.

You sound like you’re a candidate for https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HerOneBag/.

No hold luggage would definitely make life easier if you plan it well.

@SabrinaThwaite Yes. That’s attractive and so is the coast.

Edinburgh does not fly directly to Quebec

thats weird. Did they used to maybe? I was sure I saw it on their list of destinations

Not sure there’s and direct flights to Halifax either - we went Air Canada from Heathrow.

When we went to Halifax we went Iceland Air via Reykjavik. There are also quite a few destinations on Aer Lingus via Dublin, with the advantage of going through US immigration in Dublin, which saves a lot of time on arrival.

I think only Air Canada fly into Halifax. It caused us a headache when their Boeing 737 max planes were grounded! We were rerouted and transferred via other Canadian airports.
We flew from Heathrow.

The airport website says you can fly to Halifax with westjet

Just seen post saying other airlines fly to Halifax. Stand corrected!

Yes I just checked westjet website too. Only 6.20 hr flights so sounds quite a nice route

You’re right, how interesting!

That’s odd as Skyscanner didn’t list it. It took us under 6 hours from Heathrow! Great route along south Wales coast/Bristol Channel and Ireland. Beautiful coming back at night!

Westjet does direct flights from Edinburgh to Toronto, Halifax and Calgary.