Got the travel bug? Senior day trips can mitigate the peace and quiet of living in Maine. In the height of summer’s hustle and bustle it can be fun to take a trip to the city. Not Portland – Boston!
Start your planning by checking with your local library. There are often senior passes (senior day trips or just visitor passes) available for museums, gardens, and historical sites. Ask about maps and guidebooks as well. You don’t necessarily need to take a guidebook ona senior day trip. But reading up beforehand can give you a better understanding of what you might want to see and do.
You can begin the day at the Portland Transportation Center, leaving Portland at 8 a.m. on the Concord Coach bus, arriving in South Station. On this ride you can enjoy the scenery or take a nap; it is a good time to relax before the day ahead. You can also take the Amtrak Downeaster train at 8 am for a two hour ride to Boston’s North Station.
Senior Day Trips include planning
Senior day trips should include planning for plenty of rest stops and bathroom breaks. Both the bus and train have facilities on board, as well as at the stations. Make sure you’ve dressed in layers, have comfortable shoes and sunscreen, and have a hat available. If you have a small pack, bring it to hold a snack and water bottle, plus your return tickets!
Photo: Faneuil Hall, Food Tours Boston. That might be a fun senior day trip
You arrive at South Station at 10:30am, where the scenery has changed from the woods of Maine to the towering buildings of Boston. Once at South Station, it is a 15 minute walk or 5 minute subway ride to Faneuil Hall, a historical site, meeting point and tourist hotspot marketplace. There you can grab a snack at Quincy Market before heading on to bigger attractions.
Boston is well-known for its museums, and from Faneuil Hall it’s only a twenty minute taxi or a quick MTA Green Line ride to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts—one of the largest museums in the U.S. and home to over 450,000 works of art. If your taste is more modern, the Silver Line transit runs right out of South Station to the waterfront, where you can visit The Institute of Contemporary Art.
If you get off at South Station feeling like it’s time to stretch your legs, it is a short, restaurant-filled walk to the waterfront. There are high end restaurants like Trade or Rumba, but no shortage of hole in the wall places that offer a mellow vibe. If you’d prefer lunch after a stroll, Joe’s American Bar and Grill on the waterfront is a local favorite.
Once lunch has been had, it’s time for sightseeing. There are many attractions in the waterfront, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the famous New England Aquarium, visited by over 1.3 million visitors a year. With many options for senior day trips entertainment, the day will fly by before it’s time to make your way back to North or South Station and curl up on the bus or train ride home.