Monday, October 23rd, 2023
on Day 6 we awoke nice and refreshed in Boston. We were in no real rush to get the day started so had a pretty chilled morning before getting ready to get the sightseeing started. We had a 3-Day Boston Go City Pass to help us get the best out of the City and we will keep you updated on how that works out.
After a few coffees and a little time updating family and friends on our whereabouts, we headed out to activate the pass and use our first attraction. The 3-Day pass allows unlimited attractions so we planned to really rack them up today and hopefully break even on the first day with the Pass costing us only $139 (actually we paid $125 due to our discount code)
CityView Hop On Hop Off Trolley: 2-day Ticket – $78
The first redemption was a CityView Hop On Hop Off Trolley: 2-day Ticket. These Trolly Tours are a great way to get around the City. With Hop on Hop Off privileges for two full days. With stops all over the City and located at most of the attractions, you would want to visit the Trolleys add fantastic value to the pass, with a $78 value.
Along with handy transport around the City, you also get an engaging tour guide to help familiarise you with the City and point out interesting locations and attractions as you go. They are very touristy but really handy and a lot of fun with great views out of the open air windows of the City.
The first attraction we headed to was closed…the USS Constitution! So we planned on heading back tomorrow. Instead jumping off on the Freedom Trail to check out some historic locations from the Independence Era.
Old State House and Old South Meeting House – $15
First up was the old State House. This has a $15 entry but this gets you into this location and the Old South Meeting House. These are both pivotal locations for the Revolution and tell the story of the independence movement.
we found around Boston, that there is a really strong anti-British sentiment, which we hope by now is largely lighthearted, But it was a theme that carried on throughout the whole trip with the Bostonians never missing an opportunity to rag on us Brits…it’s a good job we have thick skins!
The State House acts as a Museum and while the building itself is an attraction it’s filled with exhibits and displays explaining how the whole revolution went down. It’s very interesting and insightful even though we were on the wrong side…
The second site on this attraction was the Old South Meeting House, another historical location and well worth seeing, this is where the plans for the revolution were cooked up. We had a bit of a heart attack when editing these photos as there appear to be ghosts of people from the past appearing in the images…but we realized these were perspex cut-outs that were part of the display.
The Value here is only $15 for two attractions, so it’s not saving us huge amounts, but the truth is, without the pass, we probably would have skipped these. The pass can feel like a key to the City, and having the pass means we don’t overthink things. We were really glad we got to see the insides of these locations but know, when faced with someone asking for money, we would have balked. So the pass really helps you see a location to its fullest.
This is also true of our next location The Kings Chapel
Kings Chapel – $5
Another historic location, that we would probably have skipped if we had been charged entry. It was only $5, but still, the desire to see the inside was probably less than the $5 in our pockets, but we are really glad we got to go in. It’s not the most beautiful church, and not overly relevant to the Revolutionary tale. but it was really nice to see inside.
Breakfast/Lunch – Beantown Pub
It was a round this time we realized we had not really eaten anything. And hunted out a late breakfast/lunch spot, ending up in the Beantown Pub, a historic pub serving American classics, known for its Boston Beans. We were still on breakfast so skipped the beans for a more traditional breakfast, which was really good.
More Freedom Trail Sites, Boston Common, Cheers Pub, Goodwill Hunting, and Ted Bench
We then headed out and explored the sites on the Freedom Trail, such as the Park Street Church, Massachusetts State House, Potato Famine Memorial, and the Various Graveyards and burial grounds before heading onto Boston Common.
The day was now stunningly clear and unseasonably war, around the 70degree mark, that 20-21 in celsius, and the common was wonderful to just explore and walk around. The Squirrels were out in force collecting up their winter stashes and there were even some hawks lurking in the trees hoping for a meal!
There were also the telltale signs of modern America as a portion of the park was largely taken over by homeless people, something that is ever-present in just about every US city we have visited.
We headed over the common and across into the Public Gardens, these are a little more manicured and very pretty, unfortunately someone seemed to have stolen the ponds, as they were doing extensive maintenance, a theme that seemed to follow us this whole trip, everywhere seemed to be having work done.
We hunted out the Ted and Robin Williams benches, and then across the Street to the Cheers Pub, which was incredibly busy, over an hour wait for a table and crawling with 60-something boomers who seemed intent on photobombing any shots we took! We are not huge Cheers fans, we are from a different generation, so left them to it and hopped back onto our trolley, heading over to the Boston Tea Party Museum.
Boston Tea Party Museum
The Museum is not on the pass and while we wanted to visit the museum, the show timings were not really working out, having just missed the last show and having a bit of a wait for the next show.
The Museum take the shape of a reconstuction of the events of that fateful day as the rebels took action if the form of violent protest and destruction of the Crowns property. We always feel a little sad about the loss of such a large amount of tea! The Ships on display, the Elenor and Beavor are only reconstructions and not actual relecs of the event, infact the only real artifact is one of the recovered crates that the tea was dumped overboard in.
Instead of waiting it out for the next show, we just admired the ship from afar and headed back to Long Wharf to catch our next Attraction on the City Pass
Historic Sightseeing Cruise – $46
The Historic Sightseeing Cruise was enough to put us in the green for the pass, and it was only 2 pm!
To use the Pass for the Cruise you need to head first to the Ticket office, to book either the next available cruise or choose a time later in the day. As it happened the next available was about 5 minutes away and we hoped straight on. We had not been planning on doing the cruise today as otherwise we would have booked on earlier in the day, but happy circumstance meant we could do it now.
during the summer or busy months, you are very unlikely to be able to book on so easily as the tours do fill up quickly. Your best bet is to head to the ticket booth and scan the pass as early as you can.
Due to us being pretty late to arrive there was limited room on the uper deck, but we got some great seats on the almost deserted Bow of the vessel.
The Hornblower Cruse takes you out into the Boston harbor and takes a close look at the stunning and ever-changing Boston waterfront. You get a detailed explanation of what is a Pier, a Dock, and a wharf, as the misuse of these terms seems rampant and really annoys the Narrator, and No One else.
The Tour takes you past the old and heavily modernised harbour district, The Container Dock, Fort Independence, and then out into the main Harbour with a little light-hearted British bashing.
The cruise takes a really close-up look at Logan Airport with incoming jets skimming overhead.
The second part of the cruise takes you down past east Boston, with its heritage ships and of course The USS Constitution.
It was a lovely cruise out of the clean waters of Boston harbor, a little cloud had formed replacing the stunning blue skies of the morning, but it was still clear and bright. We always think one of the best ways to see a lcation, eseciall a coastal loaction, is from the water. The vessel offered a full bar, but we refrained as we still had some sightseeing to do.
New England Aquarium – $34
After the cruise we headed, just across the wharf to our final attraction of the day the New England Aquarium.
We love Aqauriums and we will be visiting 2 of the best in the country over the next few days with the first being the New England Aquarium.
This is a fairly a-typical Aquarium with a strange layout. There is only one main tank and the whole aquarium is centered around the Main circular tank.
The pass got us straight in with no issues. The first attraction you come to is the Shark and Ray touch pool which is really fun with the friendly rays happy to come for a stroke. We then headed to the disappointing Shark Exhibit that does not actually have any sharks, apart from a couple of cat sharks so we left and headed to the main exhibit
We arrived at the perfect time as a trainer came out to feed the penguins. The penguins are super cute and we loved watching them eat their fishes. The Penguin habitat is around the edge of the main tank on the lower level.
After that we headed out to see the Sea Lions, who are really playful but a bit stinky and very noisy! Then it was time to check out the main attraction.
The centerpiece of the Aquarium is the 200,000-gallon Giant Ocean Tank. This huge cylindrical tank sits in the center of the aquarium and is filled with warm tropical seawater, coral, and thousands of marine animals.
There is a spiral walkway that meanders up to the top of the tank with various exhibits on the various floors as you go.
We love this design as it allows you to marvel at the amazing main display while taking in all the smaller, yet still interesting creatures on display.
The main tank is filled with a huge array of fish, from small sharks, rays, Snapper, Filefish, various jacks, Lookdowns, and even a selection of Sea turtles. There is so much to see in there from small reef fish to huge Permit fish.
The top of the tank is open and we were really lucky to get there just as three huge Sea Turtles came up for air, giving us quite a show.
North End / Italian Quarter / Little Italy
This was a perfect end to a pretty hectic day and we headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
All we had heard about all day was the amazing Italian food that was on offer in the Italian Quarter at North End, and as we had only had one meal all day, it was time to head out and check it out. We love Italian food and more so live American Italian. It’s not as refined as real Italian food, but has bags of flavor and always great portions and we were really hungry.
We just headed to little Italy and picked a spot that looked good. We ended up in Antico Forno, one of the first places we liked the look of, but only after wandering around for quite a while. Here we gorged on huge piles of Lingine Fruit de Mer and an epic Four Cheese Pizza all fired in a Brick oven.
A great end to our first day in Boston.
Our first day with the pass had gone excellently and we had already saved $39 and had ticked off quite a few of our planned attractions…with still two days to go on the Pass. We will Pick this up again Tommorrow
Go City New York All Inclusive 3-Day Pass – Running Total
Get 10% Off your Boston Go City Pass
- Attractions Today – 5
- Total Attractions – 5
- Attractions Cost – $
- Running Total – Day 1 of 3: $178
- Cost Of Pass – $139
- Savings – $39
Walking Total – 18,491 Steps – 8.9 Miles
With the Trolly at our Disposal we did not spend too long on our feet, however we still clocked up an impressive 8.9miles and 18,000+ steps making our feet pretty sore but the close of play.
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