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During your Boston vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Nichols House Museum
A stroll around Beacon Hill can leave visitors wishing to know what the stately homes look like inside. This is one of the only places to satisfy your curiosity. This 1804 home is decorated with beautiful antique furnishings collected by several generations of the Nichols family. Its most prominent occupant, Rose Standish Nichols, was a suffragist and a pioneering landscape designer. Her legacy includes not just family heirlooms but objects she brought back from her many travels. Open days may vary, so call ahead.
Franklin Park Zoo
The Franklin Park Zoo is becoming more and more enjoyable -- for animals as well as people. From June to September, you can visit the popular, colorful Butterfly Landing enclosure. On the Outback Trail, you can see kangaroos, wallabies, emus, and cockatoos. Serengeti Crossing is home to zebras, ibex, ostriches, and wildebeests. Other installations house cheetahs, lions, snow leopards, and African wild dogs. The African Tropical Forest exhibit is a sprawling complex where you'll see more than 50 species of animals. This is the domain of the Western lowland gorillas, which appear to be roaming free in an approximation of their natural habitat. If you're traveling with animal-mad youngsters, the Children's Zoo is both entertaining and educational.Schedule at least half a day for a visit to the zoo. Franklin Park is 40 minutes from downtown by public transportation, and the walk from the main gate and parking area to the entrance is fairly long, especially for those with little legs.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was an incorrigible individualist long before strong-willed behavior was acceptable for women in polite Boston society, and her forcefulness paid off for art lovers. "Mrs. Jack" designed her exquisite home in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palace and filled it with European, American, and Asian painting and sculpture, many pieces chosen with the help of her friend and protégé Bernard Berenson. You'll see works by Titian, Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt, Matisse, and Mrs. Gardner's friends James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Titian's magnificent Europa, which many scholars consider his finest work, is one of the most important Renaissance paintings in the United States. In my casual poll of local travel experts, the Gardner was the most popular museum.The building, which opened to the public after Mrs. Gardner's death, holds a glorious hodgepodge of furniture and architectural details imported from European churches and palaces. The pièce de résistance is the magnificent sky-lit courtyard, filled year-round with fresh flowers from the museum greenhouse. Although the terms of Mrs. Gardner's will forbid changing the arrangement of the museum's content, there has been some evolution: A special exhibition gallery features two or three changing shows a year, often by contemporary artists in residence.They have a concert series (tel. 617/734-1359). The cafe serves lunch and desserts, and there's an excellent gift shop.
Holiday Inn Express BOSTON
The Holiday Inn Express Hotel Boston is the most affordable and economical hotel located two miles from downtown Boston and five miles from Logan International Airport. Our hotel also offers 24-hour complimentary transportation to/from Logan International Airport and Black Falcon Pier. We are also convenient to many area companies and attractions including: China Town, the JFK Museum & Library, Theater District and the Museum of Fine Arts. Hotel features include complimentary continental ...
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