One Week in Boston (First Time Going) - Any Advice?

The closer to downtown, the more expensive it is, but it's better. See TripAdvisor for the top tourist attractions. Call to McGanns pub for nice Guinness.

If it's not too cold, I'd do one of the Boston Harbor Tours. Very informative about the history of Boston and great views of the skyline from the water.

Have stayed in the Seaport Hotel. Up & coming district, walkable or busable.

Boston is quiet small and very walkable so see what is available for your dates and budget. We like Copley sq/Back Bay Area. Stayed in Hilton Back bay, Sheraton in Prudential, Intercontinental, close to aquarium and a very nice hotel in seaport area (can’t remember the name). Would avoid seaport area though. Was very nice and lively during the day but we couldn’t get a drink on Saturday night in July at 10.30pm, even hotel’s bar was closed. Sadly good few of our favourite places closed during Covid, including some Irish bars but there are still loads of amazing places there. Agree with some earlier posters about North end, Chinatown, duck tour and etc. depending when you are planning to come over in November - prices will vary a lot. Beginning of November is still considered high season as tourists still coming over to see foliage. Late November will be much quieter/cheaper/weather less predictable, not unusual to see a snowfall at some stage. When booking - make sure you check the area, as in you put in Boston but your search result can come back with Cambridge as all are very close. I love booking through Hotwire and Priceline. You don’t necessarily know what hotel you ll get but if you can see what “person before you” got - you ll get the same and prices so much cheaper. If rating is decent enough as in above 4 (for me) it will be ok. Check out tripadvisor, not just for hotel reviews but their travel forum as well. If you put in Boston - you ll see loads of suggestions on itineraries, places to stay and eat as well as recent trip reports. I always find it great. Anyway, have fun in Boston!

The restaurant and bar at the top of the Pru is no more unfortunately. Loved going there for the view! Hopefully they will have a new venue in the future. Seaport has rooftop bars I think and is a nice area in general.

Duck tours are a great way to see the city. Boston Common is nice to walk. I did a ghost tour before there was fun. Aquarium is worth a visit. Boat tours are cool but may be the wrong time of year for that. Faneuil Hall area is nice to check out.

Its an easy enough city to walk and the T is great way to get about to different parts of the city too. A place i recommend is the Liberty Hotel. Its a hotel in an old prison and has a really nice bar in there worth a visit.

If you fancy shopping also Wrentham outlets are worth a trip or at least were when I was last over.

Great city you will love it!

go for a night out in Fields Corner….if you know you know…..

Just back yesterday and it was a brilliant trip. Great city with so much to see and do. We did the hop on Hop off old town trolley tour which I'd possibly recommend giving a miss as you're going to see most of the highlights when you walk the Freedom Trail anyway. We walked the trail ourselves with a pamphlet guide you can get in the visitors center at the start of the trail in Boston Common. I wish we had done the guided tour, it was nice doing it at our own pace and taking a break halfway through(our hotel was near Faneuil hall) but you miss the colour/levity that a guided tour adds to things, especially when there is 3 graveyard stops! With the exchange rate everything is more expensive than Ireland but we were expecting that and tried not to focus on it too much. The T(subway) was great for getting around to anything that was more than 20 min walk, just buy a ticket from the machine for $2.40 and off you go. If you're looking for an exceptional meal then check out Contessa at the top of the Newbury Hotel, one of the best meals I've had anywhere in a long time. It's pricey and books out quickly though.

May should be a nice time of year to visit. We were there for 4 nights 5 days. Perfect amount of time in retrospect as we didn't leave feeling like we missed out on anything. It's better than NY in that respect where I've always left feeling like I wish I had more time to do X or Y. Hotel we stayed in is Bostonian Boston, superb location walking distance to nearly all the main tourist hotpots. It's fairly run down though and the bad reviews on tripadvisor are accurate in that respect. We got it for around $325 a night through booking.com. Boston is very expensive for hotels so $325 was good value, we booked and paid several months in advance and also went on Sunday to Thursday which helped. Maybe you might get some better value by staying further outside the city center or even check airbnb. Ultimately outside of sleeping and showering we spent very little time in the hotel anyway.