Nantasket Beach – Boston to Hull by Bike & Boat
Bikes, boats, buses, a former dump turned park, and Edgar Allan Poe’s legend.
This is a total urban experience bike ride using bikes, boats, and buses. I ride through the city to catch a commuter boat over to Nantasket Beach. At the end of the trip I catch a bus for the last two miles.
Nantasket Beach is an awesome day trip from Boston by bicycle and commuter boat. It’s located in Hull, MA, about 1 hour by commuter boat (a public transit service with multiple runs daily).
🚴 The Ride to the Boat – Through Boston
I need to ride my bike the 8 miles or so from my house in the Roslindale section of Boston down the Pierre Lallemont bike trail to Copley Square, then through the city to Boston Harbor. I need to catch the 8am boat to Hull. Though I cross a lot of streets, I don’t spend much time riding on them.
If you are interested in some city biking, check out these 2 videos. It’s about a 50‑minute ride compressed to about 18 minutes in 2 sections.
⛴️ The Commuter Boat – Boston Harbor to Hull
The commuter boat is located on the north side of Long Wharf (not the south side like all the other boats). The Marriott Long Wharf is on the right. The boat will arrive at the gangway on the right as well.
The boat arrives with the morning commuters coming to work in Boston. The boat has bicycle racks in the front that you can lock into. No one is allowed to ride in the front of the boat.
It’s an awesome boat ride out of Boston Harbor to Hull. Lots of sights. Lots of history. All the islands out here are part of a park. You take the boat to George’s Island (not this boat) and from there you can take a free water taxi to other islands.
🏝️ Harbor Islands – History, Legends & Sea Glass
Castle Island & Fort Independence – Poe’s Legend
Castle Island is a busy port on Boston Harbor. Here you can see “the castle” which is Fort Independence. Edgar Allan Poe was stationed here for a number of years around 1830. Here he learned of a legend of two soldiers who fought a duel over gambling debts. The legend had it that the winner was so disliked that the friends of the loser sealed him into a vault. It is, in fact, a legend. Poe turned this into his work “The Cask of Amontillado” and made the setting an Italian village.
Spectacle Island – From Dump to Park
Another interesting harbor island is Spectacle Island, so named because it looks like a pair of spectacles from above. This island has a long history of various uses. For the last 50 years of the 1900s, it was a dump. It generated so much methane gas that it would catch fire and burn for years.
Using soil excavated from The Big Dig, Spectacle Island was capped off and turned into an awesome park. Because it was a dump, it’s an excellent source for sea glass.
🏖️ Nantasket Beach – High Tide & Low Tide
It’s about a 4‑mile ride from the ferry to Nantasket Beach. Hull is a nice, seaside community — I’d call it working class. There was a time when Nantasket Beach was quite the destination with an amusement park and many “beach” style restaurants. That’s mostly gone now, and the area has been building back for about 20 years. I like it. I like the blend of the old and the new. There’s a positive energy there that’s fun to feed off.
Not much beach at high tide. Plan accordingly.
🚌 The Return – Mixing It Up
After arriving back in Boston, I still have a good ride back home — about 8 miles. To mix it up and see some new scenery, I ride along Commercial Street in the North End over to Boston Garden. At the Museum of Science, I catch the Charles River bike path to the Mass Ave bridge.
Then I follow Mass Ave back to Mass Ave station on the Orange Line, where I get back on the Pierre Lallemont Bike Path to Forest Hills Station. There, it’s my lucky day — I catch the #50 bus for the final 2 miles back home.
📌 Tips for This Trip
- Catch the 8am boat – it’s a commuter boat with multiple runs daily.
- Bike racks are in the front – lock your bike, but no riding in that section.
- Check tide charts – at high tide, there’s very little beach at Nantasket.
- Spectacle Island is a sea glass goldmine – because it was a dump for 50 years.
- The Poe legend is real (the story, not the duel) – he turned a local tale into “The Cask of Amontillado.”
- Consider a bus for the last miles – after 16+ miles of riding, the #50 bus was a welcome sight.
First published July 2021. Updated with clearer sections and harbor island history.