Advantage: This 236-room, eight-story, luxury-class boutique hotel is conveniently located in easy traveling distance to downtown Boston (via the Green Line’s Science Park T Station, which is right down the block and across the street), MIT, and Harvard University, and in easy walking distance to the Museum of Science. It also boasts décor and furnishings that are funky yet sophisticated, and it offers a full range of services for business travelers, including meeting space and a business center with computers.

Disadvantage: Past guests point out that many rooms have inadequate or no drawers for storing items, and the location isn’t right in the heart of Boston, which could present a problem for guests who aren’t familiar with Boston and Cambridge before arriving.

Distinctive Amenities: Daily complimentary coffee and tea starting at 6am, daily complimentary wine hour from 5–6pm, pet-friendly accommodations, on-site Bambara restaurant, and free wireless Internet access. Since Hotel Marlowe is a part of the Kimpton hotel chain, join the Kimpton InTouch Guest Loyalty Program before booking for even more advantages and incentives. [More Features]

Interesting Fact: The hotel is directly and conveniently attached to popular CambridgeSide Galleria, which means guests don’t even have to go outside to take advantage of the mall’s three main levels of retail businesses, food court, and two major restaurants, California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory. [More Mall Amenities]

Location: 25 Edwin H. Land Boulevard, Cambridge, 617-868-8000

Price Range: Moderately Expensive (average price of $290+ per night)

Website: Hotel Marlowe

Post from: The Boston Traveler

You want fascinating? Boston’s got it — in the form of the ever popular Museum of Science, a Boston landmark and member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that is home to the Charles Hayden Planetarium, the Mugar Omni IMAX Theater, and dozens of animals. The museum is situated steps from the Boston-East Cambridge border, right at the Science Park stop on the Green Line subway.

With a stated mission “to stimulate interest in and further understanding of science and technology and their importance for individuals and for society,” the museum hosts a number of intriguing interactive exhibits each year, ranging from IMAX movies to displays of live insects and animals to instructional sessions on diverse science-related topics. It even offers a series of virtual exhibits available to everyone, free of charge and around the clock, conveniently via their computer.

The current Museum of Science began as the Boston Society of Natural History in 1830 and later became the New England Museum of Natural History in 1864 after a move to Back Bay. Land was purchased at what is now called Science Park in 1948, and three years later the museum reopened at its new address as the Museum of Science.

The museum’s lengthy list of longtime draws includes the aforementioned Charles Hayden Planetarium and Mugar Omni IMAX Theater, the Theater of Electricity, the Science Live! Stage, Mathematica, and the Children’s Discovery Center. Present exhibits are equally impressive, such as Beyond the X-ray, Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic, Earth: Inside Out, and the Live Animal Exhibit.

Take a quick video tour of the Museum of Science after the jump and visit the museum’s official website to learn more about its offerings and prices.

Post from: The Boston Traveler

And, these aren’t the run-of-the-mill, humdrum movies already available at the local theater either. The New England Aquarium and Museum of Science are going grand instead, serving up deep-sea footage in larger-than-life 3D style.

Deep Sea 3D

New England Aquarium

The New England Aquarium (Central Wharf, Boston, 617-973-5200) bills its Deep Sea 3D film as an “underwater adventure” and correctly so. Presented with breathtaking IMAX 3D technology, the shots beneath the ocean’s surface give viewers the impression of being right there in the middle of the scuba-diving adventure with the explorers and filmmakers.

According to the Aquarium, the film crew traveled to numerous locales to acquire the footage in the movie, including the Bahamas, British Columbia, Hawaii, and North Carolina. So, in addition to seeing an amazing film and witnessing otherwise hidden sea life, attendees get a trip — albeit brief — to some of the most exotic places in the world, too.

Deep Sea 3D runs through April 16 and screens daily at 3pm. The Aquarium is also presently showing the ocean-themed IMAX 3D films Sea Monsters 3D and Sharks 3D. Tickets to all range in price from $6.95 for children aged 3–11 to $23.95 for a combination IMAX and Aquarium adult pass that permits same-day entry to both an IMAX movie and the Aquarium. Attendees should arrive 15 to 30 minutes before showtime because latecomers will not be admitted. Moreover, tickets purchased online cannot be used for screenings on the same day of the transaction. [More Information]

The World of Sharks

Museum of Science

If you’re a little closer to Cambridge, Boston’s Museum of Science (Science Park, Boston, 617-723-2500) has its own underwater offering available in an impressive Digital 3D Cinema. The World of Sharks focuses on the title creature, enabling viewers to figuratively swim with the fearsome fish while getting a closeup glimpse of other marine organisms that share the same ocean habitat.

The museum is screening the 25-minute film daily through March 24 at 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm, and 3:30pm, with additional 5pm, 6:30pm, and 8pm showtimes added on Fridays (there’s no 11am screening on March 13). Tickets range in price from $3 for children to $3.50 for seniors and $4 for adults, although members pay $2 less for each type. In addition, 24-hour advance registration is required. [More Information]

Post from: The Boston Traveler

The museum’s Butterfly Garden overlooking the Charles River is unlike any other exhibit and as such, it provides a true respite for visitors seeking some natural relief from the artificial climates we’re subjected to while staying indoors so much. A 1,000-square-foot conservatory featuring 400 free-flying butterflies and moths, the tropical garden filled with exotic plants allows visitors to leisurely experience one of the few species of insects that many individuals actually like due to their colorful beauty and eye-catching forms.

The Butterfly Garden houses butterflies and moths native to New England and other regions worldwide. Various displays permit a firsthand view of butterfly and moth behavior at different stages of their development. For instance, the emergence box contains hanging chrysalids — protective coverings or cocoons that enclose butterflies during their earliest developmental stage — that lucky and observant viewers may be able to see transform into adult butterflies.

Additional displays spotlight the insects’ special ability to protect themselves in the wild through the unique color properties of their wings. And, others clarify the four stages of development that butterflies go through in a life cycle as they advance from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalid and finally to an adult.

Although tickets are required for the Butterfly Garden, the exhibit is one of the most well-priced activities available at the Museum of Science. Full-price admission for non-members to the garden alone (and not the other museum exhibits) is just $4.00 for adults, $3.50 for seniors, and $3.00 for children. If you’re a member, subtract two dollars from the full price that applies.

The Butterfly Garden is open during normal museum hours, with entry granted for 25-minute sessions every 15 minutes from opening to closing time. Take a look at a PDF copy of the Butterfly Garden Take-Home Guide to learn more about what the exhibit entails.

Note: The Museum of Science recommends advance reservations for the Butterfly Garden, and strollers are not permitted inside the exhibit.

Post from: The Boston Traveler

The Museum of Science’s hourlong exhibit is called CSI: The Experience, and it certainly lives up to the post-colon part of that name. Visitors get the chance to become a crime scene investigator as they encounter not only a simulated crime scene, but recreations of the crime laboratories used to analyze evidence, complete with innovative technology. I don’t have to tell parents how much curious young people enjoy this type of realistic activity. It’s an amazing event for adults, as well, especially those among the millions of viewers who follow one or more of the series in the top-rated CSI franchise.

On the off-chance that you don’t watch TV or don’t recognize the title, CSI is a crime procedural that focuses on the role of forensics in police work. Each episode revolves around the steps that forensic scientists would hypothetically follow to recreate the pertinent details of a crime, usually murder, in order to close an investigation by nabbing or identifying the culprit(s).

If you’re a fan of the original CSI in particular, then you might consider one aspect of the exhibit especially intriguing. The Museum of Science even has on display six of the very same miniature props used in the show’s miniature killer story arc last season. If that’s not enough to inspire excitement either, then perhaps this fact will: participants wrap up their adventure in forensics with a visit to a replica of lead CSI investigator Gil Grissom’s office.

CSI: The Experience opened on September 30 in Boston and runs until January 1, 2008. Time is rapidly passing, though, and soon the exhibit will be moving on to its next temporary location. To learn more about the Boston stop while the exhibit is still in town, visit the CSI: The Experience website hosted by the Museum of Science. An independent website targeting a national audience is also online, and it indicates the second leg of the U.S. tour is the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas, from February 2 to April 30, 2008.

Boston’s Museum of Science is located at:
Science Park
Boston, MA 02114
617-723-2500
information@mos.org
www.mos.org

Post from: The Boston Traveler