Hi All!
I haven't posted here for so long so this post is actually putting a smile on my face!
Anyway....I'll be coming to Boston at the end of the year (from Australia), thinking about staying for 4 days, is that enough for a Patriots and a Celtics game during the day + exploring the city? For one of the days I want to visit the basketball Hall of Fame, how do I get there, and how much of the day will it take out of me?
And then of course, I want to come watch a game, thinking about Hawks at 1pm on 31st Dec - if I want to catch a flight to another city after that, what's the earliest time you would recommend?
Alternatively, where can I go for New Year's Eve in Boston?
Many many many thanks to my friends in Boston!
The Hall of Fame is in Springfield -- that's a couple of hours, either drive or riding the Greyhound/Peter Pan bus. The HoF is a 10 minute drive / half an hour walk from where the buses stop. You should probably plan this to be a full day trip.
Patriots games also happen out of town, in Foxborough. I don't recommend trying to drive there on game days, unless you like standing in traffic
. There is a train to the stadium on game days (
http://www.mbta.com/riding_the_t/patriots/), and although I see nothing about a train _back_, I'm sure there's one of these as well. The Bills game (Dec 29th) is a day game (1pm) with the train leaving at ~11am. Plan for the whole day to go into the game.
As for leaving on game day, unless you're catching an evening flight, it may be kind of hard. The Garden is reasonably close to the airport, but post-game traffic is probably not nice. I'd recommend postponing travel until next day. Also, you're probably not going to be able to attend the game dragging around your luggage.
In any case, the 1 day you have left may be perfectly sufficient for sightseeing around Boston -- it's not a big city. Also, late December is not the best weather for sightseeing on foot . I recommend the Freedom Trail, which should give you a nice view of the historic areas. Make sure not to miss the fireworks on New Year's Eve -- they shoot them from a barge in the harbor.