route planning in New England

We are coming to Boston in October and travelling aroung New England, are there any free route planning sites ?

We wish to find the best routes from Boston to Weston, Weston to Burlington please.

Any help would be apprecitated. many thanks

Brian Mckeown

route planning in New England

Good morning bamckeown1964,

The first thing you%26#39;ll need are addresses of where you%26#39;ll be going in Boston, Weston and Burlington. Then as a suggestion? You can use the following site for getting your estimated ';driving directions';:

http://www.mapquest.com/directions

To get zip codes for each town go to:

www.zip4.usps.com

To get a rough idea of the distance you%26#39;ll be going? As an example? I plugged in my old Boston downtown address where I used to work on Congress St in Boston and the zip is 02110 there and then I made up a common name of a street in downtown America, like Main St. or Maple St. for Weston, MA and/or Burlington, MA. Like the zip code in Weston is 02493. So the estimated distance between Boston, MA and Weston, MA is roughly 15 miles and it%26#39;s only about a 20 minute drive. Same thing with Burlington to Weston, they%26#39;re not far at all from each other! So just go to MAPQUEST and use the following zip codes and plug in your addresses and you%26#39;ll see the routes you%26#39;d take to get to each location.

Boston 02110 (as an example)

Weston 02493

Burlington 01802 or 01805

Good luck!

route planning in New England

The Mass. Turnpike, with Boston interchanges located downtown and in the Back Bay and Allston, takes you right out to Weston. You%26#39;d get off the highway at the big ';spaghetti'; interchange of the Pike, the 128/I-95 expressway, and the local Route 30. 30 crosses the southern part of town, or you could get on 128/I-95 north to Route 20, which traverses Weston more in the center. Or go east on 20 and loop back onto Route 117 west to reach the northern sector. There are three commuter-rail stations in Weston, on the Acton-Fitchburg line out of North Station.

Simply head north on 128/I-95 from Weston to get to Burlington. The gigantic Burlington Mall and its neighboring sprawl of stores, restaurants, and ';office parks'; is a can%26#39;t-miss landmark on your left. If traffic is moving you can get there in 15 minutes or less.

Spensworld is absolutely right about the quickest and easiest way - Mass Pike from Boston to Weston, Rte 95 (also known by the locals as 128) Weston to Burlington.

But if you%26#39;re going on a weekend or in the middle of the day (not M-F rush hour), instead of getting on the Mass Pike in Boston, I%26#39;d recommend -- for a really pretty view -- go on Storrow or Memorial Drive for awhile and catch the Pike a little further along. Seeing the pretty parks and buildings all along the river are worth the little extra time it takes.

And between Weston and Burlington, a nice quick side trip off the highway is Lexington - historic and pretty.

Have fun!

Hello,

If you are coming to Boston in early-mid October you should try to take a day to drive out to the Berkshires region to see the colorful autumn foliage. Take Route 2 west for a very beautiful scenic route, all the way to North Adams (Probably 3 hours if you make stops). Then, drive south on Route 7 through Berkshire County. (This will take you through the town of Cheshire, Massachusetts by the way, which has a lake with a walking/cycling trail next to it.) Connect to Route 20 east in Pittsfield, and follow the signs to the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) east to Boston. It will take you most of the day but it is very much worth the time in the car to see some of the most brilliant foliage you will ever see! There are many places to stop for meals and photo ops along the way.

Mapquest is probably the best place to download free maps and routes. Also Yahoo Maps.

Have a great trip.