Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
Today is our second full day in Boston and a full week since we started. It’s the second day with our 3-Day Boston Go City Pass and we planned another great day seeing the sights of Boston.
Unfortunately, today did not go quite to plan and we did not get quite as much use out of the pass as we wanted. We had already made a profit yesterday, so it’s not the end of the world, and we still have tomorrow.
The day started as pretty much a Re-Run of yesterday as we hopped onto our Tourist Trolly. We chose the Harbor Side Inn for its location and it’s hard to think of a better-located hotel for things we had planned. The trolly stop was literally right outside, so we just headed out and hopped on.
Boston is pretty small as far as cities go and lots of the City can be seen on foot, but having the trolly just helps you join the dots and you get a fun and informative guide. The pass grants you a 2-day trolly pass, and we redeemed that yesterday so our total starts off the same as we had for our first attraction.
USS Constitution Museum – $15
Yesterday we passed the Constitution on the Trolly tour but the museum is closed on Mondays. The tour guide told us yesterday it would be open on Tuesdays so we made the plan to visit today…however, this was the first weekend of the winter schedule and it was to be closed on Tuesdays from now on as well! A real bummer.
The good news is this only applied to the vessel itself, the Museum which is part of the pass and has a $15 entry was open. We did our best to get a look at the iconic vessel docked up in the harbor but as the exhibition was closed we were not able to board her, which is free to do when open. Instead, we headed across to the Museum to learn a little about the history of old Ironsides.
And to be honest it’s a good job we did as we really didn’t know much about the vessel. But the museum does a really good job of informing you how the vessel went about doing what very few Navys ever managed and actually inflicted defeats on the Royal Navy, achieving such emotional status that it was constantly saved from the scrap yard and is still a commissioned vessel in the US Navy, not that it would be much good nowadays, but it’s purely symbolic.
The upstairs of the Museum is devoted to telling the story of the lives of the Crewmen of a vessel of this era and what drove them to sign up and commit to this life of hardship. It’s a really fun and interactive look at life at sea in the Independence era.
The museum was really fun and we enjoyed our time there but were still a bit upset about not getting aboard the Constitution. We will just have to come back.
Lunch and Shopping District
After the Museum we went back on our trolly and headed back across the river into old Boston, this time staying on the Trolly right the way to Boston Common, giving us a bit more time listening to the Guide, which was very interesting.
From here we headed out away from the Downtown and Beacon Hill area of Boston and into Back Bay to explore the luxury shopping district of New Bury Street. This was primarily for window shopping as the luxury brands of Tiffany, Channel, Cartier, and Bvlgari are a bit above our price point.
We carried on down the street to the more reasonable end of the shopping district but mainly with the aim of grabbing some lunch, it had been a whole day in Boston without having any lobster, we we hunted out a Lobster Roll to keep the craving at bay, in the end choosing the fairly chainy Luke Lobster, but the roll was packed with meat and really delicious.
With Lunch sorted and hunger kept at bay, we headed to, what would end up being, our last attraction on the Pass for today. View Boston.
View Boston – $40
View Boston is the Only observation deck in Boston situated atop the second tallest building in the City, The Prudential Tower. View Boston is a brand new attraction, only opening in 2023, it’s a re-working of the original Observation deck that has been part of the tower since its opening in the ’60s
This pass got us instant entry and we headed straight up.
The new deck is very impressive, with a multi-level approach. The main deck is enclosed, but there is also an outdoor section, with alfresco dining and bar, and a restaurant level with some great views as you dine. There are loads of interactive displays and models showing you exactly what you are looking at.
The views themselves are splendid as well. While the actual views of Boston are a little obscured due to the position of the John Hancock Tower, the tallest tower in Boston, you still get great views of the Common, MIT, Harvard, Fenway Park, and the general area.
On certain days you are going to get some really impressive flybys of aircraft coming into Logan, but today the approach was wrong.
We spent a good while exploring the deck and really taking in the views of the City. A great addition to the Pass.
Harvard
The next location we wanted to explore was Harvard, and there is a walking tour available on the pass, but we were not able to arrange a tour for the times we wanted, so were unable to use the Pass here. This was pretty disappointing, as we really wanted to check out the Campus.
It’s really important to not be a slave to the Pass. We could have at this point gone and done another attraction on the Pass, there were several things we would have enjoyed, Fenway Park, The Museum of Science, The Museum of Fine Arts, or any of the many other attractions. This would have helped give us the feeling of really getting the best out of the Pass…
…But it wouldn’t have got us to Harvard, which is what we really wanted. So rather than sacrifice an activity we really wanted, we just hopped into a car and headed to the university ourselves for a little DIY exploring!
It meant we only clocked up two attractions today and only extended our savings a little bit, but we were well into the green and still had a fair bit planned for tomorrow.
Exploring Harvard was AMAZING. As well as being a famous Uni Campus it’s also basically a film set. Kate is a die-hard Legally Blonde fan and was stoked to be finally at Harvard…” like it’s hard!” and I too loved seeing the famous sights and location of the famous campus.
Honestly, we really wish we had got on a Tour as for large parts we didn’t really know what we were looking at, or where anything was. We wasted a lot of time hunting things out, but eventually got to find everywhere we wanted. It was a real blast on a lovely warm fall afternoon.
We headed back after a long time exploring and headed back to the hotel to recover.
Irish Bar and Karaoke Happy Hour
The final thing to tick off on our Boston adventure was an Irish bar. The City has a huge Irish population and it would be rude not to grab a pint of Guinness and some classic Pub Grub while here. We scanned the internet for the best Irish pub in the City, but in the end, Location trumped the reviews as we headed to the Black Rose, as it was LITERALLY 100ft from the Hotel door! Not that the Black Rose got BAD reviews.
This was an old-school classic Irish Pub, with old-fashioned wooden paneling, Irish Decor, and a large bar with Draft ales. These sorts of pubs are ten a penny back in the UK and we felt right at home. We had a couple of pints of Guinness, again something that is very usual back home but feels a little alien in the States.
For food, we had some excellent wings, not very Irish but excellent, and bangers and mash for the main. This was ok, but really it was just a couple of sausages and some mash, which was fine but a little overpriced for what they were. There was some live music and the atmosphere was excellent.
After a while, we decided to move on and have a little exploration. We didn’t get far until we saw a sign for an all-night happy hour with 2-for-1 cocktails at Sissy K’s right next door, so headed in to snap up some cheap drinks. This often works out really well for us and this was no exception with great service and decent drinks all night.
There was a Karaoke going on and while we didn’t partake we enjoyed watching the fairly dubious acts and having great fun for a while. It was clearly a very popular Local place and was really busy for a Tuesday night!
We had a huge day tomorrow and an early start so we only stayed for a while before heading back to get some sleep ready for tomorrow.
City New York All Inclusive 3-Day Pass – Running Total – Day 2
- Attractions Today – 2
- Total Attractions – 7
- Attractions Cost – $55
- Running Total – Day 1 of 3: $233
- Cost Of Pass – $139
- Savings – $94
Today’s Savings were really disappointing. The lack of the Harvard Tour and the time we spent at the university instead just meant we didn’t maximize the pass. But we did do what we wanted to do and extended the savings to $94. Which is pretty good really, and with tomorrow still to go we know we will end up getting a lot of value from the pass, as always.
Walking Total – 13,099 Steps – 6.7 Miles
With the trolley pass being valid for two days meant we didn’t really do much walking at all today. Most of the walking was done exploring Harvard, and even the evening was spent close to the hotel so we had a really easy day.
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