Mike says I’m in charge of the Tips section. I’ll have to think of some things now.
1. Take a picture of your luggage. So when it’s lost you can flash the staff a picture of it. (I made that one up on my own!)
2. The more colourful your luggage the easier it is to spot on the luggage carousel. Avoid black.
This is usually the largest map in the book, showing an overview of the area you are in (& a metro map). Everything else is a 1 page map of the particular streets of a region or district in the city.
3. You don’t really need a guidebook in Boston (or anywhere). Unless you don’t have Internet access provided during your stay you may want to look-up the top spots and restaurants you’ll want to try before your trip. Instead of a guidebook we think the most important item is a map book (not a large obtrusive fold out map) which will hide your lost façade better and will be easier to read. We used Moleskine Boston. It includes transparencies for drawing out a route. A metro map (if the city has such a system). It also includes lots of blank & blank tabbed pages for notes, address’ or whatever you like.
4. Buy a CharlieCard if you decide to use Boston transit/the MBTA/The T instead of buying tickets or using cash.
CharlieCard cost $1.70/ride and tickets/cash cost $2. You can pick a free card up at the Airport station (many are placed above the vend machines) and other locations. You can use credit card, bank card, money bills or coins to pay and you can add any value. I added 10 cents on my last day to get even rides. You can check your balance on one of the machines or when you scan pass an entry point. CharlieCard are tapped to scan and tickets are inserted into the slot and picked up out of the exit slot.
5. The airport is close to downtown and a free shuttle bus will take you to the Airport subway station (blue line).
6. MBTA subway maps indicate a black line between some stations and are marked as “transfer stations”. These are additional transfer points ontop of the other lines that literally intersect on the map. Announcements on the subway will remind passengers when arriving at transfer stations. I was initially confused looking at the map so I thought it would be a tip.
7. Visit The Harvard Coop Cafe. As much as you want to purchase a $1.00 membership at The Co-Op to get your 7% discount you unfortunately have to be “Students, faculty, alumni and employees of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Episcopal Divinity School, Wheelock, Mass. College of Pharmacy and the personnel of the hospitals affiliated with the Harvard Medical School”. Do not let this stop you from visiting The Coop Cafe for book enthusiasts or The Coop for memorabilia. Mike ended up buying 2 books and I a shirt!
8. Crossing the streets in Boston is all about looking in both directions especially for the cars that would be turning in front of you. More often than not people cross against the pedestrian light when the streets are clear or the cars are slow. All the times I’ve seen pedestrians block moving cars, drivers have been exceedingly patient.
9. Little Italy in Boston is centralized on Hanover Street – full of restaurants, pastry shops and cafés. A delicious street to visit! It’s part of the Freedom Trail.
10. Although Mike and I didn’t follow the Freedom Trail we did bump into it many times during highlighted spots in the city. I think this would be good for anyone who wants to do a self-tour and could be a good place to start. If you sign up for a tour it is typically 90 minutes otherwise you can follow the red line around the city yourself.
11. Always keep photo ID or better your passport on you. Bars will ID you even when you look above 30; when we walked past one bar the bouncer wanted a passport ID and wasn’t accepting his other photo ID. When paying by credit card in stores they always want another piece of ID to match up your name.
