When we were in the Boston area last summer we stayed in an airbnb in Cambridge that was about halfway between MIT and Harvard and about 4 blocks from the subway. I just tried to find the exact listing and couldn’t but there are a lot of listings in that general area. We did have a car (had to pay extra for the parking spot though and didn’t use it every day) but we were in the area for 2 weeks total so it was less hassle to just hang on to it than to turn it in for the urban days.
You can check out what the colleges recommend. For example, https://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/connect/visit/
We visited Northeastern a few weeks ago but stayed with family in Cambridge. We did a mix of my brother dropping us off, walking, public transit, and Lyft. If you fly in, I agree that you don’t need a car.
We were out in Boston last April for college overnights. We got an Airbnb in the North End (reasonable and full kitchen) and used public transit and uber to get around. We enjoyed getting pastries and tasty sandwiches. You can catch an Amtrak to NYC and do the same.
I recommend making good use of Google Maps. Go to Boston in Google Maps and turn on “Transit” in the Menu. This will highlight the subway map and label the subway stations as a circled T’s. Then type “hotels” in the “Search Google Maps” entry. You can see the rates if you type in the dates of your stay. You can also see their proximity to T stations and which lines they are on.
For the colleges you mentioned, you are probably best served to stay east of Copley Station on the Green Line. Copley is where the Green Line splits into three lines. If you stay in a hotel which is before the split at Copley, you can catch any of the lines at a single station, thus avoiding having to backtrack (going toward downtown). BC and BU are directly on the Green “B” Line at the Boston College and Boston University stations respectively. Northeastern is on the Green “E” Line at the Northeastern station.
The trolleys/trains and tracks are LABELED BY THE END STATION on the route you are on. If you get on the Green Line at Copley Station and want to visit Boston University, you look for the signs for Green B Line with the words “B Boston College” on the trolley. This is because Boston College is the last station for the B Line IN THE DIRECTION YOU WANT TO GO. Just get off when you get to the Boston University intermediate station.
Pro-tip: AVOID VISITING DURING BASEBALL SEASON WHEN THE RED SOX ARE IN TOWN especially over a weekend when they play during the afternoon. Hotel prices are higher then and the Green Line is crowded.
@washugrad Yes. Cambridge around MIT and Harvard is particularly evil from a traffic perspective. The infamous route one has to make to go south down Massachusetts Avenue if you started at Harvard Square!
I was always satisfied with taking the T, either by picking up the subway or taking the #1 Harvard-Dudley bus. I was always impressed with the MBTA bus drivers navigating those sharp turns around Harvard Square.
I’m a New Englander. My brother lives in Cambridge. My son went to BU for a year. Even with a GPS I get lost in Boston. And I sorta know the city. Trying to go from BU to the Seaport area, my GPS sent us round and round in a circle. Finally broke out on my own and let it recalculate. Highly recommend taxis/Uber! NYC is a grid system but not much better!
NYC is definitely easier to navigate than Boston, downtown gets harder. You still don’t want a car, parking is expensive and the subway is faster. My daughter took the bus to port authority today and a subway to Fordham, heading to a Yankees game tonight, doing the reverse tomorrow. We are 10 miles west of the Lincoln Tunnel, none of my adult kids have ever driven in.