4-Hour Rule: Boston

Stipulated: the perfect travel time for a three-day weekend getaway is four hours. More, and you waste your vacation. Less, and you’re still near home. Hence our series, The 4hr. Rule, dedicated to revealing the best destinations that are far away, yet still close to home.

They say it’s the journey, and not the destination, that matters.

True for Everest summits. Patently false for three-day weekends.

Enter a new private jet service to Boston that puts the “quick” and “getaway” in “quick getaway.” And once you arrive, we’ve got penthouses, hidden stores, jazz festivals and the city’s oldest cigar house to make it worth your while.

Here’s the plan.

GO
Flying one hub airport to another hub airport for a one-hour flight? No thank you. Tradewind Aviation’s Westchester-to-Boston flight means 20 minutes boarding and 20 minutes deboarding, tops. To boot, their 6- to 8-passenger turboprop planes fly point-to-point, a quicker route than commercial flights, making for a faster in-flight time. Tickets are a flat $395/one-way with discounts for packages.   

STAY
A visit to to the City on a Hill doesn’t have to be all pedicab rides and trips to the Paul Revere House. The W Hotel Boston’s recently revamped penthouses are a stone’s throw from the smorgasbord at Faneuil Hall, but designed in collaboration with local contemporary artists. Should you have an inkling to combine old school with new-, there’s also the Liberty Hotel, a high-end luxury destination in a converted jailhouse.

EAT
It’s an eating city. Go hungry or don’t go. On the newbie side, Buttermilk & Bourbon from Hell’s Kitchen alum Jason Santos is a New Orleans-inspired eatery with voodoo dolls and short rib croquettes that kill. On the higher end, Oak + Rowan’s “land and sea” fare offers up such delicacies as caviar flights and veal sweetbreads. Oh, and there’s a cocktail cart. And these days, we wouldn’t even bother visiting Boston without swinging by Saltie Girl for for some lobster and waffles, or SRV, serving fantastic Italian food in the South End that’s easy(ish) on the wallet.

DO
Springtime is the right time to hit up the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Beyond that, the 10-day, citywide Jazz Week is coming right up, and the Independent Film Festival arrives at the end of the month. Musts if you’ve never been include a Harpoon Brewery Tour (better than Sam Adams), candlepin bowling at Sacco’s Bowl Haven and Coolidge Theater’s After Midnights. High-end streetwear haunt Bodega is hidden behind a Snapple machine, and it wouldn’t hurt to snag a cigar at wood- and leather-clad speakeasy Stanza dei Sigari. And while you’re at it, go ahead and represent N.Y. at Fenway on the 26th and 27th.