Somerville

Somerville is a suburb of Boston.

Understand

Somerville has managed to hold onto its blue-collar roots while at the same time gentrifying. It is still the most densely populated city in New England, so visitors will find lots of purely residential territory between the "fun" areas: Davis Square, Porter Square, and Powderhouse Square (the location of Tufts University). Other notable neighborhoods include Union Square and Winter Hill, erstwhile home of the "Winter Hill Gang", the organized crime group headed by Whitey Bulger in the 1960's and 1970's.

Get in

By plane

Fly in to Logan Airport. A taxi from Logan to Somerwille can cost anywhere between $20 and $35 depending on the route taken and time of day. You can also take the T subway line from Logan (Blue Line) to either the Orange Line (switch at State Street) or the Red Line. Alternately, you can take the Silver Line bus service to South Station, then transferring to the Red Line. The subway ride takes longer than a taxi and may involve some walking, which is something to consider when you have lots of luggage.

By train

Take the Red Line to either the Davis Square or Porter Square Stations. If you're coming from downtonw (e.g. South Station) you'll want to hop on an Alewife/Harvard bound train.

You can also take the Orange Line to Sullivan Square and then take one of the MBTA busses up Broadway through Winter Hill and beyond.

Should you be coming from northwest of Boston (e.g. Fitchburg) you can also hop on the Commuter Rail.

By car

From points North: You can get to Somerville in two ways:

# take Route 93 and get off at exits 29-31 # take Route 3 and park at the Alewife station on the Red Line. Take the inbound Red Line to Davis Square. This is advisable on the weekends, as parking can be hard to find near Davis Square.

By bus

The MTA bus system will take you from Sullivan Square (Orange Line) through Somerville on to Arlington center and Medford. You can also get to Somerville by bus from Lechmere Station (at the end of the Green Line in Cambridge, near the Cambridgeside Galleria and Boston Museum of Science).

Get around

By Bike

The Minuteman Commuter Bike Trail, the main branch of which runs from Bedford to Alewife (in Cambridge) extends through Davis square and a bit further parallel to Highland ave.

See

Check out crazy park benches in Union Square.

Prospect Hill, behind Union Square, has a tower you can climb for good views of Boston and was the location of the first American flag flown (January 1, 1776).

Do

Most tourists spend their time in Davis Square and Porter Square (both are within walking distance of each other). Residents sometimes avoid the crowds and hit their favorite spots in Union Square and the Winter Hill area, which are out of the range of the T (but are accessible by car and bus). The Somerville Theater in Davis Square is a nice, fairly cheap 2nd-run theater that sometimes has independent titles.

There is a bigger Loews' theater in the Assembly Square Mall.

Learn

Somerville is home to Tufts University, which is located in the Powderhouse Square area.

Buy

McIntyre and Moore Booksellers, 255 Elm St. in Davis Square. One of the best used book selections in the Boston area, not cheap but they carry many hard to find titles. http://www.mcintyreandmoore.com/

Poor Little Rich Girl, 416 Highland Ave. in Davis Square. A wonderful consignment shop that has trendy, gently used buys for the ladies. http://poorlittlerichgirlstore.com/

The Assembly Square Mall is somewhat run down and disappointing, but is being remodelled. Its biggest draw is the movie theater. If you are interested in serious mall shopping, you may want to take a bus to Lechmere Station in Cambridge -- the Cambridgeside Galleria is a nice upscale mall with many stores.

There is a Home Depot near the Assembly Square Mall and Sullivan Square.

The Circuit City near the Home Depot has surprisingly good deals on mainstream DVDs and a surprisingly good selection considering it's a chain store. Probably the best place to get Hollywood movies in the Boston area in terms of price, although the best for cult movies remains Newbury Comics.

Eat

Anna's Taqueria. 236 Elm St. (Davis Sq), 617-666-3900. Fast Mexican food, much better than Taco Bell. People seem divided on Anna's, some love it, some hate it.

Mama Lisa's Pizza. 312 Broadway (Winter Hill). (617)623-9463. Good pizza, fantastic ham & cheese calzones, but calzones are only made some days of the week so call to verify.

Redbones. 55 Chester St. (Davis Sq), 617-628-2200. Excellent BBQ and great selection of microbrewed beers. http://www.redbones.com/welcome.html

Rudy's Cafe, 248 Holland St. (Teele Sq), 617-623-9201. Good Tex-Mex food, and good Tequila.

Taqueria La Mexicana, 247 Washington St., (Union Sq). 617-776-5232. Friendly neighborhood taqueria, West Coast style. Burritos, tacos, tamales, everything cheap. http://www.lataqueria.com/

Tu Y Yo Mexican Fonda, 858 Broadway, 617-623-5411. Excellent authentic Mexican food. This is not the typical Mexican restaurant; the food is very authentic and you won't find burritos here. http://www.tuyyomexicanfonda.com/

Drink

The Independent in Union Square, 75 Union Square. 617-440-6021 http://www.theindo.com/ A very cool unpretentious place for a drink.
RedBones (mentioned above) has a great beer selection.
The Burren in Davis Square is a well-known bar which often has live Irish music.
Tír na nÓg is a nice little place at 366A Somerville Ave, just out of Union Square. It has live music most nights. In a city festering with wannabe Irish Pubs, this one seems to attract some real Irish. Acceptable food served until 10pm. http://www.thenog.com/

Sleep

Somerville is, as mentioned elsewhere, a heavily residential area; hence, there are few hotels. Look for accommodations in Cambridge; if you're splurging, go for something with a view of the Charles.

Budget

Mid-range

Holiday Inn Boston Somerville, 30 Washington Street, Somerville 02143, tel. (617) 628 1000, fax. (617) 628 0143 =>. Just two miles from downtown Boston and four miles from Logan International Airport. Includes a photo gallery, rates, availability and on line reservations.

Splurge

Stay safe

The area around Sullivan Square and the Assembly Square Mall is a bit desolate after dark. You have to walk under the highway and there are several dive bars nearby. If you find yourself at Sullivan Square after dark, you might want to stick close to the bus stops where there are plenty of people around.

although somerville has changed its colors a bit some of the the rough edges still remains. Locals don't take kindly to outsiders so avoid conflict

Get out

The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Evan Prodromou, John and the following WikiTravel users: Bletch, Ilkirk, Nickpest, Nzpcmad, Beland. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Somerville.