Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tunnel tolls, hotel parking charges, and,
most important, Boston traffic.
BY CAR
Renting a car for a long trip will almost
certainly be more expensive and less con-
venient than any other means of reaching
Boston, and I can't recommend it. It's not
that driving to Boston is difficult. But
parking is scarce and wildly expensive,
gasoline gets pricier by the day, traffic is
terrible, and the drivers are famously
reckless. If you're thinking of driving to
Boston only because you want to use the
car to get around town, think again.
If you have to drive, try to book a hotel
or a special package that offers free park-
ing (see chapter 5). If you pay for parking,
expect it to cost at least $25 a day down-
town, and build that into your budget.
Three major highways converge in
Boston.
I-90,
also known as the Massa-
chusetts Turnpike (“Mass. Pike” to the
locals), is an east-west toll road that origi-
nates at Logan Airport and links up with
the New York State Thruway.
I-93/U.S.
1
extends north to Canada.
I-93/Route
3,
the Southeast Expressway, connects
Boston with the south, including Cape
Cod. To avoid driving downtown, exit
the Mass. Pike at Cambridge/Allston or
at the Prudential Center in the Back Bay.
I-95
(Massachusetts Rte. 128) is a belt-
way about 11 miles from downtown that
connects Boston to highways in Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and New York to the
south, and New Hampshire and Maine to
the north.
Note:
The Mass. Pike's
FastLane
pro-
gram is compatible with New York's
EZPass;
your regular transponder will
work in designated lanes in all states that
use these systems, including New Hamp-
shire and Maine. If you have a prepaid
device from another highway system,
check before you leave home to see
whether you too can zip (at the speed
limit, 15 mph) through the special lanes.
The approach to Cambridge is
Stor-
row Drive
or
Memorial Drive,
which
run along either side of the Charles River.
Storrow Drive has a Harvard Square exit
that leads across the Anderson Bridge to
John F. Kennedy Street and into the
square. Memorial Drive intersects with
Kennedy Street; turn away from the
bridge to reach the square.
Boston is 218 miles from New York
City; driving time is about 4
1
⁄
2
hours. The
992-mile drive from Chicago to Boston
should take around 21 hours; from Wash-
ington, D.C., it takes 8 to 9 hours to
cover the 468 miles.
In an emergency, you can call the
State
Police
on a cellphone by dialing
&
*911.
The
American Automobile Association
(
AAA;
&
800/AAA-HELP;
www.aaa.
com) provides members with maps, itin-
eraries, and other travel information, and
arranges free towing if you break down.
The Mass. Pike is a privately operated
road that arranges its own towing. If you
break down there, ask the AAA operator
for advice.
It's impossible to say this often enough:
When you reach your hotel, leave your
car in the garage
and walk or use public
transportation. Use the car for day trips,
and before you set out, ask at the front
desk for a route that avoids construction
(it's everywhere).
For listings of the major car rental agen-
cies in Boston, please see the Toll-Free
Numbers & Websites appendix (p. 284).
BY TRAIN
Boston has three rail centers:
South Sta-
tion,
700 Atlantic Ave. (at Summer St.),
near the Waterfront and the Financial
District;
Back Bay Station,
145 Dart-
mouth St. (between Huntington and
Columbus aves.), across from the Copley
Place mall; and
North Station,
on Cause-
way Street under the TD Banknorth Gar-
den.
Amtrak
(
&
800/USA-RAIL
or
617/482-3660; www.amtrak.com) serves
