This blog post is a month overdue, but I am finally sharing my Boston travel guide. I visited the city in late October and had a great fall weekend with great weather. Today I am sharing some of the things I did while I was there and I hope you find this post useful if you have plans to travel to Boston.
Hotel
Our entire purpose of the trip was to see the San Jose Sharks play the Boston Bruins. We wanted to be close enough to the arena as well as different spots downtown and the airport, so we chose a hotel downtown in order to be in a convenient location. We ended up staying at Moxy Boston Downtown which is located in Chinatown. The Moxy is considered a boutique hotel so it has a definite urban, hip vibe. If you read some of the reviews you will see complaints about it being a “party hotel.” The hotel definitely does have a social presence and it isn’t one I would recommend for families for a few reasons. First and foremost, the rooms are very small. A lot of boutique hotels in downtown settings feature small rooms due to space constraints, so this isn’t the first time I have stayed in a room like this. The rooms are very modern and clean but they are small, so if you need space then this may not be for you. The hotel also has a bar area and different seating and hangout areas throughout, so that’s why some consider it a “party hotel.” For us, we stopped at the bar everyday during our trip and took advantage of these areas so it was a benefit for us. There is even a “rooftop” top floor that has great views of the city and more lounging space to hang out in.
When booking this hotel, you will notice there is a resort fee attached to the price. I typically see this at beach hotels and not so much a hotel in a downtown setting, but upon check-in we received multiple vouchers to be used at the bar. We were given a $25 credit to be used at the bar everyday as well as “free drink” tickets that were valid for a few different drinks at the bar. We used these tickets when we went to the bar and most people around us were using them as well. They definitely use the cost of the resort fee towards these vouchers so they are worth using to take full advantage of the money you paid up front.
If you are looking for places to eat nearby, there are plenty of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops within walking distance. In the immediate surrounding area of the hotel you will find a Rock Bottom Brewery, Blaze Pizza, Halal Guys, Dunkin, Panera, and plenty of privately owned pizza shops.
Things to Do
The main reason we went to Boston was to attend the hockey game, but the game was on Sunday and we arrived Friday night so we had all day Saturday free. Since the weather was sunny and in the high 50’s we were able to walk around the city comfortably. First I wanted to walk to Beacon Hill which was only 1 mile from our hotel. Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston that is known for its charming federal-style houses, brick streets, and gas lamps. There are so many places for a great photo throughout the neighborhood. After walking around Beacon Hill we pressed on. My husband Adam wanted to check out the historical sites throughout the city, so we roughly walked The Freedom Trail. We walked to the site of the Boston Massacre, then to Paul Revere’s house and finished at the site of the Boston Tea Party before heading back to our hotel. This historical route essentially takes you in one big loop around the city and is a great way to explore downtown. One thing I didn’t get a chance to do was go to the Boston Public Library which is known for being historical, grand, and beautiful, so if I ever visit the city again it will be the number one thing to do on my list.
Site of the Boston Massacrew 
Site of the Boston Massacre
Sharks / Bruins Game
Since the whole point of the trip was to see our San Jose Sharks play the Boston Bruins, I do want to share a bit of my experience at the game. If you are new here, my husband and I travel all over to see the Sharks play. We are die-hard fans and it is our goal to see them in all 32 NHL arenas. Seeing the Sharks in Boston at TD Garden was our 26th arena we have visited and our first time there. Since west coast teams only travel to east coast cities once a year, it is difficult to catch a game at a convenient time so it finally worked out. If I am giving my honest thoughts, Boston has been the worst place I have seen a hockey game at. I found many of the fans to be rude and had a few run ins with fans that I found unnecessary (such as a grown man hitting me in the arm because I was standing near his seat during warm ups.) It was an opportunity to cross another arena off the list but I never plan to go back to see another game there. If you are a Bruin fan I apologize! I just want to express my honest experience I had at the game.
Food and Drink
I always feel guilty for not being more of a source of information when it comes to restaurants in my travel guides. We aren’t fancy eaters but actually somewhat picky instead, so when it comes to meals we are very simple. Pittsburgh is behind the times and we don’t have a Shake Shack, so every time I travel I look for one to go to. We are all about simple meals like burgers, pizza, and chicken so I don’t have many restaurants to share, but we did go to a few different bars.
When looking at Google Maps in the area surrounding my hotel, one thing that stood out is the amount of coffee shops that were around. When I travel I always love to try local coffee shops and there definitely isn’t a shortage of them in Boston. I went to Jaho which has a few different locations throughout the city. Jaho is unique because not only is it a coffee shop but it also serves wine and alcohol and is open late. Jaho had so many different flavor options and every single milk option you can ever think of (hazelnut milk, macadamia milk, etc.) I wanted to try other coffee shops around but I enjoyed Jaho so much that I visited it twice during the weekend.
After stopping at our hotel bar each night, we found a few other bars in the city to go to. The first one is Roxanne’s, which is a trendy bar on Beacon Hill. Roxanne’s has unique and nicely crafted cocktails with a tropical vibe within the decor and the drinks. The bar is decorated in a really cool way with tropical wallpaper and features large portraits of 80’s singers. The drink menu has great options and the cocktails were really well-made. I ordered In Tokyo which is a vodka-based drink with matcha, vanilla, and fresh cream. My husband ordered a traditional old fashioned and both were really good. We would have liked to stay for more drinks, but it was a Saturday night and the bar was really crowded. There is a university a block away, so the crowd was definitely leaning younger.
Across the street from Roxanne’s you will find Carrie Nation Cocktail Club. Carrie Nation Cocktail Club is a bar and restaurant that features a traditional bar in the restaurant area as well as a “speak easy” type of bar in the back. We sat at each bar two different nights on the trip. The restaurant bar is standard, well-lit, not overly populated but features a pretty good cocktail menu. The speak easy room is very dark and moody and the room has a definite speak easy style, but the vibe of the room isn’t like other traditional speak easy bars I have been to. The bar was playing 90’s music, had a very young crowd that was dancing and the drinks offered were the same drinks at the main bar but a bigger emphasis on canned beer and White Claws. It wasn’t an intimate speak easy feel with fantastic cocktails like I have experienced at other places, but the room was big enough that we were able to sit and hang out.
Overall our trip to Boston was a nice fall trip with beautiful weather. The city of Boston has plenty of great sight-seeing and in general is a nice, clean city with plenty to do. Stay tuned for my next travel guide for Chicago. Until next time!
