Anything to do at Summerville,MA?
 

Will be in Sumemrville,MA outside of Boston i think, i know Boston a little bit, but not Summerville, is there anything to do there, is this a safe place?

any suggestions are welcome.

Al

They kill people just for spelling Sommerville wrong, so be careful! (It has been referred to in a derogatory fashion as Scumerville). Actually, just kidding, and there's nothing wrong with the city. It borders on Boston and Cambrdige, and in addition to its own fine restaurants, bars and shopping, you may be minutes away from Boston or Cambridge. Where will you be staying?

Ah, that's SOMERVILLE, guys. And it's a perfectly safe middle-class suburb adjoining Cambridge.

Somerville (pronounced 'summahvul') is a great city. It's one of the most densely populated cities in the country--it's chock-a-block full of streets with 3-deckers--with a great mix of college-age people, 1st-generation immigrants from all over the world, Irish families who have been in Somerville since the 1920s, and just about any other category you can name.

Rather than having a single center, Somerville has a half-dozen or more focal points, of which the liveliest is Davis Square. In Davis Square, you'll find one of the Boston area's best Irish bars (the Burren) and Barbeque joints (Redbones), plus a great assortment of other restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and places to hang out. You don't need a car: Davis Sq is on the T (Boston's transit system).

Of course, you might be stuck in the Holiday Inn in Somerville, which is 100% useless: ugly and within walking distance of absolutely nothing.

Red Bones BBQ - you can walk from the Davis Square T stop. Diet one week before and after before going. http://www.redbonesbbq.com/

I've lived in Somerville and have absolutely nothing against the town. But I would still say that if you haven't spent much time in Boston or Cambridge, you might be better off there than in Somerville. Agree that the Holiday Inn is in just a completely uninteresting location.

Big UH OH! My company loves Holiday Inns! If it is just "couple of blocks" away from Cambridge, I might go visit there.

Al

If you must stay in a Boston-area Holiday Inn, at least use the Government Center (Boston) HI. At the foot of Beacon Hill, nice area to stroll around.

Speaking as your attorney, you would do well to ditch your current employer and find one who puts you up in more civilized digs.

The Government Center HI Select is a nice place, and the Mediterranean restaurant across the street is very nice for a quick bite to eat if you don't have time to go elsewhere.

If work is taking you downtown and the GovtCtr site is too expensive, then I'd stay at the Brookline HI instead of the Somerville one every time.

Avoid the HI Expresses. Some of them are converted HoJos, and the Cambridge one is in an equally uninteresting and inconvenient location as the Somerville HI Select.

Ah, Somerville. It's been gentrified over the years. Residents were called Somervites - fill in your favorite joke here.

Davis Square is also home to... the FIRST AND ORIGINAL Steve's Ice Cream shop.

That being said, the thing I like best about Somerville is that it is only a couple of subway stops from Harvard Square.

Harvard Square is a fun place. Best in the summer time on a Friday or Saturday night, when the street performers are everywhere. All the jugglers and magicians are terrific.

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

The Holiday Inn in Somerville is walking distance (spooky but generally considered safe) from Rauxa, a Spanish-style restaurant and cava bar that was the site of a few informal FT gatherings this summer. I discover that Rauxa has become a member of Mileage Plus Dining in the last couple months as well.

I second Rauxa. AnnaS and I met there every Wednesday when we were stationed in the Boston area this summer. We were known by the locals as "the people from the cult."

On Wednesday nights only, they serve tapas (and only at the bar). It's a fun place to meet the locals - if you do sit at the bar, look for Suzanne and Queen Mary, and tell them I said hello.

Somerville - perhaps it has improved since the late seventies when the local joke was about the 5 alarm fire that burned most of Somervile causing several hundred dollars in damage.

I was a Somerville resident 1995-1998 (Brastow Avenue, Spring Hill). The Holiday Inn is not in a very exciting part of town -- just over the line from the more rough-and-tumble part of Charlestown. Technically, it is close to Cambridge -- were you to traverse a railyard, you'd be in East Cambridge.

It is definitely a city of contrasts: the areas near Cambridge & Davis Square have gentrified mightily; Winter Hill and East Somerville are still strong ethnic enclaves (though the ethnicities change over time); the area around Assembly Square -- a former Ford auto plant, now a shopping mall -- is quite commercial and ugly.

From the Holiday Inn, a quick cab ride or the 86 bus (direction: Harvard Sq./Cleveland Circle) gets you to interesting places. To get to Davis Square, a cab is your best bet. The bus will take you past the following sites (in a relatively efficient and cheap manner):

Union Square: Davis Sq's up-and-coming sibling. There's a nice Portugese place on Bow St. there that serves a hearty brunch.

Beacon Street: by the "Wine and Cheese Cask." The restaurant Dali is located at this corner, a great place for sangria, tapas, etc. Can often involve a long wait for a table but is worth it. Note that this is not the same Beacon Street as the one in Back Bay.

Harvard Square: A fine destination, always plenty going on, almost always easy to get a cab back to your origin.

A quick cab ride will also take you to the nicer part of Charlestown, a great place to walk around. The original Olives restaurant is there and is an extremely nice (noisy) place for a large meal.

Well this is the HI they have put me in, I can always change them when I get there, but am I going to be in a hell hole?
HOLIDAY INN
BOSTON SOMERVILLE
30 WASHINGTON ST
Somerville, MA 02143.
If there is something like Hampton Inns I'll probably move there instead, I stayed in Shearton last time in Boston, it was nice, but it is kinda outside of Boston off I-93 I believe.

Al