If you follow me on Instagram you already know that Michael and I spent 5 days in Boston last week, and had the most amazing time! We flew Spirit there and back and had such a great experience with the airline. Several of you DM’d me actually asking if I would do a post about our experience with Spirit. So I will be sharing a 100% honest Spirit Airlines review with y’all in today’s post, as well as share my Boston travel guide (including a review of our stay at Four Seasons Boston!). Before we get started though, I wanted to say thank you SO much to everyone who shared their Boston recommendations with me! You guys made planning this trip SO easy and we were beyond pleased with each place we tried from your recommendations! I’m so excited to share some of our favorite parts of the city with y’all.
outfit details found here
Spirit Airlines Review
So, first, let’s talk about Spirit Airlines! And let’s just call out the elephant in the room before we get started – I am well aware of the first thoughts that pop into your head when you think of Spirit. To be honest, up until this past trip and doing some research to learn about their recent updates/upgrades, I had similar thoughts. Spirit was also well aware of the reputation they had, and they are doing everything they can to change that, and give their customers the best travel experience possible. And honestly, our flights to and from Boston were completely seamless, comfortable, and issue-free!
If you don’t know anything about Spirit Airlines, they are known for offering the lowest total price to the places they fly, on average much lower than other airlines. Spirit starts you off with an unbundled “A la Smarte” way to travel. This allows you to pay only for the options you choose – like bags, seat assignments and refreshments – the things other airlines automatically include in their ticket prices. So, if you are heading somewhere just for a one night stay and you only need a backpack (personal item), your ticket price will not include the price of a checked or carry on bag, because you don’t need that! When you buy a ticket with Spirit, you’re buying the bare minimum – the ticket price does not include checked bags or food/drink. Once you buy your ticket, you can add on from there based on what you need! Spirit operates more than 500 daily flights to 67 destinations in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, and they are continuing to add new destinations!
Now, here are a few recent updates you might not be aware of about Spirit. They airline now has an app that allows you to check-in for your flight ahead of time, and get your boarding pass on your phone. Our check-in experience both in the Denver Airport and Boston was super easy. There happened to be no lines and the agents who helped us were friendly, professional and efficient. They are also currently in the process of adding WIFI to their planes within the next year!
If you have travel coming up and you’re wanting to save money on your flight, I highly recommend looking into Spirit! This is a super budget-friendly way to travel and still have a wonderful flight experience at the same time. We will be taking 3 more trips with Spirit over the next several months so stay tuned for more updates + reviews about the airline! Again, our flights to and from Boston were nothing but easy, clean, quick, and issue-free.
Four Seasons Boston Review
Okay, now onto our trip to Boston! We stayed at Four Seasons Boston which I can honestly say is one of my favorite hotels we have ever stayed at – for SO many reasons. If you’re coming to Boston soon, I highly recommend staying at this beautiful hotel. It’s in the most convenient location right across from the Boston Public Gardens, the staff is incredibly helpful and friendly, the rooms are gorgeous, and amenities are top notch.
We ate dinner at the Bristol restaurant on our first night in Boston (the restaurant in the Four Seasons) and it was amazing! Some of the best scallops I have ever had, and the atmosphere is romantic and intimate without being too formal. Their brunch also looked incredible and I’d love to try it when we come back.
Like I mentioned above, our room at the Four Seasons was stunning and so comfortable. We had a view right into the gardens, a massive TV, super comfortable bed with feather pillows, and a stunning bathroom with a marble shower and tub. This might seem like a minor detail but the house keeping services at Four Seasons was the best I’ve ever experienced. They even folded any clothes we left out, and found the dirty clothes we had and placed them in a laundry bag! That level of attention to detail makes all the difference in my opinion.
(in the lobby of the FS hotel) outfit details here
outfit details here
We also used the gym at the hotel which was a great size and everything was clean and felt very new. Most hotel gyms are pretty sub-par and this one far exceeded my expectations (they also have an indoor lap pool!). FS Boston also has a complimentary car that will take you anywhere within 2 miles of the hotel for free. Pretty much everywhere we went was within two miles so if we didn’t want to walk (ie if I was wearing heels to dinner haha) we definitely took advantage of that. Another special touch the FS Boston offers: they have a different homemade coffee cake or bread out in the lobby every afternoon! We had lemon poppy seed, cinnamon coffee cake, and a zucchini bread during our stay. And all were SO yummy!
Boston Travel Guide
Now onto some of my favorite things we did in Boston! I don’t even know where to start because there is SO much to see and do in this city. We both truly fell in love with it and definitely want to come back and see it in the fall, and check more things off of our list! (We didn’t get to go to a Sox game while we were there bc they were out of town for most of our stay).
Boston Travel Guide: Things to do
- Freedom Trail Walk – we did this on our first full day in Boston and I’m so glad we did. It’s a 2.5 mile walk (ended up being a lot longer than this lol but that’s what it says online) that takes you around a big portion of the city and shows you the most historical spots (ie: Paul Revere’s House, USS Constitution, cemeteries where people like John Hancock were buried, and so much more). Boston is full of incredible history so you dn’t want to miss this walk! We did not do the paid tour, but that’s an option if you want a tour guide. I’m glad we did it on our first day because it kind of helped us get our bearings about the city and took us by a lot of places I knew we’d want to try later in the trip. This probably goes without saying but…make sure you wear comfortable shoes when you do this walk!
- Tour Harvard – such a pretty campus and in a really cool part of the city! We also walked over to see the football stadium while we were here!
- Aquarium – Boston has an amazing aquarium and I’m so glad we got to see it. We bought the tickets that had an aquarium pass and an IMAX ticket and saw the movie Oceans! It was a really fun and cool experience!
- Seaport district – this is a really fun area of Boston to walk around that’s right on the water. There’s a lot of fun shops and pop-up shops and good restaurants (more on the restaurants in a second!). Make sure to go to the Envoy hotel while you’re here for an incredible rooftop view of the city! I’ve heard it’s gorgeous at sunset. We went around 5pm though and the line was already around the building haha so I’m sure the line is crazy around sunset. Even if we were there before the sunset, it was still beautiful and a really fun environment.
- Shopping! There is SO MUCH good shopping in Boston! Newbury street has tons of amazing shops – both designer and some more ‘normal’ shops as well. And then Prudential Center is probably the most giant mall I’ve ever seen in my life with pretty much every store imaginable (including a Flywheel Sports, which we did one morning!).
- Beacon Hill / Acorn street – this is such a cute / picturesque area of Boston with cobblestone streets and the brick townhomes. It feels very old and charming and is a really fun area to walk around, with some cute shops and lots of good restaurants! outfit details here
- Boston Public Gardens – these were right across the street from our hotel so we walked through them several times. It’s a beautiful area to just stroll through or take some pics. There’s also swan boat tours you can do in here which seem to be super popular!
outfit details here
Here are a few other recommendations I got for things to do, that we didn’t get a chance to do this time around!:
- Fenway (the Red Sox were out of town while we were there, sadly!)
- Sunset cruise on the harbor
- Duck boat tour
Favorite Restaurants
Holy cow I feel like we basically ate our way through the city of Boston haha. We got SO many amazing restaurant recommendations from you guys and other family and friends and legit LOVED everything we ate!
Breakfast/Brunch:
- Tatte Bakery – there are several locations around the city and this was probably my favorite breakfast spot we went to! I loved it so much we actually went twice haha. Their avocado + zucchini tartine is heavenly and they make the best lattes. All of their pastries also looked delicious. And the inside of the caffe is SO CUTE.
- Paramount – this was one of the highest recommended brunch spots and it did not disappoint! If you go, you have to get the french toast (the caramel banana IMO). The food here was amazing, but the environment stressed me out a little haha. It is ALWAYS packed, you have to wait in a super squished line to order, and then they make the food right there! which is really cool, but not necessarily a “sit down and rest” type of brunch haha. The food though, was a 10 on a 10.
- Blackbird donut – not sure if you can count this as breakfast but they make the best donuts and the most creative flavors. They also make donut ice cream sandwiches!
- Stephanie’s on Newbury – we didn’t get a chance to try this place but it was also highly recommended!
Lunch/Dinner
- Parish cafe – this is another one we didn’t get a chance to try but we walked by it and the food looked amazing. This came highly recommended for a lunch spot
- Row 34 – incredible seafood, in the seaport district! We went here for lunch and shared a lobster roll. TBH I’m not the biggest fan of lobster and this lobster roll was LIFE CHANGING! Like one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! You have to order one if you go here! Row 34 is great for lunch or dinner!
- Lolita’s – I was a little suspicious of Mexican food in Boston (being from Dallas haha), but this place was SO GOOD! The restaurant has such a cool environment and the food was amazing. We loved everything from the chips and salsa to our drinks (best mocktail I’ve ever had), to the steak tacos! I highly recommend this place for dinner!
- Lucca’s – this is a really romantic, yummy Italian restaurant in the North End. The north end has TONS of italian food restaurants (some of the highest recommended were Carmelina’s, Bricco, and Giacomo), but when I tried to get reservations like a week before the trip…all of these were already booked! Luckily I was able to get one at Lucca, and we loved our dinner there! We also loved the intimate and romantic atmosphere!
- CLINK at Liberty Hotel – we loved the history and the environment of Liberty Hotel, where we ate dinner at their restaurant CLINK one night! The Liberty Hotel is a transformation of the famous Charles Street Jail, a national historic landmark and architectural gem built in 1851. Our dinner here was good!, but what really made it was getting to experience the history and atmosphere of this hotel!
- Regina’s Pizzeria – they have a location in the north end, but we actually went to the stand in Quincy Market for lunch one day and the pizza was SO good!
- Other highly recommended restaurants we didn’t get a chance to try:
- Citrus and Salt
- Barcelona
- Neptune’s Oyster
- Barking Crab
Dessert!
- FOMU ice cream – okay y’all. I am typically not a fan of healthy versions of dessert haha so I was pretty skeptical of this place, because it’s vegan / coconut milk-based ice cream. But holy cow it was SO YUMMY! This might have been my favorite ice cream we got in Boston! I believe they have a few locations and you should definitely check it out.
- JP Licks ice cream – this one might be tied for first place for ice cream. It’s definitely not plant-based lol but they have SO many amazing flavors and the ice cream was delicious
- Mike’s Pastry Shop and Modern Pastry Shop – two of the most recommended places on our entire list! These shops are across the street from each other in the north end and known for their cannolis! (Don’t hate me but) I’m actually not a huge cannoli fan haha so I can’t say it was life-changing or anything. It was really good though! And I’m sure if you love pastries / cannolis, these two places will be your version of heaven!
Okay, this could possibly win the award for my LONGEST BLOG POST EVER! Haha there was just so much information to cover, in a city we truly fell in love with! Thanks again to everyone who sent recommendations! If you haven’t been to Boston yet, I definitely recommend adding it to your bucket list, and choosing to fly Spirit while you’re at it. Thanks for reading!
xo Lauren