Cloudship

Looks like I may be stuck having to find overnight parking this saturday near the Back Bay Hilton. They get over $40 a night in their garage, which I would much rather not pay. But I wont have time to drive around looking for the elusive non-resident overnight spot, and cant take the time to go park somewhere way off and take transit back to the hotel. So I need ot be in that general area.

Any suggestions? This is a weekend (Saturday) night.

lo2e

Boston is notorious for super expensive parking, but here's a site that might be helpful to find the best deal near the Hilton - search "By Neighborhood" and select Back Bay: http://boston.bestparking.com/index.php

Out of my Element

How late are you getting there and how early are you leaving?

Meters stop at 8PM, so if you get to one at 6PM you can fill it for two hours ($2.50) and then leave it overnight (make sure you're not in a street sweeping zone or snow emergency area before a storm -- most places are ok). Sunday is free parking nearly every street space (again, check the signs/meters) meter, so you'll be ok then. These meters are not elusive, Boylston Street is full of them as are the cross streets.

ONE IMPORTANT QUALIFICATION!

There are meters in "Resident Parking" areas. Those you CANNOT park in over night (most of those will be south and southwest of the Hilton, or over on Commonwealth Ave). They will be well signed, so beware.

Otherwise, the garage that you enter on Dalton street, near Boylston (to the right of Summer Shack as you face it), is usually the cheapest in the area, although I've never looked at their overnight pricing.

User Name

There are two underground lots that offer cheaper weekend rates. The one nearest the Hilton is Boston Common garage (about 10 minutes walk - I've done this many times) and the other being Garage at Post Office square (no good for you but mentioned for sake of completeness).

Blumie

Neither of these garages is convenient to the OP's hotel.

JY1024

I've never parked there, but there's an underground garage beneath Christian Science park, right? Does that become a pay garage open to the public when they don't have services/events?

User Name

That's subjective. I consider the Boston Common garage ok for this - as I mentioned I have done this before many times. I have a small suitcase on wheels and enjoy the walk down Newbury St and save a lot of money by doing it. I was clear about the length of the walk in my post.

Cloudship

10 minutes from the Common garage? You must walk awfully fast. PO Square is way off, you can find other garages just as accessible to transit for better rates. Correction - they do offer good weekend rates there.

I am just going to suck it up and use the Dalton St. garage. The whole point is something really close, so that I can quickly run over and get the car and be in front of the hotel in 10 minutes.

Dm84

A lot of the streets in Back Bay (especially Boylston St) have street sweeping from 2am-6am, with no day of the week specified. It seems like a deliberate strategy to keep people from parking on the street overnight.

Out of my Element

From the Boston Common garage to the Back Bay Hilton is 1.2 miles, walking, per Google maps. That's taking Boylston street all the way, although Newbury would be prettier, and no longer. It's $11 there, if you enter after 4PM on a weeknight and leave by 8AM

cacic

Parking Garage at St. James Avenue (between Arlington and Berkeley) has a coupon for $25 for 24-hour parking.

http://boston.centralparking.com/Bos...e-Parking.html

Cloudship

Weekend rates are, I think, higher. It is also still a significant enough walk that at that point I might as well just park somewhere distant and transit in. Which was out of the question this time anyways.

I ended up just paying out for the Dalton St. garage - $32 bucks and there wasnt even an event going on. But, it was convenient and no hassles getting to the front door.

Out of my Element

Weekends entering after 6AM on Sat or Sunday, leaving by 8AM the next day is $11. $22 for Sat thru Monday. But I wasn't recommending it, I was pointing out the distance.

Still think you should have gone for on-street parking, but glad it worked out for you.

tkey75

Edit - finished reading and saw the OP has come and gone. And I had free on street parking for him three blocks away. Oh well.