Upper East Coast
Just back from a trip through Boston, Cape Cod and NYC!
First visit to those places for me.
Sharing some experience for users who may be visiting the area.
Boston
Boston is a more open and spaced-out city (not super urban like NYC, SG, HK, etc.) which can be a nice break for us city folks as it is still fairly convenient to get around and have enough creature comforts. reminds me of cities in Australia but nicer and more interesting IMO.
We got around on a combination of
The T (train network that operates both above and under ground) and a lot of walking! Bought the 7-day pass and felt we used it sufficiently within 3-days to cover the cost.
Boston is a very walkable city. We did the Freedom Trail covering locations and history leading up to the American War of Independence. It was 20+km of walking and easy to follow with the red bricks/markers embedded onto the pavements and pedestrain crossing. Suggest visitors to obtain the Boston Pass for entry to all the small museums along the way - otherwise it is individual ticket for each museum.
Start early and you can break for lunch/coffee/snacks anywhere along the way.
Popular, particularly with Asian tourists, are visits to the various universities like Harvard and MIT. Harvard has a couple of museums of their own which are worth visiting if time permits.
Generally people we encountered were well-mannered, friendly and just genuinely nice.
Great seafood, of course!
Cape Cod
This leg of the trip was to visit relatives based there. The Cape is a summer destination especially for the wealthy with their summer houses. It was very quiet as we visited in the "wrong" season.
It's the home town of John F Kennedy so there is a small museum dedicated to him. The Kennedies have a large family compound in one of the coastal area. Impossible to get around at all without a vehicle as the nearest
anything is 15-20 minutes walk.
Couple of popular outlying islands to visit are Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket - "millionaire's islands". We did a day trip to Nantucket and cycled 20-miles along bike trails on eastern part of the island and rode pass many of the beautiful millionaire summer houses and also a golf course along the coast featuring a functioning lighthouse!
As with Boston, fantastic seafood!
New York City
The Big Apple, the city that never sleeps... Anything and everything goes in this cosmopolitan, dynamic, energetic place.
We walked an average 10km at least each of the 5 full days we were there and only barely covered a quarter of Manhattan island. So much to see, do, eat and buy there. I will suggest exploring the city with the ubiquitous Citi-bikes to cover more area.
Some of the best things to see in NYC are actually
FREE!
1. Central Park
2. Grand Central Station
3. New York Public Library
4. World Trade Center Memorial
5. Brooklyn/Manhattan bridges
6. Hudson Park
7. High-Line
8. Times Square
9. Bryant Park
10. The countless churches and places of worship like St. Patrick's Cathedral
11. ...more that I haven't explored myself
One funny suggestion is to try the chinese food, especially in and around chinatown - it's REALLY good, comparable to anything we can find in Asia except a little pricey (by SG standards).
The Metropolitan Museum has an amazing collection of historical artifacts and art from nearly all over the world. It takes
at least 3hrs just to quickly browse through each gallery - better to cater more time especially if you are a fan of history. MoMA was interesting too but certain galleries/exhibits got too abstract for me. We got tickets for both on Klook, instant e-ticket and cheaper than buying OTC.
The subway network is complex and can be confusing, stations can be cleaner and train frequencies higher. Each entry is ~USD3 or more. Not the most pleasant and nothing much to see which is why we limited using it to once or twice at most per day. Hotels are small and very expensive, you can consider Airbnb though it's
illegal (as how it is in SG)
As with Boston, people were far nicer and friendlier than I had expected. Better mannered than the average folks in Singapore!
It sounds cliché but NYC somehow does make one feel
the sky's the limit. Anything is possible! It was far more pleasant than I had imagined - yes the sirens are always going off, the streets are not the cleanest, you do see some homelessness and it is good to regularly keep on your guard.
But still, it's
a helluva town.