The Best Boston Hacks From Our Readers
This week on Hack Your City, we asked you for the best Boston tips . You gave us great guides for museums (including one that is free if you called Isabella), restaurants (for example, a place for “rice and a slice”), good and bad neighborhoods, how to save money on parking, and tons of favorite bars and brewery. Here are the best tips from Lifehacker readers.
Where to go
“On your first visit, try Duck Tour,” says AntiHeroV (and many others agree):
I can get shit for this, but take the duck tour. There are a lot of tourists here, but for ~ $ 30 you can see a good chunk of the city (useful for planning future stops), navigate our tangled streets a bit, and take a quick cruise on the Charles River. …
GozerTDestructor also recommends the “Ghosts and Gravestones” tour, which is “super kitschy but great fun.”
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra is surprisingly inexpensive if you’re under 40,” says TARS .
Ethan Byrd names some of the best music venues:
The Burren Lounge in Somerville, where you’ll find four seasoned pros playing at a corner table, a Bluegrass at the Cantab Lounge, an old folk fur called Club Passim. All rooms with a capacity of less than 100 people, which experienced artists compete for because of the room’s reputation.
Museums
Larry Indiana suggests visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts. According to TARS , Gardner is free to anyone named Isabella.
I don’t believe we met, suggests Peabody (glass flowers!) And DeCordova: “They once hired a group of artists to create an 18-hole mini golf course. One toured it playing it. The Chito floors, crumbling defenses symbolizing oppression … I can’t believe it wasn’t given permanent status. “
Saborlas recommends the Science Museum and warns against swan boats at Boston Public Gardens. “You’re wrong. In five minutes your kids will be bored as hell. You have 10 minutes left and you cannot leave earlier. “
Where to eat
If you’re in the mood for dinner, Business Lunch recommends that you leave the city center and try the following places:
Deep Ellum or Lulu’s in Allston, All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square (technically Cambridge, but who counts), Casa Verde in the Jamaican Plain, and Brighton Beer Garden for those off the beaten path, good food.
Update 10/26/10 10:30 AM ET: Brighton Beer Garden is closed.
Sean Brody lists some of the favorites:
Breakfast – diner in the galley . Old school greasy spoon. She can last long.
Pizza – Don’t be afraid to line up at Umberto’s for “rice (arancini) and a slice”. Cheap and consistent. Just get there before noon.
Seafood – Jasper’s – for the unassuming lobster and oyster lover. The Neptune Oyster is awesome, but the lines are crazy. Legal Seafood is an excellent choice and an acceptable choice for the chain.
Grab a Chilean Sandwich for a work lunch:
For dessert, listen to GozerTDestructor :
Locals dump Mike’s Pastry, but the Florentine cannoli is not online. And also great “lobster tails” – tubular dough stuffed with cannoli. More recent custom made at Modern Pastry if you like.
TARS says, “Go to Toscanini in Central Square in Cambridge, buy B³ ice cream (brownie, brown butter and brown sugar) and feel like you’ve raised $ 200.”
Where to drink
We’ve received an unusual number of recommendations for places to drink, especially in a city where Happy Hour discounts are not allowed . Here’s how to get drunk in Boston. Start with recommendations GozerTDestructor:
Some great bars from Faneuil Hall – Black Rose, Jose McIntyres. And Union Oyster, Green Dragon Tavern is decorated with original woodwork from the revolutionary war.
There is a fairly new brewery near Night Shift called Bone-Up. And in between is a gin factory called Short Path. Hit all 3 and go to bed early that day!
Kill The Bat says Trillium also opened a beer garden on Rose Kennedy Greenway. In a beer garden, A Scribe’s Life writes, “You can sample a few bottles before buying from Fort Point. Their hazy IPAs are excellent, even for non-beer drinkers, but they also make great porters, stouts and sours worth trying. “
Some bar options from Sean Brody :
Downtown J.J. Foley is Irish but not Oirish. And if Jim isn’t insulting or insulting you at the counter, just come back. He will get to you.
Cambridge – Druid Pub, Inman Square – as good a pub as God made on this earth. Wonderful food and friendlier than a happy puppy.
And more from the life of a scribe :
Sam Adams Brewery is also great and you can visit Doyle’s afterwards for a lobster roll. If you are looking to sample utopias over a glass, I would recommend Sunset Grill & Tap (NOT Cantina, although that’s not bad).
Craigie’s on Main also has a fantastic burger that is capped at 20 per day which is well worth the time.
Daylon recommends rococo snacks :
Check Yvonne. It is a restaurant in the city center with a hair salon-like facade. The best old fashioned ones in Boston and the decor has a super cool Great Gatsby vibe.
And themukster9 recommends a good basement bar called Drink:
There are no signs on the street and it is in the basement, so you should know that it is there, but in the said basement is hidden a stylish cocktail bar with amazing little snacks to boot.
Business Lunch recommends Trillium, Night Shift, Lamplighter, Aeronaut and Slumbrew and adds:
If you find yourself on a seemingly inevitable tour of Sam Adams’s brewery, be sure to hop on the free Doyle’s cart afterward. Basically, this is Boston in the form of a restaurant (old, a little shabby, seemingly understated, but actually very soulful). Also, if you are in the area check out Turtle Swamp brewing right on the street, they are new to the scene but only a block away and produce great stuff.
While you are in the course , listen to the advice HumDev for a perfect overview:
If you are already in Aeronaut, walk down Somerville Ave to Union Square and then up Prospect Hill. Then, climb the stairs to the base of the tower (they only allow people into the tower on special occasions) for one of the best views of Boston. You will also be standing where the very first American flag was raised on January 1, 1776.
To conclude this section, I will give a large list of what visitors can and cannot do:
Neighborhood
Commentators agreed that the North End is good for Italian restaurants. Others suggest Dorchester and Davis Square. And a few like the South End:
Some areas to avoid at night: Government Center and Financial District are closed after office hours, Fen is a good park during the day, but a robbery spot after dark, and according to Lordkilgar , “There are still people in Southey who advise you to exercise Caution, Roxbury and Society. “
Bypass
Many commentators have advised against driving in the more dense areas of Boston. Others warn that the metro and bus can be very slow. “Just walk. Don’t try to take the train or rent a car, ”says thrillhouse617 . Sign up for newsletter bike Hubway , – says JoshTheBat .
If you do get behind the wheel, try these parking tips:
“When you go to the city, you MUST be aggressive. Very aggressive, ”says smmy15643 .
And if you get on the train, take off your backpack, advises EvenBaggierTrousers7 .
“ Getting lost is a feature, not a mistake,” says Lordkilgar :
Boston is one of my favorite places to get lost as there is something interesting in almost every block. However, Boston’s urban designer was mostly cows and tides, so streets don’t make sense and navigating without knowing exactly where you are can quickly get complicated.
In the end, says Lordkilgar, you will find yourself guided by three main landmarks: “Citgo sign, Prudential Tower, or Hancock Tower.” And in Back Bay, intersections run alphabetically (Arlington to Hereford) from public gardens to Massachusetts Avenue.
“ Be prepared for two types of mass panic,” says robotmonkeyzombiekiller :
- The day of moving to college literally means having a place to live. Uhauls will get stuck on your hard drive and ruin your road. In the spring, the sidewalks will be littered with old sofas and porn. There is always so much porn.
- Operation French Toast – I don’t know why, but before every blizzard, every little old lady and myopic driver heads to the grocery store to stock up (and sometimes run over) bread, eggs and milk. So keep a spare pantry in the winter.
This is all for Boston. Check out the comments on the original post for more tips and leave yours below. And come back next week when we ask for your advice for a city that can’t keep its secrets.