Getting Here

Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), run by the Massachusetts Port Authority, or Massport, sits in East Boston, just across the harbor from downtown. The Blue Line, the Silver Line SL1, Logan Express buses and water taxis all connect it to the city.

Two other airports sell themselves as Boston. Providence’s T.F. Green (PVD), in Rhode Island, has its own Commuter Rail station on the Providence/Stoughton Line: trains to South Station take about 1½ hours (Zone 9, $12.75) but run only a few times a day, so match the flight to the timetable; Amtrak stops downtown at Providence station. Manchester–Boston Regional (MHT), in New Hampshire, has no train. Greyhound’s Manchester–Boston buses stop at the terminal, 1 Airport Road, and reach South Station in about an hour, from about $14.

Taxis wait at stands on the Arrivals level of Terminals A, B, C and E, with dispatchers on hand. The meter runs $2.60 for the first seventh of a mile and 40 cents for each seventh after that, plus $28 an hour stuck in traffic, and tolls are extra. Meet Boston, the city’s visitors bureau, puts a typical fare from Logan to downtown at $30–$40 including fees. Heading to the airport, the passenger also pays a $2.75 toll.

Uber and Lyft pick up only in marked ride-app areas. For Terminals A, C and E, follow the Ride App signs to the Central Parking Garage; for Terminal B, the pickup is on Level 2 (Departures) of the Terminal B Parking Garage. Request the car once you have your bags, with your terminal as the pickup point. Meet Boston puts a typical fare downtown at $20–$35, depending on traffic and demand; Massport charges a $5.50 fee on a standard ride-app trip and $1.50 per party on a shared ride.

In between, Uber Shuttle and Lyft Shuttle run scheduled shared rides from the terminal curb for under $20 a person, stopping at North Station, Kenmore Square, Boston University, Harvard, Central and Kendall squares, MIT, Porter Square and Lechmere. Neither runs around the clock, so book and check times in the app.

Every intercity carrier uses the South Station Bus Terminal, 700 Atlantic Avenue, on the upper level behind the train station and connected indoors to the concourse, with the Red Line, Silver Line, Commuter Rail and Amtrak steps away. Greyhound and FlixBus run to New York (Greyhound also to Albany and Montreal), Peter Pan to New York, Providence and Albany, Megabus to New York and Burlington, Concord Coach to Portland and the rest of Maine and New Hampshire, C&J to Portsmouth and Dover, Dartmouth Coach to Hanover, Plymouth & Brockton to Hyannis and Woods Hole, Boston Express to Nashua and Manchester, and DATTCO, in summer, to Newport. C&J, Concord Coach, Dartmouth Coach and Plymouth & Brockton also call at Logan, which saves a trip downtown if you are heading straight out of the city.

Three interstates do the heavy lifting. I-90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, runs east from the New York line into downtown and through the Ted Williams Tunnel to Logan. I-93 runs north-south through the center, much of it underground. I-95 loops around the western suburbs as Route 128.

Massachusetts tolls are all-electronic, and toll roads take no cash. You will pay on the Pike, the Tobin Bridge and the harbor tunnels. Any state’s E-ZPass works; without one, cameras read your plate and a bill is mailed to the registered owner. Renting? Ask how tolls are billed.

Driving a moving truck or tall van? Storrow Drive, Memorial Drive and Soldiers Field Road are cars-only riverside parkways with bridges too low for a truck, and a truck gets wedged under one every September anyway.