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The staff at Otels hope you enjoy the following Travel Ideas
from travel writer (and enthusiastic naturalist) Mark Kolakowski
Best wishes on your next trip!
By Mark
Kolakowski
Copyright © 2004 by the author
Boston
During an August weekend in the Boston area, I chose to stay in
one of the outlying suburbs, Lexington. This town is just
within the I-95 / Route 128 ring road. This location offered several
advantages to someone arriving by car: avoidance of city traffic on
business days and ease of parking. Lexington is only about a 15-minute
drive to the outskirts of Cambridge, where one can park in a massive
garage that is right above the Alewife Brook Parkway terminal of the
Red Line subway. From there, you have a stress-free ride via mass
transit into central Cambridge and Boston.
Lexington is also at the eastern end of Minuteman National Park.
It is a very pleasant walk in the countryside towards Concord,
retracing the steps of the first battle of the American Revolution.
Many areas along this route are preserved in close to their state as
of 1775, and are a wealth of historic buildings.
While in Boston proper, I took the New England Aquarium’s whale
watch. It had been 6
years since my last trip. Whale watching trips out of Boston
give you fine opportunities to see whales, but boats can be full of
fellow passengers. This makes it very difficult to move about
the vessel, to get a good look at a whale when it surfaces. On the
other hand, your chief alternative is a lengthy drive to Provincetown,
on the tip of Cape Cod, along a route that can be full of summer
traffic. The whale watch trips there are usually much less crowded and
have a shorter sail to the prime viewing area, Stellwagen Bank.
Another alternative is to drive to Gloucester, northeast of Boston.
Since much of the hotel trade even in the Boston suburbs is geared to
business travel, those with flexible schedules can expect discounted
weekend rates. Book early since hotels generally appeared to be
close to capacity.
Williamstown, MA
In far
western Massachusetts, fine natural areas for walking and wildlife
viewing await you at the Field Farm and the Mountain Meadow
Preserve. (See
www.thetrustees.org for more info.) Field Farm is especially
beguiling, with its beaver ponds and abundant bird life in spring and
summer.
To make
hotel reservations
through Otels
for Boston and other cities in Massachusetts, please
click here.
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