Favorite Shopping

In early 2006, The New York Times "Boston Correspondent's Guide" named Newbury Street as its favorite shopping area. The article stated that Newbury Street is "...probably de rigueur for an acquisitively inclined visitor to Boston. It is colorful, trendy, and eclectic, with establishments selling everything from flowers to French fashion, Elizabethan end tables to epicurean delicacies. Shops are layered on three or four stories of attractive old buildings."

TRAVEL FOR THE 50+ WOMAN ...
our tour selection is diverse, innovative and personal.

Travel By-The-Book : Senior Women's Travel : Favorite Cities : Theatre Tours
Travel by Knife & Fork : Unique Trips

BOSTON BEYOND THE FREEDOM TRAIL…

June & October 2012

Our Boston tour offers the best of Boston. It’s history, art, architecture, and literature in a jam packed few days.

And since this is SWT Tours, we include a couple of culinary events plus our take on contemporary Boston dining a la Barbara Lynch.

Of course, if you are a baseball fan, you’ll want to schedule a Red Sox game, if they are in town.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF OUR TOUR:
…Most tours are private tours for our group only
…Boston by Slide. Watch in comfort. History from the Colonial Period to Contemporary
…Art: Be dazzled by Museum of Fine Arts Art of the America’s new wing
…Literary Giants & the Boston connection

Statues of Famous Boston Figures - Back Bay

Our Itinerary:

Boston's Public Garden

Day 1
Arrive in Boston, transfer on your own to our hotel. Activity will depend on Group arrival time

Afternoon: Orientation with a lecture/slide presentation on Boston history: The Colonial Period, Federal, Victorian right up to the Contemporary.

Evening: Boston Harbor Boat Cruise created by the Boston Society of Architects. Enjoy sweeping views of the Boston Harbor and enjoy a lecture on Boston architecture.

North Bridge in Concord, site of "the shot heard 'round the world"

Day 2
GREAT WOMEN OF BOSTON…WALKING TOUR FOCUSES ON BOSTON’S AMAZING WOMEN INCLUDING Abigail Adams, feisty wife of president John Adams; Lucy Stone, a leader of the suffrage movement and the promoter of the novel concept that women could keep their maiden name; art benefactor, Isabella Stewart Gardiner plus a long list of women pacesetters.

Afternoon: Literary Landmarks…homes and haunts of the great Victorian writers: Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, James, Longfellow. Visit Boston Public Library …This Florentine Renaissance Charles McKim monumental building has many architectural wonders to astound you from Daniel Chester French’s massive bronze doors; the Venetian palace inspired Delivery Room ;the 3rd floor John Singer Sargeant multi-panelled mural and the sweeping Viennese marble staircase. Boston Athenaeum…a private member library housed in a magnificent building on Beacon Street. It is America’s oldest cultural institution and has an impressive art collection that includes works by John Singer Sargent and Gilbert Stuart.

Sign at Concord Cemetery

Plus George Washington’s personal collection Dinner 2012 style : not your regular sit down but a food sampling that may be in more than one venue. Barbara Lynch’s two mini-restaurants B&G Oysters:oyster bar with a few seafood mains; followed by her Butcher Shop :in house-made charcuterie and antipasti. Both places have a no reservation policy so we may have to limit dinner to just one or settle on a long wait.

Day 3
Private tour of Lexington & Concord ( appox. 4 hours) Highlights: Lexington where 77 minuteman faced 700 British Redcoats. Visit the Buckman Tavern, meeting place of the Minuteman and the Hancock Clark House where Paul Revere alerted John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Nexr, drive to Concord to the Old North Bridge, site of the Minuteman statue and “the shot heard around the world.” Drive by homes where Nathaniel Hawthrone, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson lived. Visit the resting place of many of these writers, Authors Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery . Visit the Concord Museum that records history of the town and Walden Pond made famous by Thoreau.

Delicious Lobster Roll

Late afternoon: enjoy a walk down Newberry Street with its trendy boutiques and wide assortment of cafes and restaurants

Evening: A favorite activity on our tours is a cooking class that includes dinner. Our class will be updated New England Favorites or New England Seafood.

H.H. Richardson's Trinity Church

Day 4
Museum of Fine Arts…Art of the America’s is the MFA’S acclaimed new wing featuring art from the pre-Colombian era through the third quarter of the 20th century.

Beacon Hill Chocolate Tour walks you through this small historic neighborhood with its grand townhouses, antique shops and fashion boutiques. Plus sampling the wares of its best chocolatiers.

Secrets of Boston…a new guide book in our arsenal…we’ll pick one or two of the most off-beat suggestions to investigate. Stay tuned.

If you are into zany shopping, you’d like By the Pound where shopping for used clothing and bric a brac is sold for $1.50 a pound; $1 on each Friday.

Day 5…Check out of hotel , leave your suitcase at hotel.
Final morning activity.

Visit the Waterfront Seaport District that once was a Boston wasteland and is slowly making a bid to becoming a Boston must visit area.

Two high level venues mark what the area may become, The Institute of Contemporary Art and Louis, the fashionable boutique.

Institute of Contemporary Art is the first art museum built in Boston in a hundred years. Innovative architecture with a stunning harbor view. Avant garde art at its best.

Louis, arguably Boston’s chicest fashion store, made a bold move to the still mostly barren Waterfront District. Only time will tell if it was a smart move or foolhardy. You’ll enjoy seeing their expensive and luxury fashion and home goods.

Back to hotel and your afternoon or evening flight home or choose to stay on a day or two on your own.

Tours may be switched around in the interest of time and the schedules of tour operators.

Addendum: We will have to fit in a visit to Richardson’s Trinity Church, one of the most influential buildings of the era.

Emerald Necklace…Frederick Law Olmstead, often identified as the father of landscape architecture, created Boston’s Park System, a string of 9 green spaces identified as the Emerald Necklace. In our comings and goings, some of these parks will be identified. It’s a 7 mile hike; maps are available.

Cost: Researching costs in progress. Will post as soon as we have final costs.