Is Brookline a good place to stay in Boston?

Brookline is a good base if you want a calm, green place to stay with the Green Line into Boston. Coolidge Corner and Brookline Village have shops, cafés and restaurants, the Longwood Medical Area is next door, and Fenway Park is within walking distance of the northern streets. It suits families, people visiting the hospitals and travellers who prefer quiet evenings.

The area feels like a prosperous small town. Beacon Street runs through it with the Green Line down the middle, lined with apartment blocks and shops, while the side streets have big Victorian houses and gardens. Coolidge Corner has bookshops, delis and the Coolidge Corner Theatre, an Art Deco cinema, and John F. Kennedy's birthplace is a short walk away on Beals Street.

The downside is that you're a tram ride from the main sights, and the Green Line can be slow on its street-level stretches. Evenings are quiet, hotels are few, so choice is limited, and rooms aren't much cheaper than in the city when the hospitals and universities are busy.

What makes Brookline worth considering is how pleasant it is to come back to. After a day on the Freedom Trail, you can return to leafy streets, eat well around Coolidge Corner and sleep somewhere peaceful, while Fenway Park and the museums of the Fenway are still close by.