Money Matters
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Update - and call out to Bostonians (Travel dilemmas - Chicago, Boston, Jekyll Island)
I I should add the good hotel prices I saw were for Chicago at the end of September
ETA @short+sassy I just noticed the hotel I got is the same one you saw on Groupon
I especially understand what you are saying. That's a big problem in NOLA also! The food in the Quarter is extremely expensive and many places are mediocre, at best. Most of the famous 4-star restaurants deserve their reputation, but it's hard on the budget to spend $100-$150/night on dinner for two, lol.
Thanks to @Xstatic3333 reminding me about the greatness of AirBnb, my H and I are leaning toward Boston, but also using some of the time to travel to nearby areas. Like a lot of you have suggested!
There are about 15-20 states that don't allow a "use it or lose it" vacation policy. Fortunately for me, Louisiana is one of them
In fact, the job I had where I tracked employee vacation time, had a "use it or lose it" policy and the people on my projects were all over the country. I had to maintain two spreadsheets...one for the employees in states that allowed "use it or lose it" and one for employees in states that did not.
Oh! And, for those states, it is based on the state the employee's worksite is in. Not where the corporate office is located.
Although I'm flexible with dates, I am tentatively planning my Boston trip for Sept. 7th (Wed.) to Sept. 13th (Tues.)
We decided to stay in Boston the whole time, but will rent a car for one day and take a day trip to NH (or similar) for fall scenery.
I'm looking at a few AirBnBs, but would really appreciate some feedback for those of you who either live in Boston or are familiar with it.
It looks like the more affordable places are in the Brookline area as well as (I'm not sure what this is called) but the area right across the bridge from "North End".
Ack! Some of the listings we just saw last night are already gone. But here is one of them:
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Boston--MA--United-States?guests=2&checkin=09/07/2016&checkout=09/13/2016&price_max=130&room_types[]=Entire+home/apt&ss_id=arrh9f5s&ss_preload=true&source=bb&s_tag=V62mfg6H
This one is in Mission Hill:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13651290?checkin=09/14/2016&checkout=09/20/2016&guests=2&s=7enLfKho
Thanks in advance! Just want to make sure I'm in (probably) a safe neighborhood that is also fairly convenient to get around.
the $112 cambridge studio looks good!
Thanks! I'll go with that one then. I apologize, I thought my links above were directly to the places I was looking at, but I see now it just takes me to the main page of my search.
https://newengland.com/seasons/fall/foliage/peak-fall-foliage-map/
Early September isn't going to give you very much leaf peeping.
Yeah, I was afraid of that. If I go later in September, it looks like the possibility improves a bit. I'll run flight and AirBnB numbers for that.
I do prefer reviews but, when the choices are slim, I don't mind taking my chances. Especially since you gave a thumbs up to the area. My H and I are pretty easy going people and not too fussy with accommodations. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself, lol.
@LillibetteV, I went rogue on your recommendations, though not by choice. It's been a roller coaster AirBnB experience.
When I checked on Sunday, there were 35 options based on my search. And it had been about that for the few days previous. But it was like, as soon as I had decided for sure on Boston, all my choices were disappearing like hotcakes...even when I pushed out my dates. By Mon. night, there were 11 options.
The place you recommended was gone shortly after I went back to look at it a second time and e-mail it to my H.
On Mon. night, we booked a place in East End (hostess accepted us) for $97/night. We loved it! The neighborhood had a NYC feel, apparently it is Boston's Little Italy, so we were assuming great restaurants, and was close to a lot of sites. It's the hostess' personal studio, but she travels a lot. Then we get an e-mail Tuesday night at 9PM (Eastern) that her work schedule had changed and she had to cancel our reservation. Really?!? And you didn't know that sooner than 9PM? Super PO'ed.
So back to the drawing board. We even started looking at private rooms, instead of "whole house/apartment". There were a couple places in Cambridge if I pushed my nightly budget out to $160. Instead, we booked a beachside studio in Revere, for $105/night. According to the description and other reviews, taking the metro line into Boston only takes about 15 minutes. So...eeekkk...I'm hoping we truly aren't too far out to be inconvenient.
Lost the NYC feel, but the neighborhood looks fine if a bit "blah". And we are only a couple blocks from the beach for a mellow and relaxing morning or evening stroll. Though it doesn't look like there is much in the way of restaurants.
Oh! Based on the "leaf" link you sent me, which was really neat, I pushed out my dates to Sept. 21-27 in order to hopefully start seeing a bit of leaf changing color on our day excursion out to NH (or similar).
As an aside, some thumbs up to AirBnB themselves. When my hostess for the first place canceled the reservation, AirBnB gave me a coupon worth 10% of the value of my booking to use for another one. So even though my second place was a bit more, plus I think one of the fees was less , I didn't have to pay anything extra.
I haven't personally hung out at Revere Beach - it's had a reputation for being a little sketchy and gross, but I've heard that in the last couple of years there has been a major push to clean it up and it's supposedly pretty nice now.
Also safety tip - don't say anywhere in Boston has a NYC feel around the locals
Lol, thanks! Maybe it is just as well then.
We did a Google view for the street we are staying on and also scrolled it down our "walk" to the beach. It didn't look alarming, though I realize that doesn't always tell the whole story. This particular hostess has two studios, including the one we are staying in, very near each other. Although I didn't read all the reviews. She has 150 reviews (total) with 4 out of 5 stars. So I'm assuming if the neighborhood and/or distance to Boston was unpleasant, I would have read comments like that.
Thanks also for the warning about the T line closing down at 12:30. Though my H and I (especially H) aren't very late night people, so I don't think it will affect us.
Bars? That close? What a strange concept, lol. I'm teasing, but there are no laws like that for NOLA. For some of the rest of Louisiana, yes, but not here or the surrounding areas.
Thanks! That's good to hear. For $100/night, but convenient to Boston, I'll take sleepy and boring, lol.
As dorky as this sounds, I'm excited there is a Dunkin' Donuts near where we are staying that is across the street from the beach. I can't start my day without a good breakfast. They are cheap and I especially like their breakfast sandwiches and iced coffees.
Dunkin' and Sonic fall into the same category for me. They're in the suburbs, but not in NOLA. I like them. But not enough to drive out to the closest one, unless I am going out to the 'burbs for something else anyway.
When discussing the DD that will be nearby, my H said, "I can finally get some maple bars." It always baffles us. For a city that fries everything, NOLA sucks at donuts.
There are usually only a few selections...rarely maple bars or strawberry frosted (both my favorites)...and the boring, plain glazed ones often leave a gross, greasy coating in my mouth.
We don't have many Starbucks either. There are two local coffeehouse chains that are everywhere.
I've heard of the Tim Horton's chain, but have never been to one.
I've heard of Tim Horton's, but none around here.
Love DD, but the one right by my house sucks....:( Tried to go today an hour after opening and nothing on display.