All Things Travel: Two New Boston Attractions
BOSTON (CBS) - Boston has two new attractions that will bring tourists downtown, and they are as different as night and day.
The new Boston Hostel, located on Stuart Street and a five minute walk from South Station, is a completely renovated building with a total of 480 beds. The new Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is also a five minute walk from South Station in the other direction on the Congress Street Bridge.
You can get a bed at the Hostel for about $45 a night with a Youth Hostel Federation membership and reservation. It will cost you $25 to get into the new Tea Party exhibit that officially opens tomorrow.
They appeal to different audiences, and in their own right, they both offer good value for the visiting tourists.
The ships and museum feature replicas of The Beaver and The Eleanor where the Patriots threw tea chests into Boston Harbor rather than pay the hated Tea Tax. The Tea Party, in 1773, led up to the American Revolution. Live actors blend in with some very good video to bring the story to life.
Of course, there is a Tea Room for an extra price and a gift ship that may have the largest selection of tea in Boston. When Historic Tours of America could not get financing through bank channels, they turned to the city and the Convention Center Authority for help.
The Tea Party Ship is open from 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week. It will also be available for private functions and weddings in the evening.
The Boston Hostel is open 24 hours a day to receive guests, most of whom will be arriving from New York and other places by bus.
There is a free breakfast and food available at other times in a very airy dining room with long tables and brightly colored chairs to meet other travelers. There is a laundry, a quiet area to relax, lockers to store your belongings and a free internet zone.
Hosteling International-Boston has the best interior tourism and transportation signing in the city for its guests. Large signs all over the building provide tourist and transportation information. After 28 years in a building near the Fenway, a number of Boston financial institutions came together to make the new hostel a reality. The average stay is expected to be 2.5 days in Boston.
The youth hostel method of travel began in Germany in 1909. The first U.S. hostel was opened in Northfield, Massachusetts in 1934 by founders Isabel and Monroe Smith who went on to create the nonprofit organization, Youth Hostels.
Bob Weiss' All Things Travel reports can be heard on WBZ News Radio
