Boston or San Diego?

Never been to Boston so I don't have an opinion on which is better. Here's a few points of interest about SD from my perspective though...

In San Diego County, you can hit the beach, desert, and mountains within an hour. There's a lot more to see than just the beach if you're willing to drive a bit.

I'm kinda surprised to hear a few locals saying to say/visit the Gaslamp. Simply, the Gaslamp is terrible (to me). I don't think it represents San Diego at all and a lot of people are under the assumption that they don't need a car if their staying downtown. The area is walkable, but you'd be pretty limited.

Balboa Park is the greatest thing we have to offer, so make that a priority if you come.

Beer wise you can't go wrong and it's at the point where anywhere in the county that serves food will still have some local kick ass beers on. As a community we've done really well about making our city a beer tourism destination and it seems like everyone's gotten on board.

 

Oh jeez, I'm embarrassed. Totally misread where you were from. Have fun on the 1st or 2nd coast!

 

I've never been to Boston, so excuse me when l ask what, "...at risk of losing my permit to live here" means?

 

Oh I totally forgot Beervana. If you can be here for Beervana that would be amazing. It's not in Boston but is a great fest.

Honestly, I don't see how "beer" can decide. The beer is great either place...choose the place you want to go.

 

The weather IS perfect, year round. It is also the same most of the time. For me, I love the variety of weather that I have to weather here on the East Coast. I love San Diego and have for many years. It is a great place to visit, the zoo is amazing, and obviously the beer scene has gone haywire. Boston or San Diego? If you are a history buff, then Boston. San Diego is a bit of everything, but Boston is old, compact, and a piece of the old world alive in America! Either way, you cannot lose.

 

Nope, didn't mention Cackalacky at all.

 

For your next trip after this trip you should consider Fort Collins / Boulder/ Denver Area. In the summer, to escape the humidity of Wisconsin. Or in the winter, when we are 10-15 degrees warmer and rarely have a lot of snow on the ground.

Of those 2, I would choose San Diego because it's more different than Wisconsin geographically. But I think you'd have fun either way.

 

I just moved to Denver from Boston. And I really dig the San Diego scene... so... I see the problem here.

If you want to do East Coast - my total recommendation is to scope out Killington VT"s Brewfest in 2016. It's usually the first weekend in October. Stay at the Killington Grand - then if you want to head to Burlington - stay there 2-3 nights. Then - finish in Boston!

Foliage, great beers, festivals, fun!

 

I would say skip Boston area and head on up to Vermont.

 

You wouldn't need that long but that would make for a great trip. 2 days in each state -- staying in Boston , Portland, and Waterbury or Burlngton or Montperlier areas would be plenty of time. Could do it in 4 and hit everything.

 

Yes, definitely.

 

Plymouth..eyeing British Beer company

 

thank you

 

The beer is GREAT, the pizza is POOR

 

Go to Ghent & Bruges Belgium, mussles and fries with a great belgian beer and historic towns

 

San Diego for sure. From Balboa park to the Sunset Cliffs its hard to beat. Like someone else said, Orange county is only an hour and half away too.

While your there, don't forget to fill up and send me some growlers from Tool box ; )

 

Since this is your 10th anniversary trip, what is your spouses opinion on the two options? Does your spouse want to go to a city and stay in the immediate area? After a flight, time zone change, etc is your spouse ready to be in a car driving around for hours? Is your spouse interested in packing and unpacking multiple times during the trip as you relocate to various cities? I think these are the questions you should let us know so better recommendations can be made.

Clearly from my questions I lean to the SD option. As someone else noted in this thread, SF and SD really have very little to do with each other. My wife and I spent two weeks in CA for our 10 anniversary last year. In fact last night she sent me a text of a photo she took of me at Bootleggers enjoying a Knuckle Sandwich and said "That is exactly where you were last year at this very moment" (yeah, it made me cry a little bit on the inside). We spent a 4 or so days in the Anaheim ("business"), made a mad dash to Sonoma/Napa and stayed there for 5 days. We then did a late night, insane drive from Napa to SD where we stayed for 5 days. She actually planned the trip and beer did not influence the decisions, although I was searching away in the background finding all the awesome places we were going to go. More than once she would drive into the Russian River parking lot and ask if I wanted to dine there. The key here is to make the trip about your anniversary, with a lot of contingency planning in the background, lol.

Having said all that, she definitively enjoyed SD more than the other areas of CA. She is not a beach person however she really, really enjoyed Coronado Island and particularly enjoyed staying at Hotel Del Coronado. The hotel is nice but a bit busy with foot traffic of non-guests wandering around. I did enjoy its proximity to Coronado Brewing which has really great food and the beer there certainly makes you forget about the shelf turds in the rest of the country. Additionally I enjoyed the proximity to Gaslamp Quarter, Zoo, Airport, etc. I have spent a lot of time in the greater LA, SF and SD areas and find SD to be so much more easy to navigate.

As for Boston, I literally try to get out of as many business meetings there as possible. VT, NH and ME are nice however I just never really found anything favorable about Boston. As far as a 10th anniversary, a tour of VT, NH and ME based out of one of those cities would seem ideal to me. Maybe do a day trip and hit the Boston area powerhouses of beer if you need to do so? Depending upon your local airport and airlines, Portland ME is very reasonable and you get to avoid Boston Logan airport.

 

Absolutely. The drive from the Boston area to Burlington, VT is about 3.5 to 4 hours. You could spend a couple days in each state. Definitely set aside a Friday or Saturday to visit Treehouse out in Monson, MA. Then head up through VT, stopping at Hill Farmstead and going to Burlington to enjoy Lake Champlain and pick up some Lawson's and a case of Heady Topper. You could then head East into Maine and visit Maine Beer Co and whatever else tickles your fancy before returning to Boston through NH.

 

Ah...if you live in MA we shouldn't bash or be critical of anything connected with the area. So for instance... if I admit in public that I like the St. Louis Cardinals as much or more than the Red Sox, my citizenship may get revoked. Heaven forbid I admit I am a Wisconsin Badger fan and a closet admirer of the Packers... So sarcastic comment about the attitudes of us natives.