We’re taking you on a fall trip to New England to see beautiful fall colored trees and do fun fall activities. We used Boston as our home base and stayed at a great hotel there. If you’ve never seen Boston in the fall, then what are you waiting for? It’s ana amazing time to be in the city and on this 3-day weekend trip to New England we spent a day exploring there, took a hal day up to see New Hampshire in the fall, driving up to Conway, NH and the Flume Gorge, which is an absolutely must-visit nature preserve in fall and any time of year.

We also went to Salem on Halloween, or at least it felt like it! We were there a few days before but costumes and watch things were abound in this spooky city. A New England fall trip is really one of those iconic adventures every American has to experience. The colors alone will blow you away and there’s a lot more to see than we managed to pack into this 3 day trip.

New England Fall Foliage Weekend- Episode Transcript

2 (58s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we’re taking you on a spooky New England Fall Foliage trip,

1 (1m 5s):
Jamal and I have never been to the New England area, but it’s definitely on my list to visit in the fall because I really want to go experience all of the beautiful fall colors and eat clam chowder and experience the beautiful scenery and all of the spookiness. So, Kim, I can’t wait to hear all about the trip that you took this last.

3 (1m 22s):
Yeah, I’m really excited for you to get into this. I remember you telling us about it when you were going, you were really excited because when we say New England, you’re talking about Boston. You’re talking about Salem, Massachusetts, where they had the witch trials has all that history in new England, just in that area of Massachusetts, but let alone new England as a whole. I really want to get out there to experience it specifically the way you did. You got to see it kind of in season change when the colors are going, the weather’s a changing and it’s just sounds absolutely amazing. So I’m really looking forward for you to dive more into that and inspire me. Not that I need more inspiration, but it will give me more inspiration nonetheless here, and you talk about it.

2 (2m 0s):
You guys will love it when you go, the colors really do not disappoint. I mean, what you see in the pictures, it is in real life, in your face and it’s fricking gorgeous. So let’s start with some tips for New England. I would say, if you’re trying to see the fall colors, there are only certain times of the year where you can see them and it’s a range too. And so the fall colors start farther north. And then as the weeks and days go on, it hits farther south. So if you’re going to Boston, I went on, I took this trip towards the end of October. It was like right before Halloween. And that was the perfect time for us. But it also depends on whether how hot it was that year, how cold it got when the coldness started to come in, that all affects the process in which the leaves change.

2 (2m 47s):
So if you’re wanting to see the leaves change, make sure to be looking online. They have maps that kind of track the leaf changing, but usually between October is a solid month. You’re going to catch some good colors. And then second, because you’re visiting in the fall for those colors, it will be cold and it’s Boston cold.

1 (3m 4s):
So not San Diego cold

2 (3m 6s):
And dress accordingly.

3 (3m 7s):
I’m shocked you went on this because you always complain about not wanting to go on trips in the cold specifically. I don’t know if you’re talking like week longs ones, but obviously there was a specific reason for this trip. Fall foliage, color change, et cetera. But how did you handle the cold? Cause I know you dislike it when you try.

2 (3m 24s):
Yeah, there was just one night where it was really cold and windy in Boston and wearing a leather jacket and jeans was just not enough. Like bring a scarf, bring a beanie, bring gloves. Cause you might need it depending on, on how your trip goes, but it’s beautiful and it’s worth it.

1 (3m 40s):
So how long was your trip and how many days did you stay?

2 (3m 42s):
We flew out on a Friday after work on a red eye flight to Boston, San Diego, to Boston. And then we came back Sunday afternoon. We left Boston.

3 (3m 51s):
You keep saying we, and we didn’t say it outright, but I guess you can kind of tell by our intro, Brittany and I did not go on this with you. So who did you go with on this trip? Kim? We know the answer, but let our listeners know.

2 (4m 2s):
Yeah, it was just me and my friend Morgan. The two of us went together and it was really, really fun. I would definitely recommend, I would love to go again too and stay for longer because we were in Boston. But as I go through this, you’re going to see, we didn’t stay in Boston the whole time. So I would love to go back and just spend more time in Boston, maybe in the summer.

3 (4m 19s):
I know you’re going to address this as we move forward, but I’m just going to straight up, ask it. Did you use Boston as a hub or did you actually spend the night somewhere else outside of Boston and your travels?

2 (4m 28s):
Yes. All, I guess it was two nights, Saturday and Sunday night we stayed in Boston, but let me just get straight into that. So Friday was the red eye. It was also during COVID and the airport. There was like nothing open except one bar. So got an airport. Beer hit the red eye flight, got into Boston around 6:00 AM. I want to say the flight landed so very early, we went straight to our hotel, which was the Revere hotel in the Boston commons neighborhood. Highly recommended, super cute boutique hotel squad tip. You can check in early and this doesn’t just apply to the Revere hotel in Boston. I’ve done this in Miami and I’ve done this a couple of other times at other hotels when I’ve taken a red eye show up to the hotel and you get in and ask for an early check-in.

2 (5m 14s):
If they have the room available, they will give you the hotel room and you can basically save yourself from that extra night of costs.

1 (5m 22s):
We’ve done the same thing. When we flew into Fort Lauderdale area, we’ve been able to check into the room super early as well. So that is a great squad tip.

2 (5m 29s):
Yes. And so that’s exactly what we did. They gave us the room. We left our car out in front of the lobby and then we went to go put our stuff down and we were going to come get it and go park. But because we were so tired, we ended up just laying down in the bed and taking a nap and getting woken up like 30 minutes later from someone calling saying, you need to come get your car it’s in the front still. And we were like, oh shit.

3 (5m 49s):
And they did do a solid, they let you check it early and you leave your car, blocking the front entrance of the hotels

2 (5m 54s):
Blocking it. It just, it wasn’t a parking spot.

3 (5m 57s):
I’m just playing around with you.

2 (5m 58s):
So we were only planning on sleeping about an hour anyway. So we got up and started getting ready because we had a long drive up to New Hampshire, which was our first stop on this.

3 (6m 7s):
I’m going to remember this because you always give Brittany shit for hitting the ground running and not enough sleep. And here you are on a trip without Brittany and you just take a little baby nap and be like, I’m hitting the streets right after you have a red eye flight.

2 (6m 20s):
Yeah, I think I did sleep for a few hours on the flight, but it certainly wasn’t a full night’s sleep and I won’t get a full night’s sleep on this trip. So when you only have a couple of days in a city and a lot to see, you do have to jam pack it all in, which is why I’d like to go back. So anyway, we got ready. We got in our rental car, which also was very shitty by the way. Yes, we, we opted for the lower end price point on rental cars, but this thing was actually dirty. It was disgusting. It was filthy inside. And not even kidding.

3 (6m 50s):
Did you book it from a reputable company?

2 (6m 53s):
It was, I don’t know. It was one of them budget hurt, something like that. And it was straight up dirty.

3 (6m 60s):
Did you tell them, did they fix it and fix it in terms of discount on costs? Like they really just didn’t clean it from one renter to the next.

2 (7m 6s):
Yes. And actually they were trying to upgrade us to a bigger like SUV and this was a giant ass like Yukon style SUV. They were trying to upgrade us too. And I was like, I don’t want to drive that around. First of all, I would like a car. So that was the only car they had left.

3 (7m 22s):
And maybe that’s why they’re trying to upgrade you because you know, okay.

2 (7m 26s):
But I don’t want to be driving around a fricking Yukon. So anyway, we’re in the dirty car and we jumped onto highway 93 north to Conway, New Hampshire because we’re headed to the Flume Gorge in Conway. This highway is beautiful. This is part of the attractions of the fall foliage tour because the entire two hours north on this highway on each side of the road is lined with giant trees that are orange and red and yellow and green and purple for two hours straight on either side of you.

1 (7m 54s):
That sounds really, really beautiful drive itself. Yes. It’s worth it. Yes.

3 (7m 58s):
So the drive itself on highway 93 as part of the attraction, but when you get there to Conway, New Hampshire, what is the ending point? Like what are you going to see? Obviously the color change trees, but what’s there if you’re already seen it on the road.

2 (8m 11s):
So we were driving to flume Gorge, which is this huge natural Gorge. It’s about 800 feet. It’s at the base of Mount Liberty, the walls of Conway, granite rise above like 70 to 90 feet high. As you’re walking through this, it’s almost like a slot canyon too. Cause it’s just about like 10 to 20 feet apart. And it’s gorgeous. There’s fall colors everywhere. There’s leaves literally raining down like you see in a fall movie

1 (8m 37s):
That’s magical and

2 (8m 38s):
It’s, it’s like missing and sprinkling the whole time. So it’s very fall vibes. It’s not necessarily a hike because for the most part it’s paved, but it is hilly and kind of a Trek through this couple of miles through this Gorge and there’s waterfalls and creeks and just fall colors everywhere. It’s truly a nature reserve area. You do need to purchase tickets in advance. I did go in October, 2020, which was COVID. And so you not only had to purchase tickets in advance, but you had to reserve your day and time and they did sell out. You could not buy tickets the day of

1 (9m 12s):
When did you buy your tickets

2 (9m 13s):
About a month before? I think we booked the trip initially like two months before maybe.

3 (9m 18s):
And do you know if the reservation system is because of COVID or this is really popular that they always do that.

2 (9m 23s):
I think before COVID they had more laxed rules and now, well, during COVID at least they had capacity limits, which is why they were more strict on the advanced ticket purchase.

3 (9m 33s):
Yeah. And you know, what’s funny is I feel like a lot of places that went to ticket and reservation during COVID, maybe they’re going to reopen back up and be a little bit more lax like you were saying, but I think those types of trends are probably here to stay. I don’t know if it’s for this or anywhere else, but that’s just in general off the topic of New England and thinking that,

2 (9m 49s):
Yeah, I looked at the website as we’re recording this and you do still need to purchase tickets online.

1 (9m 55s):
And how long would you say you spent there?

2 (9m 56s):
Probably two hours. I think your ticket is for two hours only. Okay. And it’s, it’s about two miles of walking through this thing. You’ll be taking pictures the whole time. I wanted to look cute and fall and fashionable. So I wore these new brown boots that I got, but they came in actually a little bit higher heel than I thought they were. So for this two mile truck through the Gorge, I’m wearing boot heels. I wouldn’t recommend that

3 (10m 21s):
You kind of answered a question I had, cause I was gonna ask like, let’s not kid ourselves. You sometimes dress for the gram depending on where it is that we are going. And I know you said most of it was actually paved. Right. So even though it was paved, was it hard just because it was kind of hilly or just even still, it shouldn’t be a place you wear heels.

2 (10m 41s):
Well, for one, it was like drizzling on us the whole time. So the ground is wet. And for two, there are certain parts in the Gorge where you’re going through the Creek and waterfall area. And so you’re going up wooden stairs and it’s wet. So for both of those reasons, heels are not recommended

3 (10m 57s):
Knowing that, but still wanting to look fashionable. Kim, what would you have worn? I

2 (11m 1s):
Would have worn cute brown boots without a heel.

3 (11m 4s):
So some boots,

2 (11m 6s):
Boots, boots, fall boots, ladies. That’s the vibe there, but it’s really, really, really pretty. I think the ticket was around 18 bucks at the time that we did this. So it’s not expensive, a hundred percent worth it. The drive, you know, with the two hours there, plus the two hours each way drive at six hours. But you’re looking at fall colors that entire time.

1 (11m 23s):
Yeah. That’s super worth it. I would go just to do the drive. I mean this flume Gorge sounds amazing. I have it on my list now so that when Jamal, Nico will be doing a replication of your trip.

3 (11m 34s):
So did you stop on that drive? Because obviously one of you is driving. I don’t know if you switched off or if it was just you behind the wheel or if Morgan took part of that, but because the drive is so scenic, did you actually stop to really enjoy it? Or was it just, you caught glimpses of it? Well, you, the driver were driving.

2 (11m 51s):
So Morgan drove on the way there. And I drove on the way back. We didn’t take stops to take pictures. We were taking pictures throughout the drive. The whole time. We even have videos where it’s just colors on both sides of you, of the car and you’re driving through this color tunnel. It’s really pretty. So we did stop, I think, to get food, but honestly the trees look better, farther away where you can see all the colors match together than they do close up. So I wouldn’t recommend stopping to take pictures. And also you’re going to be seeing that the entire time you’re in this area.

1 (12m 19s):
So from there, where did you go?

2 (12m 21s):
So from Conway, New Hampshire, we drove back down the same 93 south this time to Salem, Massachusetts.

3 (12m 28s):
Now when you say south of Salem, south of Boston,

2 (12m 31s):
No Salem is a little Northeast of Boston, but it’s only I think about 30 or 40 minutes.

3 (12m 37s):
So real close.

2 (12m 38s):
Yeah. So we’re going back. The way we came to hit up Salem Salem, Massachusetts is full of history. I mean, back in the 18 hundreds, this is where the witch trials took place and settlers were here. And a lot of those structures from that time still exist. And there’s a lot of points of attraction that are paying homage to the history that took place there. The good and the bad history itself.

3 (13m 1s):
I think you said back in the 18 hundreds, you mean the 16 hundreds for the Salem witch trials, correct?

2 (13m 7s):
16 hundreds. My God. Yeah. Yes. And a lot of the homes. So you, this is what you can expect with Salem. As soon as you get in. And our experience was very different because of it being around Halloween. Halloween is a major attraction for Salem. So the entire month of October, it’s Halloween. Everything. If you go any other time of year, they’re still going to have a lot of the witch tours and ghost tours and that kind of a thing. But the Halloween crowds, I think, would be less where people

1 (13m 34s):
Dressed up for like Halloween.

2 (13m 35s):
Yes, there was a lot of people in costumes, dresses, witches, and different movies around Halloween that took place in Salem. It’s

1 (13m 43s):
Got to be really cool and really spooky at the same time,

2 (13m 46s):
It felt very spooky and everywhere you went, they were like, this is the most haunted bench in Salem. This is the most haunted Tavern in Salem. This is the most haunted street corner in Salem. And everything was the fucking most haunted thing there.

3 (14m 0s):
Oh, they gotta sell it up. But you know, it’s funny. You mentioned earlier, they took it seriously, especially cause it was Halloween. I would imagine. So. I mean, if we all have seen Hocus Pocus, we know they take Halloween very seriously in Salem, Massachusetts

2 (14m 12s):
Hocus Pocus. There are scenes from the movies that are filmed in Salem. So those are points of attractions. Like the old town hall is in the movie, Halloween, the movie blue, which those will be, which statue there. There’s also the, which house from another movie that I can’t remember, cause I’m not into Holly movies, but Morgan was really obsessed with it. So she was all into it. But there are all these different attractions that you’ll go around to and see, I would recommend pre-purchasing tours, which is something we didn’t do. And we should have. So you could do like which theme tours you could do. Haunted theme tours, ghost tours. There’s a whole bunch of different kinds.

3 (14m 49s):
I know you said you wanted to pre-purchase and you, but of those different types of tours that you just mentioned, what one stood out to you the most that you regret not being able to do? Like what was the most interesting one that you guys saw?

2 (15m 1s):
I don’t recall the names of what they were called, but just some kind of like spooky, which goes to her would have been fun to do. There was all different kinds of variations. Even had night ones. If you didn’t want to do it during the day,

3 (15m 12s):
It would be

1 (15m 12s):
Really spooked.

3 (15m 13s):
I was going to say, I wouldn’t even want to do it during the day when you just described the tours. I envisioned it at night anyway, but it makes sense. They’re doing it night and day.

2 (15m 21s):
Yeah. There’s like this which museum where witches were hung back in the 16 hundreds, there are cemeteries. They’ll take you through tell you stories. I think the history is really, really cool. Even though it’s such a weird part of our history that that happened. It still lives on there and you can actually feel the witchy energy. Like so many people were killed in that town. That’s like, I don’t know. It does feel like it. It’s weird.

1 (15m 46s):
Do you feel like if you stayed there, you would have stayed in like a haunted place and you’ve been a little creeped out.

2 (15m 52s):
I’m not indigo stuff like that. I’m not into getting freaked out in the middle of the night by door slamming or any of that shit. So I wouldn’t want that to happen. But our friend Leo is in town. It’s just so happened. She was in Salem the same day we were. And Lele actually at the time was living in Washington. So it’s even weirder that she was in Salem the same day we were.

3 (16m 10s):
And you guys may remember Leah, we mentioned her on our episodes when we were talking about Olympic national park, as well as

2 (16m 18s):
Not Rainier

3 (16m 18s):
Mount near yet.

2 (16m 19s):
Yeah. So we met up with her in the oldest, most haunted Tavern in all of Salem, Massachusetts

3 (16m 26s):
Was this one really the most haunted or what they just said. That’s

2 (16m 29s):
What they said. I didn’t feel any ghost activity there, but we did stay and have some drinks with them and talk to them. They did do a tour and there was in the witch house, in the garden behind there’s a bench. And they said, that’s the most haunted bench in Salem. And if you sit there, you can like feel energy or see orbs. And Leah said she did. Did she? I don’t know if she did or not, but I didn’t feel any orbs over there. You sat

1 (16m 53s):
On it too.

2 (16m 54s):
Yes.

1 (16m 55s):
Ooh. Okay.

3 (16m 56s):
I noticed something about your aura has been a little bit off since you come back from this trip, Kevin. Now I know why he never told me he sat on the bench. I’m a little freaked out.

2 (17m 4s):
I was in the Tavern too.

3 (17m 5s):
Well, you just said the Tavern, not so much, but Leah felt the vibes on the bench. So yeah,

2 (17m 11s):
But it’s a good place to go with Halloween. Even during COVID Halloween, they had canceled all the official Halloween events that they usually have and it was still so fucking crowded. So I can’t even imagine what them around Halloween in a regular year would be like. And they do have all of those activities. So definitely planned for that. It’s cool to see around Halloween, but you’re going to have the crowd. So book ahead of time.

1 (17m 35s):
And how much time would you say you need in Salem if

2 (17m 38s):
You’re not doing any tours and you’re just coming to see the things, experience it, maybe eat or drink a little. I think we were there really six hours. You could definitely spend the whole day there. You can definitely spend a weekend there if you want to do more of the tourists and stuff. But like I said, we were only there Friday to Monday. So we really didn’t have actually Saturday to Monday, by the time we got in. So we really didn’t have enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. We just got a little taste of everything.

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2 (19m 17s):
So after we were calling it a day in Salem, we drove back to Boston and we wanted to just get some dinner, get some drinks, see Boston, little bit we’re coming from San Diego, where lockdown was in full swing. Boston was a little bit more open, which was really nice. We didn’t really go anywhere like special that I would really recommend. We just kind of walked out of our hotel, found a nearby restaurant. Food was okay, went to a nearby dive bar. You know, drinks were okay.

3 (19m 45s):
Even though you’re saying they were just, okay, sometimes that’s the fun experiences exploring the neighborhood that’s around you of like where you’re staying hotel wise or something to that effect. So I’m sure there’s good culinary places there, but I appreciate the fact that you guys did that and chose to do it that

2 (19m 60s):
Way. And it was very cold at

3 (20m 2s):
Night. I think that’s another reason maybe why you didn’t want to go too far then, huh? Yeah.

2 (20m 5s):
Yeah, we didn’t. We didn’t go too far, but you’ve got to go out and see the nightlife a little bit when you’re there. So at this point we’re really tired. Cause we had barely slept and been up extremely early. So we did call it a night because we had another early morning to go. We were going south on the 93, this time to Newport Rhode Island.

1 (20m 23s):
And how far is the drive?

2 (20m 25s):
I want to say it’s another like two-ish hours in the other direction. But again, it’s the highway lined with beautifully colored trees on both sides of you the entire way.

1 (20m 35s):
And what time did you start your day?

2 (20m 37s):
I think we actually got a little bit later of a start than we wanted to. I think we went around noon and Newport Rhode Island was extremely cold. It was like 42 degrees. Pretty cool. And I was not dressed appropriately. Surprise, surprise. I wanted to look cute and I very much underestimated the Newport Rhode Island, frigid temperatures, but what drove us to Rhode Island in the first place were these gorgeous historic mansions that Newport Rhode Island is known for. We got to tour one of them. That was the Vanderbilt mansion. The breakers, there are several other Vanderbilt mentions there. If you want to see more of them, you can purchase tickets that allow you into multiple, but you do need to start earlier.

2 (21m 18s):
And that’s the reason we only saw the one is because we got the later start and they were closing

3 (21m 22s):
Everything that you’ve mentioned so far about this trip I’m jealous about because it seems really cool. But one thing I’ve always really wanted to do is go to Rhode Island because they’re famous for their waterfront homes that have this like specific look to them. And those aren’t necessarily mansions, but you mentioned the Vanderbilts. If anybody knows history, maybe they don’t know who the Vanderbilts are, but they’ve heard that name. I mean, it’s up there with the old money in America, like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts were a very famous aristocratic family. So you mentioned mansion, like how big was it and was it on the water? Like those traditional, like Rhode Island, a waterfront home?

2 (21m 57s):
Yes. It was on the water. In fact, the Newport boardwalk kind of thing that they have along the coast and the cliffs is right outside of this mansion. And so yeah, it was a 70 room impeccably decorated 18th century vibe of a mansion. It was just gorgeous with these grand curtains and amazing like man-cave and rooms and, and servants. And the kitchen was two stories and like it was fricking beautiful. They give you like a little thing you can listen to when you go to each room to self guided tour. So you get the history of it, which is really nice. I, one of my biggest pet peeves about going into places and buying your ticket in, if you don’t purchase a tour is that you don’t get the history behind it.

2 (22m 42s):
So it was really nice that we did get the history too. That definitely made a difference, but it was just really, really beautiful. In some parts you would go out to like the opening of the window and the terrorists, and then you could see the ocean from the terrorists and everything is just massive. And it took us probably an hour to walk through the whole thing. And then you could explore the gardens as well, which we didn’t do much of just because it was really cold.

3 (23m 4s):
You mentioned it was 70 rooms. Do you remember how many bathrooms? I can’t bring that up. How many bathrooms?

2 (23m 10s):
I don’t remember how many bathrooms and there were a lot of rooms in the third and fourth stories that were closed off. So we didn’t get to see them. We just got a lot of the main big rooms. So I would definitely recommend that if you’re going in the fall, dress warm and explore the ocean boardwalk as well. One thing I would have loved to do there along the coast, they have these restaurants where out on the grass, they have these beautiful, like wooden lounge chairs. When you think of Rhode Island, this is the type of chair you think about, are they white? Yes. And you just kind of lounged back they’re wooden. And this is like, so east coast, but it was just too cold to do that. We had initially planned to get drinks and just lounge on the, on the lawn out there.

2 (23m 50s):
But it was just way too cold to do that.

1 (23m 52s):
You mean you weren’t appropriately dressed for that?

2 (23m 54s):
Well that, but also it was the coldest day they’d had all year. Oh. So it was very cold even for locals that day. But nevertheless, we enjoyed it. We came, we saw, we checked a state off our list, which was the first time I ever went to Rhode Island. So that was exciting. And then we kind of made our way back to Boston at that point.

1 (24m 10s):
And so on Sunday, did you explore more of Boston? Yeah,

2 (24m 14s):
We did. You mentioned earlier Jamal, the way the house is look out there and not so much in Boston proper, but all around new England. There is that homestyle that I really enjoyed. They’re kind of like giant square homes with like kind of pointy roofs and they’re massive homes and they’re all around new England and you just don’t get that architecture vibe out here on the west coast. So that was really cool. So along the whole drive, you’re kind of seeing that plus fall colors. It’s really pretty.

3 (24m 41s):
And you’re describing those homes though. And that unique look where those older homes that you know, were built back in the day and they capture that’s just their modern local look to their home.

2 (24m 51s):
I think it’s maybe a little bit of both. Definitely in Salem, a lot of the homes looked like that and they were 16th century, even some in the 19 hundreds that they were historic homes. They had that same look as well as just everyday homes people were living in.

3 (25m 5s):
That’s. One of the things I love really most about traveling within the United States is going to different states and just really looking at how the homes are built and look differently. Some of them are because of the time period and they have a little bit more history because of that. But even so if it doesn’t have history or even if it does, they keep with a look that’s really intriguing. And so that’s another reason why I want to go out there is really to check that out. But I’m envious of that Rhode Island though, because there’s just that Rhode Island look on the water that I want to experience.

2 (25m 32s):
Yes. And if I had more time, I would have loved to go to Providence maybe and see more of Rhode Island, but next time we’ll definitely have to do that. So I went back to Boston though, because up to this point, we’ve been, go, go, go like get a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks and hit the road, eat really fast. Or, you know, we went somewhere by the hotel the night before. So like wasn’t amazing food, but was okay. So Sunday night, our last night in Boston, we are going all out for dinner

3 (25m 57s):
Balls to the wall

2 (25m 58s):
Balls to the wall. And we went to Davos Northern Italian steak house. It was on the river area of Boston, had really great views of the water, really, really great food and wine. What’d you get? I got a little pasta with Italian sausage in it. And Morgan got lobster and oysters, and then we got a steak to share. We went all out and we got a bottle of wine.

1 (26m 19s):
Love it. That sounds really

2 (26m 21s):
Good. It was really, really good. And it was a really great place to have. Dinner was nice to explore a different area of Boston and get that experience. So it was great. All around a hundred percent, 10 out of 10 would recommend obvious. Did

1 (26m 33s):
You get dessert there?

2 (26m 34s):
No, because we had a plan for dessert. So we were going to drive over to the north end neighborhood of Boston, which is another one. If I go back, I definitely want to explore more of, it’s a really popular area of the tons of cute little shops and restaurants and small streets and that quintessential brick, Boston vibe that you would expect to see in Boston all over right here. So I would recommend the north end as well. But in the north end, you’ll find Mike’s pastries, which is a very famous cannoli shop.

1 (27m 4s):
Ooh, I love canola.

2 (27m 6s):
They had like 40 different flavors of canolas.

1 (27m 9s):
What flavors did you guys try?

2 (27m 10s):
We only got two. We got a lemon and a chocolate chip,

1 (27m 14s):
Which one was better.

2 (27m 15s):
I love the lemon. That one was bomb, but they were both really good. They had other pastries and cakes too, but canola is, were definitely the drawing point of this place. They were good

1 (27m 23s):
And sold on the lemon canola from Mike’s pastry.

2 (27m 27s):
They were great. And there’s a long line to get in because it’s so well-known and it’s locals favorite and tourist favorite. There’s a line it’s cash only. So make sure to bring cash and don’t be afraid of the line because it does move quickly. These Italians are like in and out. What do you want? If you don’t even know what you want, when you get up there, they’ll start helping someone else until you figure your shit out. So get

1 (27m 48s):
Ready. You’re not wasting any time.

2 (27m 50s):
And then we wanted to just kind of take it easy this night. You know, I mentioned the night before we just went out for dinner and drinks, I kind of left out the fact that we had a lot of drinks, which is why we got a late start in the morning, that day. So we were tired and we both wanted to go out and explore Boston nightlife more, but we were both like, no, we’re going to our hotel. We’re going to our hotel and we’re going to eat canolas and drink wine in our robes in bed.

3 (28m 19s):
That actually sounds like a good night. So I take back my judgment. Have you been over 30

1 (28m 24s):
Hotel

2 (28m 25s):
Hotel providing? I do recommend the Revere hotel and it is a cute boutique hotel and it’s a little bit nicer. So I like staying in hotels too. Like I know a lot of times we take trips and we’re go, go, go. We just kind of skim on the price of the hotel. Cause we’re not going to be there that often, but I do enjoy a nice hotel. So when it is a nice hotel with a hotel provided robe and flippers, I want to enjoy it.

1 (28m 51s):
You know, I would, I would have to agree, you know, if we’re going to be go, go, go. And we’re out in nature. And we’re just kind of doing things like real quick. I don’t mind a budget of hotel, but like Jamal and I are headed to Austin and we’re want to stay on the river. So we’re going to get like a nicer hotel, same for Chicago. We’re on the river there. So it’s nice to enjoy a hotel and like the amenities around it every once in a while.

3 (29m 10s):
And even if you’re in a new city, like you said, if it’s cold, outside, cold is not your thing. You had a good day, nice and relaxing with dessert and wine and a robe and a nice hotel in downtown Boston area. You can’t go wrong. Yeah.

2 (29m 22s):
And so we did that in the morning. There were still wine leftover. So I had that for breakfast,

3 (29m 28s):
A

2 (29m 28s):
Little cannoli too.

3 (29m 29s):
It’s only grape juice.

2 (29m 32s):
So Monday we were leaving around 2:00 PM. So we didn’t have a long time. So that’s part of the reason we wanted to rope it and wine in bed because we wanted to get up early the next day and see as much of Boston proper that we could squeeze in before we had to go back to the airport. So the couple of things that we saw that I would recommend seeing in Boston acorn street, this place is awesome. And this is exactly what you think of when you hear Boston red, brick buildings, cobblestone floors, just exactly what you picture of Boston. This is it. And it’s definitely an area that is higher. I don’t even know how you describe it.

3 (30m 8s):
Like more affluent,

2 (30m 9s):
More affluent. Yes. And so the homes are really, really expensive, but they look really, really nice acorn street though, specifically. It is the alley in Boston with the oldest cobblestone street that dates back to the 18 hundreds. Oh wow. It’s original cobblestone. It’s the most photographed street in the entire world. And guess who has a photograph in it? You sure do. But I guess a lot of people come there for photos. So the neighbors get a little annoyed. I mean, people’s front doors are on this street.

3 (30m 38s):
I totally agree with you. And if I lived there, I would probably be annoyed too. But it’s like, if you live on Lombard street in San Francisco, or we were just in San Francisco and Chicago and we went to the full house house and the family matters house because they took place in San Francisco, Chicago, you can’t buy and live and places like that and not expect people to show up, like I feel bad. And I respect the fact that it’s their private property. So I’m not doing anything crazy, but for them to get upset, like you bought it, what did you expect? I hate to say that. That’s my thought. Yeah.

2 (31m 6s):
So the lady we were talking to who lived right there was saying that the day before there were a ton of people coming. They were being really loud and like breaking glass.

3 (31m 15s):
That’s not appropriate.

2 (31m 16s):
And so that’s also something that comes with living on a street like that. But when I was there, it was early in the morning and, and there was just one other couple taking pictures. So just be respectful, I guess, as always another attraction in Boston is the Boston red Sox baseball park. You’re going to want to definitely go to that area, check it out. It reminded me a bit of Wrigleyville in Chicago, just because this area has all the bars dedicated to it. There’s actually a bar there you can go to. And I missed the name of it. Cause it wasn’t open to patron when we were there. Cause it was in the morning, but it was open where we could see in and the bar has a fence that looks out into the ballpark. So you can actually be drinking at the bar, but watching the game.

3 (31m 56s):
Oh, that’s really cool.

2 (31m 57s):
Yeah.

3 (31m 58s):
I’ve always wanted, and I’ve mentioned this before to go to Fenway park, I’ve gone to Wrigley field now and then out in Wrigleyville, then drank out there and went to a ball game for my birthday. But Fenway is on that list now. Yeah.

2 (32m 10s):
Yes, absolutely. And it definitely will give you Wrigleyville vibes.

1 (32m 14s):
What do they have for food in that area? Cause you know, like in Wrigleyville they have the hot dogs and things like that. Do they have like a iconic food to eat in that area?

2 (32m 22s):
Honestly, they really, didn’t not like Wrigleyville with the hot dogs, but Boston is

1 (32m 28s):
Boston’s

2 (32m 29s):
We didn’t actually know

3 (32m 31s):
A cup of tea, a cup

2 (32m 32s):
Of,

3 (32m 34s):
Well

2 (32m 34s):
That’s actually another location was the Boston tea party location, which is not by the baseball. You have to drive.

3 (32m 40s):
Yeah. You went to the Harbor obviously. Cause they threw it off the ships.

2 (32m 43s):
Yes. The Harbor. And COVID really got in the way of a lot of things. So because of COVID on Mondays, the Boston tea party museum was closed. So we got to see the location on the Harbor where the tea was thrown in, but we didn’t get to witness the demonstration of the tea throwing and the museum and all of that because it was closed unfortunately. But we did walk around that area. We got to see that. That was really cool just to stand where us history was made was pretty cool. And those were really like the three main things that we could squeeze in on the morning before a flight out.

1 (33m 16s):
So all in all, how much would you say you paid for this trip?

2 (33m 20s):
So my flight was free because I had enough Delta points that I didn’t need to pay for anything but the taxes. So that was great. The hotel, I think was a little bit on the price you’re in, although not extremely pricey. I want to say maybe like 200 a night for two and a half nights. And then rental car was pretty cheap. I want to say it ended up being like a hundred or 150 for the whole trip,

3 (33m 44s):
The hotel and rental car. I’m sure you split with Morgan too. So in terms of your own out-of-pocket cost half that.

2 (33m 49s):
Right? True. And then the other things were just like drinks here and there a couple of entry fees, which were pretty low. So I don’t know, 500 maybe

3 (33m 57s):
All in all for a weekend getaway. Pretty affordable. Yes.

2 (34m 0s):
Yes. Very, very affordable and a very good trip that you would definitely want to take.

3 (34m 4s):
I have a quick question for you about Boston before we get to your favorite time of the week. Cause I know it’s coming up to camp. I know you got the rental car and they were trying to upsell you on an SUV and I didn’t say it then. I’m glad you didn’t get it because I guess these could be misconceptions, but the streets, from what I understand are really narrow out there in Boston. And so were the streets narrow? Is, are they super trafficky? Like most people think, and I know you drove north south all the way does Dayla and then end to Rhode Island. But did you use any of the mass transit in Boston or did you always drive the car?

2 (34m 38s):
I did not use any mass transit and the roads were not as narrow as you may think. There were some neighborhoods like the north end neighborhood. Yes. The roads were much more small compact cars on both sides. They also, because of COVID had restaurants out on the streets, so that made it even more crowded

3 (34m 58s):
Could have made that dicey

2 (34m 59s):
Exactly what I was thinking. But for the other main roads and area where I was staying in Boston commons, the roads were not really cramped.

3 (35m 7s):
And so just segregated to certain neighborhoods and probably a lot older ones. Okay.

2 (35m 12s):
Yes.

1 (35m 13s):
Do you have any final thoughts about Boston before we get into your favorite time of the week?

2 (35m 17s):
Well, I honestly feel like Boston reminded me a bit of both Chicago and San Francisco with the weather, the way it looked. It was older. It was like windy. It just gave me vibes of both actually. You know, I always wanted to go to Boston and I think what was really cool to hear and see was the Boston accent and the locals loved it. One guy actually said something about a bubbler and that would be a water fountain above bla bla bla, A water fountain. The Bubba,

3 (35m 48s):
You know, who’s done really good about getting rid of their Boston accents is been off like a Matt Damon, the more famous they got. I feel like they phased that out

2 (35m 56s):
And to bring it back. I love it. I love the Boston accent every time me and Morgan heard someone talking like that, we were like, did you hear that? Did you hear that? This guy actually, after the canola is we were searching for wine at a liquor store and they don’t sell it in like regular stores. So we’re like looking around and we could hear this guy, like that’s not my car. That’s my wife’s car. Yes. Very, very Boston. So I would definitely recommend this trip. I would love to go again, even in the fall.

1 (36m 23s):
I can’t wait for us to go. I mean, we might even go as a squad

2 (36m 26s):
Squad. Trish

3 (36m 27s):
Squad trip.

1 (36m 28s):
Well, Kim, it’s your favorite time of the episode? Questions of the week.

2 (36m 40s):
Okay, cool. It looks like we have one question coming in and this one, love it. Whoever asked this question, got you. He said, what kind of outfits would you recommend for this trip?

3 (36m 49s):
I’m going to jump in real quick, even though I didn’t go. And that should be everything that you heard Kim say she brought don’t bring her bring more. Cause clearly it wasn’t working for her, right?

2 (36m 58s):
Yeah. I, I brought knee-high flat boots and those were the only flat boots I brought. Otherwise I was wearing heel boots the whole time. Cause I wanted to look fashionable, which I did by the way, but you’re going to be doing a lot of walking. So keep that in mind. I would say knee-high flat boots. Maybe doc Martins are good boots to wear. They’d be really cute and Salem, but definitely the whole fall vibe boots, leather jacket, cute false sweaters. Black nylons under a mini skirt,

3 (37m 25s):
Beanie gloves,

2 (37m 27s):
Cute beanie gloves

3 (37m 29s):
And layers. Cause I think you didn’t have the layers.

2 (37m 31s):
Yes, definitely want to layer up because in the day time it’s sunny. It’s not that cool, but at night you will definitely want that layers. And that’s all we have. I think this was a trip to remember for sure. I would highly recommend it, especially for anybody out on the west coast that hasn’t experienced true fall and especially a New England Fall. Definitely take this trip. If you have any questions, just reach out and let me know. And thank you guys for tuning into our episode this week. I appreciate you listening. Keep the adventures going with us on Instagram and YouTube, a Travel Squad Podcast. And if you go on this trip, Tyrus, send your adventure and send us any questions a week that you have.

3 (38m 8s):
If you found the information on this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share it with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always guys, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes

1 (38m 22s):
And stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you guys.